Four Pillars of Constitutionalism

by Cox, Richard Howard

• ISBN13: 9781573922159
• ISBN10: 1573922153
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-06-01
• Publisher: Prometheus Books

Summary

This book brings together for the first time in a single volume the four primary documents that, since 1878, have formed a type of "preamble" to the revised United States Code: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Constitution.

Table of Contents

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	7	(2)
INTRODUCTION	9	(2)
Lincoln and Brennan on the Constitution	11	(3)
The Location and Character of the Organic Laws	14	(3)
The Constitution as Organic Law or as Constitutional Law?	17	(9)
The Organic Laws in the Nineteenth Century	26	(40)
A. Legislative History of the Official Versions of the Laws of the United States	26	(10)
B. The Terminology of "Organic Laws" in the American Experience	36	(5)
C. Political Reasoning on the Nature of the Organic Laws	41	(25)
I. Lincoln's Statesmanship	42	(1)
1. The Speech on the Dred Scott Decision	42	(7)
2. The Cooper Institute Speech	49	(4)
3. The First Inaugural	53	(4)
II. Congressional Debates in the Nineteenth Century, and Especially the Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1875	57	(1)
1. The Declaration of Independence	58	(3)
2. The Articles of Confederation	61	(2)
3. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787	63	(3)
Constitutional Restoration	66	(5)
Continuous Founding	71	(2)
THE ORGANIC LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA	73	(66)
The Declaration of Independence (1776)	75	(9)
Articles of Confederation (1777)	84	(13)
Ordinance of 1787: The Northwest Territorial Government	97	(9)
Constitution of the United States of America (1787)	106	(33)
SUGGESTED READING	139