Righteous Anger at the Wicked States
The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution

This book explains the adoption of the US Constitution in terms of what the proponents were trying to accomplish.

Calvin H. Johnson (Author)

9780521852326, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 August 2005

308 pages, 5 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.5 cm, 0.553 kg

'Calvin Johnson has carefully retraced the story of the writing, ratification and implementation of the U.S. Constitution to put forth a fresh and arresting explanation for the drive to replace the Articles of Confederation.' Joyce Appleby, Professor Emerita, UCLA Department of History

This book is a history that explains the adoption of the US Constitution in terms of what the proponents of the Constitution were trying to accomplish. The Constitution was a revolutionary document replacing the confederation mode with a complete three-part national government supreme over the states. The most pressing need was to allow the federal government to tax to pay off the Revolutionary War debts. In the next war, the United States would need to borrow again. The taxes needed to restore the public credit proved to be quite modest, however, and the Constitution went far beyond the immediate fiscal needs. This book argues that the proponents' anger at the states for their recurring breaches of duty to the united cause explains both critical steps and the driving impetus for the revolution. Other issues were less important.

Introduction
Part I. The Necessity of the Constitution: 1. The rise of the righteous anger
2. Madison's vision: requisitions and rights
3. The superiority of the extended republic
4. Shifting the foundations of government from the states to the people
5. Partial losses
6. Anti-federalism
7. False issues
Part II. Less Convincing Factors: 8. The modesty of the original commerce clause
9. Creditors, territories, and shaysites
10. Hamilton's constitution
11. The turning of Madison
Concluding summary
Acknowledgments.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Laws of Specific jurisdictions [LN], Legal history [LAZ]