Prologue to America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community

America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community (Harvard Univ. Press 2014)

American University, WCL Research Paper No. 2014-31

19 Pages Posted: 10 Jun 2014 Last revised: 26 Jun 2014

See all articles by Robert L. Tsai

Robert L. Tsai

Boston University - School of Law

Date Written: June 3, 2014

Abstract

This is the Prologue to America's Forgotten Constitutions (Harvard, 2014).

The U.S. Constitution opens by proclaiming the sovereignty of all citizens: “We the People.” Robert Tsai’s gripping history of alternative constitutions invites readers into the circle of those who have rejected this ringing assertion — the defiant groups that refused to accept the Constitution’s definition of who “the people” are and how their authority should be exercised.

America’s Forgotten Constitutions is the story of America as told by dissenters: squatters, Native Americans, abolitionists, socialists, internationalists, and racial nationalists. Beginning in the nineteenth century, Tsai chronicles eight episodes in which discontented citizens took the extraordinary step of drafting a new constitution. He examines the alternative Americas envisioned by John Brown (who dreamed of a republic purged of slavery), Robert Barnwell Rhett (the Confederate “father of secession”), and Etienne Cabet (a French socialist who founded a utopian society in Illinois). Other dreamers include the University of Chicago academics who created a world constitution for the nuclear age; the Republic of New Afrika, which demanded a separate country carved from the Deep South; and the contemporary Aryan movement, which plans to liberate America from multiculturalism and feminism.

Countering those who treat constitutional law as a single tradition, Tsai argues that the ratification of the Constitution did not quell debate but kindled further conflicts over basic questions of power and community. He explains how the tradition mutated over time, inspiring generations and disrupting the best-laid plans for simplicity and order. Idealists on both the left and right will benefit from reading these cautionary tales.

Keywords: constitution, constitutional law, republicanism, liberalism, convention, popular sovereignty, native americans, pioneer, black sovereignty, john brown, slavery, confederacy, confederate states of america, sequoyah, oklahoma, five civilized tribes, world federalism, aryan, republic of new afrika

Suggested Citation

Tsai, Robert L., Prologue to America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community (June 3, 2014). America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community (Harvard Univ. Press 2014), American University, WCL Research Paper No. 2014-31, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2445434

Robert L. Tsai (Contact Author)

Boston University - School of Law ( email )

765 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
United States

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