Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-249) and index.
Contents:
King-in-Colonial Assembly : The Background to State Sovereignty -- Establishing and Debating the Nature of State Sovereignty : Articles of Confederation and the Politics of Early 1780s -- Trying to Altering the Settlement : The Critical Period and the Constitutional Convention -- Ratification the Constitution and Continuation of the Settlement -- Preserving State Sovereignty : The Judiciary Act and the Tenth Amendment -- Breaking the Promise : Hamiltonianism -- The Settlement Defended : Republican Counter-Attack and the Eleventh Amendment -- The Settlement Secured : Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and the Defeat of the Federal Common Law -- Conclusion.
Summary:
The American Revolution, State Sovereignty, and the American Constitutional Settlement, 1765{u2013}1800 reveals the largely forgotten importance of state sovereignty to American constitutionalism. Contrary to modern popular perceptions and works by other academics, the Founding Fathers did not establish a constitutional system based upon a national popular sovereignty nor a powerful national government designed to fulfill a grand philosophical purpose. Instead, most Americans throughout the period maintained that a constitutional order based upon the sovereignty of states best protected and preserved liberty. Enshrining their preference for state sovereignty in Article II of the Articles of Confederation and in the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments to the federal constitution, Americans also claimed that state interposition{u2014}the idea that the states should intervene against any perceived threats to liberty posed by centralization{u2014}was an established and accepted element of state sovereignty.--Provided by publisher.
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