Description
Here, in a single volume, is a number of the classic critiques of the brand new Constitution penned by such ardent defenders of states’ rights and personal liberty as George Mason, Patrick Henry, and Melancton Smith; pro-Constitution writings by James Wilson and Noah Webster; and thirty-three of the most efficient-known and so much an important Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The texts of the executive constitutional documents of the early Republic are included as well.
David Wootton’s illuminating Introduction examines the history of such American principles of government as checks and balances, the separation of powers, representation by election, and judicial independence―including their roots within the in large part Scottish, English, and French new science of politics. It also offers suggestions for reading The Federalist, the classic elaboration of those principles written in defense of a new Constitution that sought to use them to the young Republic.