Syllabus: HSTY2034

Week 6: Constituting the United States

Lecture 1: The Colonies Revolt
Lecture 2: From Confederation to Constitution

Tutorial: Debating the Constitution

Essential Readings:

Saul Cornell, "Aristocracy Assailed: The Ideology of Backcountry Anti-Federalism," Journal of American History 76 (1990): 1148-1172. (Course Reader).
Constitution of the United States http://www.archives.gov/exhibithall/chartersoffreedom/constitution/constitutiontranscription.html
Bill of Rights http://www.archives.gov/exhibithall/chartersoffreedom/billofrights/billofrights.html
Patrick Henry, Speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 4-12 June 1788 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch8s38.html
Brutus No. 1, 18 October 1787 http://presspubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch8s13.html
James Madison, Federalist No. 39, http:// p ress-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch8s27.html
John Adams, Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, 1787. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s17.html
James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 17 October 1788. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch14s4 7 .html

Questions:

What problems did the framers of the Constitution face and what kinds of checks and balances did they write into the Constitution?   Why do you think people of moderate means were less likely to support ratification of the Constitution?   Was the Bill of Rights necessary in this period and why/why not?   What were the anti-federalists' major fears?   Did the Bill of Rights adequately respond to these fears?  

Further Reading: Constitutional Debates

Lance Banning, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic (New York: Cornell University Press, 1995).

Saul Cornell, The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism And The Dissenting Tradition In America, 1788-1828 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999).

Christopher M. Duncan, The Anti-Federalists and Early American Political Thought (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1995).

Marc W. Kruman, Between Authority & Liberty: State Constitution Making in Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).

Thomas B. McAffee, Inherent Rights, the Written Constitution, and Popular Sovereignty: The Founders' Understanding (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2000).

Jack Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1996).

David J. Siemers, Ratifying the Republic: Antifederalists and Federalists in Constitutional Time (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002).

Optional Assignments

"Who Wants to Marry a Founding Father"- Learn about the Founding Fathers by taking this Humorous Quiz http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/marry.htm

Or see how much you've learnt this week by taking a shot at "Bill of Rights Golf": http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/golf.htm