Monday, September 15, 2014

"Constructing Constitutional Politics: Thaddeus Stevens, John Bingham, and the Forgotten Fourteenth Amendment"

The title of this post comes from this fascinating paper by Professor Mark Graber, the abstract of which states:

This paper maintains that Thaddeus Stevens and other Republicans who were primarily responsible for drafting the Fourteenth Amendment sought to construct a constitutional politics that guaranteed to the extent feasible that the persons who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, white and black, would control the meaning of the post-Civil War Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment would prevent the rebirth of the Slave Power. Sections 2 and 3 the Fourteenth Amendment were the texts most crucial to this constitutional mission. Stevens and other members of the Thirty-Ninth Congress thought these provisions would most likely compel the South to enfranchise persons of color and, if not, sharply reduce the influence of former slave states and former slave owners on national policy and constitutional decision making. Republicans cheerfully endorsed the more substantive provisions in Section 1. Nevertheless, with the notable exception of John Bingham, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate understood that the rights, restrictions and powers enumerated in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as those enumerated in the Thirteenth Amendment, would be interpreted and implemented in good faith only if Sections 2 and 3 successfully reconstructed American constitutional politics so as to ensure the continued hegemony of the political party of the people who remained loyal during the Civil War.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/civil_rights/2014/09/constructing-constitutional-politics-thaddeus-stevens-john-bingham-and-the-forgotten-fourteenth-amen.html

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Comments

I recommend two books on this aspect of our Constitution and our history: Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America, by Garrett Epps. and American Founding Son- John Bingham and the Invention of The Fourteenth Amendment, by Gerard Magliocca. Both books are superb. We did not have a real meaningful Constitution until the 14th Amendment was passed.

Posted by: BarkinDog | Sep 15, 2014 10:09:35 PM

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