Suchergebnisse

A DIRECT COMPARISON BETWEEN THE U.S. BILL OF RIGHTS AND PROMINENT ENGLISH COMMON LAW DOCUMENTS SHOWS THAT THE FIRST TEN AMENDMENTS TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION HAVE ONLY A LIMITED RELATIONSHIP TO ENGLISH ANTECEDENTS. INSTEAD, THIS ADDITION TO THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION WAS A SUMMARY OF THE COMMON CORE FOUND IN THE SEVEN EXISTING STATE BILLS OF RIGHTS. JAMES MADISON'S USE OF THIS SOURCE RESTED UPON COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN RIGHTS THEORY, CONTRASTING NOTIONS OF RIGHTS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA, COMPETING NOTIONS OF LIBERTY IN AMERICAN IN THE 1780S, AND THE POLITICAL EXIGENCIES SURROUNDING THE RATIFICATION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IS AN EFFICIENT, ABSTRACTED SUMMARY OF THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN MIND. VIEWED IN THIS CONTEXT, THE DECLARATION IS NOT ONLY AN EFFICIENT SUMMARY OF AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT, BUT ALSO A CAREFUL RHETORICAL BALANCING OF CONTENDING VIEWS. THE DOCUMENT COULD BE READ WITH APPROVAL BY STUDENTS OF WHIG POLITICAL THOUGHT, OR THE ENLIGHTENMENT; RATIONALISTS, OR THE DEEPLY RELIGIOUS; THOSE JEALOUS OF STATE POWER, OR NATIONALISTS. INDEED, THE MANNER IN WHICH STATE AND NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ARE BALANCED MAKE THIS THE FIRST NATIONAL DOCUMENT TO LAY OUT FEDERALISM AS A CENTRAL ASPECT OF AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT. THE DOCUMENT ALSO TURNS OUT TO BE PART OF A POLITICAL COVENANT OF THE KIND LONG USED IN AMERICA, AND ORIGINALLY DERIVED FROM COVENANT THEOLOGY. POLITICAL COVENANTS, CALLED COMPACTS IN THEIR SECULAR FORM, WOULD HAVE HAD THE DECLARATION SERVE AS A PREAMBLE AND BILL OF RIGHTS TO A CONSTITUTION. AS IT TURNS OUT, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SERVES PRECISELY SUCH A ROLE WITH RESPECT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, AND IS THUS PART OF A NATIONAL COVENANT /COMPACT.

The view of American political theory held by historians and political scientists in the 1940s is compared with their general view today. The scholarly process leading to the new view is outlined. The essential change is to view the Constitution as a text that must be read in conjunction with state constitutions, the pamphlet literature of the late 1700s, and a wider range of European political theorists than was previously considered relevant. (Original abstract)