American Political Theory before the Civil War
The next unit covers the first half of the nineteenth century. It begins with two Supreme Court cases that clarified important constitutional principles. The first, Marbury v. Madison, represented the first extended justification of the Supreme Court’s power to invalidate federal laws that were not authorized by the Constitution. Although the Court indicated in 1795 in Hylton v. United States that it possessed this power, it never used it to strike down a federal law until 1803. The second, McCulloch v. Maryland, concerned the authority of Congress to create a national bank in the absence of express constitutional authorization. John Marshall’s clear and forceful opinion in that case is still cited today whenever the Court interprets (or reinterprets) a constitutional provision.
Next, the unit jumps ahead to the late 1820s. Andrew Jackson had run for president in 1824 and received the most popular and electoral votes, but he was defeated in the House of Representatives by a “corrupt bargain” between two candidates with fewer electoral votes. Claiming that he had been victimized by an anti-democratic institution (the electoral college), he created a new party that was initially named “Democracy.” In his first inaugural address, Jackson called for eliminating the electoral college, a goal that remains unfulfilled almost two centuries later. He also called for restraining the federal government’s growth by transferring more power to the states, as exemplified by his veto of a bill rechartering the national bank in 1832. With the federal government stalemated over the slavery question, Jackson believed that the Union would be stronger if it allowed states more control over their own economies and property rights.
Alexis de Tocqueville visited the US during Jackson’s presidency and provided a snapshot of American institutions in the 1830s. The selection from Democracy in America is the longest section in this book, and Tocqueville has so much to say it was difficult not to include more of his ideas. Tocqueville attempted to explain why democratic government had succeeded in the US but not in France, and many of his explanations about how Americans think about self-rule still resonate today.
Also included is this unit are three other works, one of which rarely appears in college courses today. John Calhoun is largely excluded because he justified slavery, but his proposal that important private interests be given a veto over government policies resonates today in descriptions of how US government actually works. Henry David Thoreau has remained popular for his essay on civil disobedience, which criticizes mindless obedience to the law and offers conscientious objection as an alternative. The unit ends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s adaptation of the Declaration of Independence, which vividly presents the subordinate position of women in antebellum America.
