Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

4-24-2017

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; PRN Subject Matter eJournals; Philosophy Research Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; AARN Subject Matter eJournals; Humanities Network; Political Science Network; Anthropology & Archaeology Research Network

Abstract

In the thirty years leading into Civil War faculty and students at Washington College and the Virginia Military Institute discussed ideas about adherence to Union the legal justification of slavery slaves' claims to freedom and jurisprudence Their discussion of jurisprudence included the need for adherence to law and the roles of morality sentiment and utility in law This article draws upon public addresses like graduation speeches at Washington College and VMI to recover the sophisticated legal ideas in circulation in LexingtonWashington College was a place of Whig values of Union adherence to law and concern for utility Speakers supported common Whig ideas including the need for republican government to check excesses of democracy and a focus on the ways that a wellordered society and respect for property and Christianity led to moral and economic progress It also moved from a place where faculty held Enlightenment ideas about freedom "“ even if circumscribed by economic reality "“ to a place where slavery was embraced partly because it was part of the ConstitutionBy contrast at the Virginia Military Institute proslavery and prosecession ideas were more prevalent The constitutional visions at moderate Washington College and prosecession institutions at more radical places like the University of Virginia William and Mary and the College of Charleston reflected the wide range of Southern ideas about Union slavery utility sentiment Republicanism and constitutionalism Those ideas framed the Southern response to political changes as Southerners discussed the mandates of jurisprudence and the Constitution in the years leading into War

Download

Share

COinS