Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

7-19-2010

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; PSN Subject Matter eJournals; Political Theory eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Humanities Network; Political Science Network

Abstract

In the thirty years leading into Civil War orators delivered hundreds of addresses to college literary societies throughout the United States Those addresses which were frequently given by lawyers lawyertrained politicians and judges condensed the orators ideas about law history economy technology and education together into a short compass They provide an important and overlooked set of data for understanding how antebellum intellectuals saw law in relation to moral technological and economic progressThe Republics of Liberty and Letters focuses on thirtyfour addresses given at the University of North Carolina from 1827 to 1860 to see how the orators dealt with ideas about the Union law and constitutionalism along with the ubiquitous but vague trope of progress The addresses reveal strong support for Union often framed in terms of support for the Constitution and emphasize the positive role that speech has in shaping politics They are more moderate in approach towards the eras conflict over slavery and Union than addresses at many neighboring schools However there were also points of divergence between the orators The Whig orators and the Democrat orators for instance divided over the place of the educated the importance of the rule of law and the dangers posed by increasing democracy The addresses thus reveal important points of convergence as well as divisionThe Republics of Liberty and Letters is primarily about the content of political and legal ideas at the University of North Carolina from the 1830s through the 1850s Yet it has implications for cataloging constitutional ideas and then tracing how they relate to constitutional culture It invites further work on ideas in literary addresses at other schools along with work on addresses given by lawyers politicians and judges in other venues like legislatures and courts Those popular constitutional ideas can then be put together with formal constitutional law law in the courts and with legislative action and in that way enrich our understanding of the sources and contours of constitutional history

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