The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828

Overview

Fear of centralized authority is deeply rooted in American history. The struggle over the U.S. Constitution in 1788 pitted the Federalists, supporters of a stronger central government, against the Anti-Federalists, the champions of a more localist vision of politics. But, argues Saul Cornell, while the Federalists may have won the battle over ratification, it is the ideas of the Anti-Federalists that continue to define the soul of American politics.

While no Anti-Federalist party emerged after ratification, Anti-Federalism continued to help define the limits of legitimate dissent within the American constitutional tradition for decades. Anti-Federalist ideas also exerted an important influence on Jeffersonianism and Jacksonianism. Exploring the full range of Anti-Federalist thought, Cornell illustrates its continuing relevance in the politics of the early Republic.

A new look at the Anti-Federalists is particularly timely given the recent revival of interest in this once neglected group, notes Cornell. Now widely reprinted, Anti-Federalist writings are increasingly quoted by legal scholars and cited in Supreme Court decisions—clear proof that their authors are now counted among the ranks of America's founders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807847862
Publisher:	Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/20/1999
Series:	Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	273,850
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Saul Cornell is associate professor of history at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations and a Note on the Notes

Introduction. The Other Founders

Part I. Anti-Federalism and the Constitution

Chapter 1. Ratification and the Politics of the Public Sphere
The Dynamics of the Public Debate
The Anti-Federalist Critique
The Rhetoric of Ratification
Reading Politics and the Politics of Reading
Chapter 2. Elite Anti-Federalist Political and Constitutional Thought
Constitutionalism
The Problem of Federalism and Localism
The Theory of the Small Republic
The Public Sphere
Chapter 3. Popular Anti-Federalist Political and Constitutional Thought
Middling Constitutionalism
The Political Sociology of Middling Anti-Federalism
Centinel and Philadelphiensis: Voices of Radical Democracy
Plebeian Populism
The Carlisle Riot: The Constitutionalism of the Crowd
Plebeian Radicalism and the Public Sphere
Chapter 4. Courts, Conventions, and Constitutionalism: The Politics of the Public Sphere
The Oswald Libel Case of 1788
The Aborted Second Convention Movement

Part II. Anti-Federalism Transformed

Chapter 5. The Emergence of a Loyal Opposition
The Debate over the Meaning of Representation
Rats versus Antirats
Anti-Federalism and the Politics of the First Congress
Chapter 6. Anti-Federalist Voices within Democratic-Republicanism
Hamiltonianism and the Democratic-Republican Opposition
Strict Construction and the Original Understanding
Chapter 7. The Limits of Dissenting Constitutionalism
The Democratic-Republican Societies
The Whiskey Rebellion
Federalism versus Localist Democracy

Part III. The Anti-Federalist Legacy

Chapter 8. The Founding Dialogue and the Politics of Constitutional Interpretation
The Irony of the Search for an Original Intent
The Sedition Act and the Transformation of Opposition Constitutionalism
The Principles of '98
Chapter 9. Democratic-Republican Constitutionalism and the Public Sphere
Public Opinion and Dissenting Political Thought
Responses to the Alien and Sedition Crisis
The Anti-Federalist Blackstone: St. George Tucker and a Democratic-Republican Jurisprudence
Chapter 10. The Dissenting Tradition, from the Revolution of 1800 until Nullification
Clinton versus Madison
McCulloch v. Maryland and the Collapse of the Madisonian Synthesis
The Revival of Anti-Fedealism: Robert Yates's Secret Proceedings
Nullification and the Splintering of the Dissenting Tradition
Van Buren and the Anti-Federalist Mind
Epilogue. Anti-Federalism and the American Political Tradition

Appendix 1. Reprinting of Anti-Federalist Documents
Appendix 2. Pamphlet, Broadside, and Periodical Republication of Anti-Federalist Documents
Index

Map 1. Ratification of the Constitution

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Cornell offers an important reminder that published texts and formal legal treaties are not the only ways to recover constitutional ideals. . . . Cornell also heightens our understanding of Anti-Federalism by placing it in social and intellectual context.—Law and History Review

All scholarly communities concerned with the Constitution's origins—historians, political scientists, and legal scholars—will find much to ponder in this fine book. Moreover, Cornell's analysis of the role of print culture in the creation of a national public sphere and the shaping of the ratification controversy is a model of interdisciplinary scholarship. Finally, written with grace and verve, The Other Founders is a pleasure to read.—Journal of American History

Editorial Reviews

Cornell provides us with crucial insights.

American Quarterly

An extremely well-researched and well-written work.

Journal of American Studies

This highly readable, comprehensive, and original work deserves to be placed alongside The Federalist Papers on Americans' bookshelves.

Historian

Cornell . . . heightens our understanding of Anti-Federalism by placing it in social and intellectual context.

Law and History Review

A rich guide.

The Historian

From the Publisher