Research Catalog

Title

Righteous anger at the wicked states : the meaning of the founders' Constitution / Calvin H. Johnson.

Author

Johnson, Calvin H., 1944-

Publication

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xv, 294 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"This book is a history that explains the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in terms of what the proponents of the Constitution were trying to accomplish. The Constitution was a revolutionary document replacing the confederation mode with a complete three-part national government supreme over the states. The most pressing need was to allow the federal government to tax to pay off the Revolutionary War debts. In the next war, the United States would need to borrow again. The taxes needed to restore the public credit proved to be quite modest, however, and the Constitution went far beyond the immediate fiscal needs. This book argues that the proponents' anger at the states for their recurring breaches of duty to the united cause explains both critical steps and the driving impetus for the revolution. Other issues were less important."--Jacket.

Subject

• USA Government
• 1789-1797
• Geschichte
• Constitutional history > United States
• United States > Politics and government > 1789-1797

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The rise of the righteous anger -- Madison's vision : requisitions and rights -- The superiority of the extended republic -- Shifting the foundations of government from the states to the people -- Partial losses -- Anti-federalism -- False issues -- The modesty of the original commerce clause -- Creditors, territories, and shaysites -- Hamilton's Constitution -- The turning of Madison.

ISBN

0521852323 (hard cover)

LCCN

^^2004027950

OCLC

• 57068527
• SCSB-10162662

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library