The Constitution Before the Judgment Seat

by Heideking, Jurgen; Kaminski, John P.; Leffler, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780813931746
• ISBN10: 0813931746
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-28
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr

Summary

Originally published in German in 1988, the late Jürgen Heideking's exhaustive study of the debates over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution compares the methods used to call state ratifying conventions and explores everything that made up the ratification debate, from town meetings and festive culture to private correspondence and print media. In Heideking's view, the construction of a new political process was an unintended but key result of ratification debates over the federal Constitution. Heideking's work anticipated diverse strands of subsequent scholarship; this translation can claim to provide not only an invaluable account of the ratification debates but also a master narrative for integrating future studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Editors' Introduction	p. xi
Author's Acknowledgments	p. xxiii
Ratification Chronology, 1786-1791	p. xxv
Introduction: The Historical Significance of the Debate over the American Constitution	p. 1
Historical Background	p. 7
The United States during the "Critical Period"	p. 7
The Philadelphia Convention and the Sovereignty of the People	p. 18
The Constitution before Congress and the State Legislatures	p. 30
Public Discourses and Private Correspondence	p. 53
Public Moods and Public Opinion	p. 53
The Print Media: Books, Pamphlets, and Newspapers	p. 68
Networks of Private Correspondence	p. 94
The Debate over Basic Principles	p. 105
The Antifederalist Critique of the Constitution	p. 105
The Federalist Defense and Interpretation of the Constitution	p. 134
Party Formation and Convention Elections	p. 164
Party Spirit and Party Leaders	p. 164
Election Campaigns	p. 176
Election Results	p. 223
State Ratifying Conventions	p. 252
The Conventions as Social and Cultural Events	p. 253
Ideology and Politics in the Conventions	p. 285
Republican Festive Culture	p. 340
Celebrating the Constitution	p. 340
The Significance of the Ratification Celebrations	p. 357
George Washington as Integrator	p. 374
The Creation of the Bill of Rights	p. 379
Amendment Recommendations and the Movement for a Second Convention	p. 379
James Madison, the First Federal Congress, and the Bill of Rights	p. 394
Conclusion Constitution-Making as a Political and Cultural Process: America's Debate over the Constitution and the French Revolution	p. 419
The Dialectics of Progress and Tradition	p. 425
The Legitimation of the Constitution and the Union	p. 430
Notes	p. 433
Bibliography	p. 519
Index	p. 527
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