Preserving the Constitution: The Conservative Basis of Radical Reconstruction

Benedict, Michael Les

doi:10.2307/1918254

Cited by 40 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…More substantively, if the theory that I have outlined here is right—that the Constitution's federal structures provided a crucial tool in the campaign against slavery—it suggests another nail in the coffin for the still lingering view of the Civil War as the triumph of the nation over the defeat of states’ rights. For if we take seriously Benedict's argument, first put forward long ago, that slavery's opponents in Congress cared a great deal about preserving the federal order (Benedict 1974b, 67–69), explanations attributing the continuing salience of the states solely to the resurgence of the South and Jim Crow are no longer tenable.…”

Section: Bringing Back the Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Back the States: A Congressional Perspective on the Fall of Slavery in America

Glass¹

2014

Law soc. inq.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the aftermath of America's Civil War, national lawmakers who chronicled the fall of slavery described the North as a terrain of states whose representatives assembled in Congress, as evidenced in Henry Wilson's The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (1872–77) and Alexander Stephens's A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States (1868–70). Beginning in the early 1900s, scholars who helped establish the field of American constitutional history redescribed the national government as the voice of the Northern people and the foe of the states, as evidenced in Henry Wilson's The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (1872–1877) and Alexander Stephens's A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States (1868–1870), a first generation of scholars writing during the Progressive Era redescribed the national government as the voice of the Northern people and the foe of the states, as evidenced in William A. Dunning's Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction (1898), John W. Burgess's The Civil War and the Constitution (1901–1906), and James G. Randall's Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln (1926). Although a second generation of scholars uncovered traces of the lawmakers' perspective of states, new efforts in the wake of the civil rights movement to understand the internal workings of political parties and the contributions of ordinary Americans kept the study of national lawmakers and their states on the margins of inquiry, as evidenced in leading revisionist histories of Reconstruction, including Harold Hyman's A More Perfect Union: The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the Constitution (1973), Michael Les Benedict's A Compromise of Principle: Congressional Republicans and Reconstruction, 1863–1869 (1974a), and Eric Foner's Reconstruction: An Unfinished Revolution (1988). Today, the terrain of Northern states remains in the backdrop, as illustrated in recent studies featuring the wartime national government, including James Oakes's Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865 (2012) and Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation: Constitutional Conflict in the American Civil War (2011), as well as studies of the mechanisms of constitutional change during Reconstruction, including relevant sections of Bruce Ackerman's We the People II: Transformations (1998) and Akhil Reed Amar's America's Constitution: A Biography (2005). This review essay argues that incorporating the states back into this century‐old framework will open new lines of inquiry and provide a more complete account of federalism's role in the fall of slavery. In particular, a return to the archives suggests that in the uncertain context of mid‐nineteenth‐century America, slavery's leading opponents in Congress saw the Constitution's federal logic not simply as an obstacle, but as a crucial tool with which to mobilize collective action and accommodate wartime opposition at a time when no one could say for sure what would remain of the United States.

show abstract

Section: Bringing Back the Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Back the States: A Congressional Perspective on the Fall of Slavery in America

Glass¹

2014

Law soc. inq.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When Republicans lost ground in the state elections of 1867, frightened party leaders interpreted the result as a repudiation of radicalism. Chase's support collapsed in the rush to Grant (Benedict 1972). Disappointed, Chase began his drift toward the Democrats.…”

Section: E X F R T E M C C a R D Kmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reputation of the radical Republicans improved in the 1960s, as the Civil Rights Movement committed Americans to racial equality. No longer vindictive fanatics, Chase and his allies were now portrayed as "Lincoln's Vanguard for Racial Justice" (Trefousse 1968, McKitrick 1960, Franklin 1961, Stampp 1965, Benedict 1974a. This became the accepted historical judgment (Foner 1988, Trelease 1971, Thomas 1973, McPherson 1982, Benedict 1986, Perman 1987.…”

Section: Despite the Wound Chase Had Inflicted Upon Himself By Challementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Salmon P. Chase and Constitutional Politics

Benedict¹

1997

Law & Social Inquiry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Salmon P. Chase was a preeminent figure in mid-19th-century American public life. Abraham Lincoln, who emerged as a significant national figure only after his great debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, was a newcomer in comparison. By that time Chase had been a leader of the antislavery political movement since the 1840s. He had represented Ohio in the United States Senate and was about to be sent back, after serving two successful terms as the state's governor. A lawyer like Lincoln, Chase was the leading expositor of the Republican constitutional argument about the relationship between the federal government and slavery. Upon his death, the New York Tn'bune, the leading Republican newspaper in the country, credited him "more than any other one man," for converting antislavery sentiment into an organized political movement (8 May 1973, 4). Chase and New York Senator William H. Seward were the giants of the Republican party, the leading contenders for its presidential nomination in 1856 and 1860. To consolidate his administration, Lincoln named Seward secretary of state and Chase secretary of the treasury, the two most important positions in his cabinet. Each expected the other to try to dominate; each intended to do so himself. Neither succeeded. Chase proved a great secretary of the treasury, managing the nation's finances during its most critical trial and establishing the national banking system we still have, fostering the transition of the United States into a modem, capitalist economy. The accomplishment lent further luster to his reputation. Such was Chase's stature that leading Republicans considered

show abstract

“…If white supremacists once again gained the upper hand in state legislatures or state judiciaries, Congress and federal judges could step in to prevent the return of the Black Codes, overturn biased laws, and undo and punish due process or voting rights violations. 33 Today, many scholars argue that Fourteenth Amendment's framers intended that the "privileges or immunities" clause incorporate the first eight amendments to the Constitution (the Bill of Rights) against state governments. College history students are often surprised to learn that, before the Civil War, the Bill of Rights protected individuals only against the federal government.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Supreme Court, Reconstruction, and the Meaning of the Civil War

Ross¹

2016

Jnl of Supreme Court History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Preserving the Constitution: The Conservative Basis of Radical Reconstruction

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Bringing Back the States: A Congressional Perspective on the Fall of Slavery in America

Bringing Back the States: A Congressional Perspective on the Fall of Slavery in America

Salmon P. Chase and Constitutional Politics

The Supreme Court, Reconstruction, and the Meaning of the Civil War

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About