The Conscience of the Constitution

• I have just finished reading The Conscience of the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty by Timothy M. Sandefur.

An excellent book, brief, to the point, a great help in focusing on the essential, and a powerful and incisive refutation of the errors in fashionable/progressive constitutionalism. Though focusing on specific issues like "judicial activism", Sandefur provides a comprehensive account of the basic tasks and features of the Constitution.

Particularly interesting are his accounts of

• the tug-of-war on the issue whether to vest citizenship and sovereignty in the states or on the federal level,

• how state precedence was an important shield for the anti-abolitionists,

• how the 14th amendment was intended to bring about an appropriate balance between state and federal power that would give citizens, in Madison's words, "a double security" as "the different governments will control each other,"

by giving the federal government "power ... to protect by national law the privileges and immunities of all the citizens of the Republic and the inborn rights of every person within its jurisdiction whenever the same shall be abridged or denied by the unconstitutional acts of any State," [p.63], and

 

• how

"the Slaughter House Court removed the most potent protection against state overreaching and threw that double security out of balance." (p.70)

I am looking for similar books, preferably not too voluminous, that give the reader a concise notion of the essence of the American Constitution and the arguments behind it. I will be grateful for recommendations in the comment section.

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Taking the Constitution Seriously

Comments

[Ed Stevens]

georg:

Try William Murchison's "The Cost of Liberty". While not precisely about the Constitutional roots of the US, it does an admirable job both of providing insight into the political underpinnings of the American experiment, but also manages to clear up a lot of misinformation about Dickinson - possibly our most misunderstood (and therefore vilified) founding father. The writing is crisp and clean, and the scholarship is impeccable. More info here - http://www.amazon.com/The-Cost-Liberty-Dickinson-Founders/dp/1933859946. I also really enjoyed Yuval Levin's "The Great Debate" ... about which more here ... http://bookendsonline.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/burke-and-paine-together-again/

Regards,

Ed S

[Georg Thomas]

Thanks, Ed.

Both books look exceedingly promising. They are now on my shopping list at Amazon. In the next few days, they will be ordered with the next chunk of books.

I am very interested in the Burke-Paine debate, as I think it may well hold important clues on how we choose to talk at cross purposes in our days.

Also, I am mightily intrigued by Dickinson.