Research Catalog

Title

• Democracy, liberty and property; the State Constitutional Conventions of the 1820's. Edited by Merrill D. Peterson.

Author

Peterson, Merrill D.,

Publication

Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co. [1966]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Massachusetts. Constitutional Convention (1820-1821)
• New York (State). Constitutional Convention (1821)
• Virginia. Constitutional Convention (1829-1830)

Description

xxiii, 452 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

Before the Civil War, the history of American democracy was state-centered. Under the constitutional system as it then existed, the states had virtually exclusive jurisdiction over almost all matters of concern to the average citizen. State government and state policy were pretty much a reflection of state constitutional systems, and the state constitutions, in turn, were the product of state constitutional conventions. These constitutional conventions were held to frame a body of supreme and fundamental law that defined the government, including its powers and limitations. By the 1820's, time had brought transforming changes in society and new political ideas that demanded expression in fundamental law. New conventions that would liberalize the existing constitutional system were held in which statesmen of a new generation engaged in great debates on the sources and ends of government with the surviving giants of a dying age. They confronted each other on the most controversial issues of the age. The issues varied from state to state, but everywhere they were sharply contested and the debates were the most profound since the first conventions that ratified the Constitution of the United States. In this book, the author focuses on the three greatest conventions of the period, those of Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia. -- From Foreward

Series Statement

• The American heritage series ; 43

Uniform Title

The American heritage series ; 43.

Subject

• Constitutional conventions > United States > History
• Constitutional conventions > United States > States
• Constitutional history > United States > States
• Constitutions > United States > States

Genre/Form

History.

Note

• Selections from the texts of debates of 3 Constitutional Conventions: Massachusetts, New York, and Virgina, with introductions and notes.

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliography: p. xix-xxii.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

I. The Massachusetts convention of 1820-1821: The test oath; The third article; The "poll parish"; Tax exemption; The suffrage; The basis of representation; Joseph Story on representation; Daniel Webster on representation; "Address to the people" -- II. The New York convention of 1821: The Council of Revision and the Veto Power; The term of Governor; The appointive power; The Senate and the suffrage; The Negro and the suffrage; Blasphemy and libel; Reform of the judiciary -- III. The Virginia convention of 1829-1830: Cooke on Democratic representation; Upshur on majorities and minorities; Dodderidge in rebuttal; Leigh on power and property; Randolph on the Federal issue; Marshall on compromise; Summers on the Gordon Plan; Gordon on the Gordon Plan; The non-Freeholders' Memorial; The Freehold suffrage defended; The reformers' rebuttal; The executive; The county courts; The amendment article; The question of ratification.

LCCN

^^^65023013^

OCLC

503849

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library