Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil
- ISBN-10
- 1139457071
- ISBN-13
- 9781139457071
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 264
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2006-07-03
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Author
- Mark A. Graber
Description
Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil , first published in 2006, concerns what is entailed by pledging allegiance to a constitutional text and tradition saturated with concessions to evil. The Constitution of the United States was originally understood as an effort to mediate controversies between persons who disputed fundamental values, and did not offer a vision of the good society. In order to form a 'more perfect union' with slaveholders, late-eighteenth-century citizens fashioned a constitution that plainly compelled some injustices and was silent or ambiguous on other questions of fundamental right. This constitutional relationship could survive only as long as a bisectional consensus was required to resolve all constitutional questions not settled in 1787. Dred Scott challenges persons committed to human freedom to determine whether antislavery northerners should have provided more accommodations for slavery than were constitutionally strictly necessary or risked the enormous destruction of life and property that preceded Lincoln's new birth of freedom.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2006-07-03
- 280 pages
- Paperback
- Cambridge University Press
Similar books
-
The Dred Scott Case: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Race and Law
By Paul Finkelman, Christopher Alan Bracey, David Thomas KonigThe Dred Scott Case: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Race and Law presents original research and the reflections of the nation's leading scholars who gathered in St. Louis to mark the 150th anniversary of what was arguably the ...
-
A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism
By Mark A. GraberMark A. Graber. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. For a related meditation on these matters, see Mark V. Tushnet, ... See Stephen L. Elkin, “Constitutional Collapse: The Faulty Founding,” 18 Good Society 1 (2009). Stephen L. Elkin ...
-
Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery
By Earl M. MaltzThe slave Dred Scott claimed that his residence in a free state transformed him into a free man. His lawsuit took many twists and turns before making its way to...
-
Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court
By Ethan GreenbergDred Scott exemplies neither originalism nor aspirationalism gone wrong, as many modern critics now argue.
-
Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty: The Forgotten Goals of Constitutional Reform after the Civil War
By Mark A. Graber... insincere commitments in order to regain the control over state and national governments necessary to resume their nefarious schemes against loyal Blacks, loyal Southerners, loyal creditors, and the loyal people of the North who had ...
-
Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get It Right
By Ray RaphaelWhat We Get Wrong and How to Get It Right Ray Raphael ... The best defense was a good offense, he reasoned. ... Despite his previous opposition to a constitutional enumeration of rights, Madison entertained and then embraced this simple ...
-
A Slaveholders' Union: Slavery, Politics, and the Constitution in the Early American Republic
By George William Van Cleve... Slaveholding Republic, 44 (three clauses directly related to slavery in Constitution). 19. Graber, Dred Scott. 20. William W. Freehling, The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776–1854 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), ...
-
Constitutional Redemption
By Jack M. BalkinWhat makes the U.S. Constitution legitimate, argues this daring book, is Americans’ enduring faith that the Constitution’s promises can someday be redeemed, and the constitutional system be made “a more perfect union.” A leading ...
-
The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860
By Morton J. Horwitz, Morton J HorwitzBeginning with the first English treatise on contract, Powell's Essay Upon the Law of Contracts and Agreements (1790), a major feature of contract writing has been its denunciation of equitable conceptions of substantive justice as ...
-
Constitutional Stupidities, Constitutional Tragedies
By William N. Eskridge, Sanford V. LevinsonThis unique volume brings together many of the country's most esteemed constitutional commentators and invites them to answer two questions: First, what is the stupidest provision of the Constitution? "Stupid" need not mean evil.