A Revolution in Favor of Government: Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American StateWhat were the intentions of the Founders? Was the American constitution designed to protect individual rights? To limit the powers of government? To curb the excesses of democracy? Or to create a robust democratic nation-state? These questions echo through today's most heated legal and political debates. In this powerful new interpretation of America's origins, Max Edling argues that the Federalists were primarily concerned with building a government that could act vigorously in defense of American interests. The Constitution transferred the powers of war making and resource extraction from the states to the national government thereby creating a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe's eighteenth-century "fiscal-military states." A strong centralized government, however, challenged the American people's deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution's adoption the Federalists had to accommodate the formation of a powerful national government to the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so by designing a government that would be powerful in times of crisis, but which would make only limited demands on the citizenry and have a sharply restricted presence in society. The Constitution promised the American people the benefit of government without its costs. Taking advantage of a newly published letterpress edition of the constitutional debates, A Revolution in Favor of Government recovers a neglected strand of the Federalist argument, making a persuasive case for rethinking the formation of the federal American state. |
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... ratifying convention but held a popular referendum on the Constitution ... North Carolina convention, the Antifederalist delegate Willie Jones ... ratifying convention of North Carolina as well as at an incident that took place in the ...
... ratifying convention but held a popular referendum on the Constitution ... North Carolina convention, the Antifederalist delegate Willie Jones ... ratifying convention of North Carolina as well as at an incident that took place in the ...
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... ratifying convention, then, ought to be not only a popular act but also an act of reason. If the people insisted on ... North Carolina, that near three hundred of them assembled for the express purpose of deliberating upon the most ...
... ratifying convention, then, ought to be not only a popular act but also an act of reason. If the people insisted on ... North Carolina, that near three hundred of them assembled for the express purpose of deliberating upon the most ...
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... ratifying conventions, the North Carolina convention debated the Constitution article by article, section by section. After three days of Antifederalist silence, William Davie expressed his “astonishment at the precipitancy with which ...
... ratifying conventions, the North Carolina convention debated the Constitution article by article, section by section. After three days of Antifederalist silence, William Davie expressed his “astonishment at the precipitancy with which ...
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... North Carolina convention seem to bear this out. Saul Cornell has recently argued that the majority of ... ratifying convention, Furtwangler claims that the Antifederalists saw their opponents as smoothtalking “lawyers and men of learning, ...
... North Carolina convention seem to bear this out. Saul Cornell has recently argued that the majority of ... ratifying convention, Furtwangler claims that the Antifederalists saw their opponents as smoothtalking “lawyers and men of learning, ...
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... North Carolina are interesting because, with the exception of Rhode Island ... ratifying conventions and in print discourse they proved as willing as their ... approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never ...
... North Carolina are interesting because, with the exception of Rhode Island ... ratifying conventions and in print discourse they proved as willing as their ... approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never ...
Contents
European States American Contexts | |
The Ideological Response to State Expansion | |
PART TWO MILITARY POWERS 5 An Impotent Congress | |
Independence Commerce and Military Strength | |
A Government of Force | |
Government by Consent | |
The Federalists and the Uses of Military Powers | |
PART THREE FISCAL POWERS 10 Congressional Insolvency | |
Unlimited Taxation Public Credit and the Strength of Government | |
The Costs of Government | |
A Government for Free | |
The Federalists and the Uses of Fiscal Powers | |
The Constitution the Federalists and the American State | |
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administration Alexander Contee Hanson Alexander Hamilton amendment American Republic American Revolution Antifederalists argued Articles of Confederation Bailyn Bernard Bailyn Britain Brutus Carolina ratifying convention Centinel Chapel Hill citizens claim classical republicanism colonies Congress Congress’s power Constitution Constitution’s Continental Army Country debate over ratification direct taxes duties early modern Edmund Randolph eighteenth century Elliot Europe European excise executive federal government Federalist argument fiscal fiscalmilitary force government’s Hist historians History ibid Ideological important income Independence interest John John Smilie laws legislatures levied liberty Madison Massachusetts ratifying convention means military militia national government North Carolina North Carolina Press North Carolina ratifying Oliver Ellsworth Oxford peace establishment peacetime Pennsylvania ratifying convention political popular proposed public credit raise ratification debate reason Republican revenue Revolutionary Sinews of Power society soldiers standing army taxation treaty troops union United University of North Virginia ratifying convention Whiskey Rebellion wrote York ratifying convention