Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights

by Jack N. Rakove, George Stade (Editor)

Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights, by Various, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

 
Modern American politicians refer to “the founders” so often that they’re in danger of becoming clichés. But Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, and the other authors included in this new collection were a wholly unique—and complex—group of individuals, graced with extraordinary intellectual powers, a profound dedication to their ideals, and a striking ability to articulate those ideals in clear and passionate prose.
 
This original anthology of their writings, many of them far less familiar to us than they should be, demonstrates the depth of their thinking—and of their disagreements. It covers the full range of events from 1773 to 1789: that is, from the early debates about whether the North American colonies should declare their independence from England, to the ratification of the Constitution and the first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights).
 
Among the documents included are papers from the first and second Continental Congresses, the Articles of Confederation, Washington’s Farewell Address to his armies, and extensive excerpts from the Federalist papers and the Madison–Jefferson correspondence on the Constitution.
 

Jack N. Rakove is W.  R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1980. He is the author of four books on the American Revolutionary era, including The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic, and Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, which received the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Genres: History, Classics, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, American Revolution, Reference

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Jack Rakove is the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and professor of political science and (by courtesy) law at Stanford, where he has taught since 1980. His principal areas of research include the origins of the American Revolution and Constitution, the political practice and theory of James Madison, and the role of historical knowledge in constitutional litigation. He is the author of six books, including Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (1996), which won the Pulitzer Prize in History, and Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America (2010), which was a finalist for the George Washington Prize, and the editor of seven others, including The Unfinished Election of 2000 (2001). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a past president of the Society for the History of the Early American Republic.

Reviews

[Regina Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going into this read my knowledge of Madison was limited to his contribution in moving the nation away from the Articles of Confederation toward the Constitution, his relationship wtih Jefferson, his contentious relationship with Hamilton, and the War of 1812.

To me Madison is akin to a pendulum. He swings one direction until something happens that forces his thought process to shift to the opposite direction. We see this in issues like states rights and the validity of a national bank. Rakove explains this by saying Madison was ideological but relied on experience for application.

As a young man, Madison lacked ambition and could not formulate a plan for his future. It is issues surrounding religious tolerance that catapults Madison into political life. "The issue that moved Madison was religious liberty...Madison's change won approval; and its adoption laid the intellectual basis for disestablishment. This was Madison's one significant achievement at the Convention." (pg 15) According to Rakove, it is this issue that laid the foundation for the relationship with Jefferson that we read so much of today. One thing I think Rakove does well is taking us through the evolution of views on separation of church and state.

Arriving to the Constitutional Convention, Madison fervetnly believed the ills of the nation can be attributed to the "vicious character of the state government." (pg 49) This completely surprises me since his relationship with Jefferson and the belligerent nature of their relationship with Hamilton is well known. At first glance it appears Madison is initially opposed to strong states' rights, but it really looks as though he is against a strong legislature if there are not adequate checks and balances in place. Even with this caveat, Madison did feel that "a national government could protect individual liberty more readily than an individual state." (pg 56) All the same it is easy to see why Hamilton was completely taken aback by Madison's opposition to Hamiltonian precepts. I always felt the bicameral structure was more about the compromise between the small and large states. For Madison, it was part of those checks and balances that he felt was a necessity. He believed "an upper house composed of a small number of members serving long terms of office on fixed salareies-conditions that would leave them independent of both their electors and their colleagues in the lower house. Such a body, in Madison's scheme, was not meant to represent anything, but simply to check the lower house by preventing the adoption of poorly framed laws." (pg.51). Madison's belief basically holds true today.

Tension continues to mount between the North and South both over slavery and financial issues. The financial issues appears to be at the heart of the split with Hamilton. Madison vehemently opposed the creation of a national bank and was looked askance at Hamilton's Report on Manufactures resulting in the notion that Hamiltonian economics would greatly favor the North. Further he was "disgusted" by the speculation occuring in public securities. It was fascinating to read the debate over constitutional language regarding the bank and to see how those arguments continue today. It also appears that this is what moved Madison's thinking towards high states' rights views. However, I have not been able to conclude if it is truly a return to his core fear of a too powerful legislature or a need to defend the South (ie Virginia). Madison does argue that interpretation of the Constitution should be done so in light of intent upon adoption

This is the third book I've read discussing Madison and Jefferson's ploy to hire John Fenno as a government employee as a means of support to give him the freedom to publish Gazette of the United States a newspaper promoting "republican interest" (and attack Hamilton). Can you imagine the outcry if this was done today?

Until this read I always viewed Madison as Jefferson's underling. Jefferson establishing the agenda and Madison scurrying off to do his bidding. I learned that, while stongly tied together, Madison and Jefferson's views often diverged. Madison often appears more practical while Jefferson appears to be the staunch ideologue. Of many examples Rakove offers their differing views over Shay's Rebellion. Another very good example deals with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Jefferson felt the states could "legally prevent the execution of unconstitutional laws" while Madison felt "states should act politically to rouse broad opposition to acts of federal usurption." (pg 151-152). Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts definitely challenged Madison's fear that danger lay in majorities rather than acts of the federal government. It is at this time we see another shift in his views.

Rakove notes, "the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and Alexander Hamilton had been killed by former VP Aaron Burr in their famous duel. All this freed the Republicans to air their differences with each other." (pg 169). Factions within the party emerged and Madison did not enjoy complete support from his party. The division created great difficulty for Madison in putting his cabinet together.

Relying on his bias towards England, Madison chose to gamble on Napoleon even as suspicion lingered in his mind. Those suspicions came to fruition. England responds with increasing obstinance. On one more gamble Madison hoped England would "back down once it saw Congress acting to prepare the nation for war." (pg 186) Once again, he was wrong. Madion's staunch opposition to having a standing army comes back to haunt him as the nation is completely unprepared for war. After Madison sent his war message to Congress, England backed down. This lost some popular support among citizens for the war effort. Madison held to constitutional principle in preparation for war. Rakove notes, "Madison hoped to demonstrate that a president could lead a republic into war without becoming a dictator. The administration, of course, would make its plans and wishes known to Congress, but ultimately the lawmakers had to decide how to raise and arm men and meet the costs of war." (pg 194) With party divisions this was difficult. Madison put all his hopes on a victory in Canada. It was an abysmal failure. Politics at its worst, we then read a detailed account of the most embarassing part of the War of 1812 when Secretary of War Armstong ignored directives to fortify Washington and the White House burned. Jackson's victory at New Orleans following wins at Ft McHenry and Lake Champlain at least allowed the US to keep the war out of the defeat column.

Seeing the merits of the national bank, Madison unsuccessfully attempts to recharter the Bank of the United States. However, it is rechartered at the conclusion of the War 1812

Some of Rakove's insights that struck me:

"Perhaps the difference between the nuances and the bold language of the Declaration helps to explain why his (Madison) legacy is more elusive than Jefferson's. Every American knows the key phrases of the Declaration and harbors his or her own interpretation of its promise of equality. Few could confidently quote or explicate Madison's most celebrated passages. In college and even in high school, American might read one or two of Madison's Federalist essays, the Tenth for sure, the Fifty-first if theya re lucky. There they puzzle over the careful distinctions and qualifications that typify his close-grained analysis of the complexities of republican government." (pg 220)

"He recognized that people often act out of passion, interest, and uninformed opinion, yet also believed that government must be held accountable to popular control. He worried that individual states would have strong incentives to oppose national measures, yet understood that their autonomy had to be respected. He accepted teh basic premise of majority rule, yet recognized that popular majorities might wield their power to abuse minority and individual rights. He knew, too, taht the existence of chattel slavery in his own native region violated every republican principle he espoused, yet he could not imagine how that society could survivie if slavery were abolished." (pg 221)

"Perhaps Madison's deepest legacy for the American constiutional tradition he helped to create lies in his understanding of these two distinct problems of majority power and minority rights...his grasp of what was at stake was both modern and forward-looking...Yet his approach to these problems also had conservative, even reactionary elements" (pg 224)

"the commitment to freedom of conscience mattered because it identified one civil right that placed the greatest value on the capacity of ordinary men and women to exercise their sovereign judgment as individuals." (pg 227)

Interesting Rakove uses terms typically reserved for economics to describe Madison's belief in the best system to protect religious institutions: "privatized and deregulated; competition among denomination"

"And no scheme of taxation could ever be completely fair or neutral. Some interests would always benefit more, others less from whatever plan was adoped, and this disparity would support the suspicion that the rights of property were not being equally protected. In a republic dominated by the poorer classes of citizens, Madison might have worried, what would stop government from shifting the tax burden unfairly to the wealthy?...Here he was not convinced that the people's desires could be trusted. Instead, he thought the rights of the wealthy desereved protection against the jealousy of the multitude." (pg 228)

I felt the book provided a good broad view of the Madison. I did, however, feel it was a bit redundant in places, and I was disappointed that more attention was not given to Dolley and to his presidency. I did think Rakove did an excellent job of sharing the foundation of Madison's core belief system and why his views changed at various times. I feel I have a better understanding of Madison's role in the Declaration of Independence and better insight into his relationship with Jefferson.

[Steve Njavro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tis is a great way to understand what the founding fathers of this country where all about. It is private letters, unrevised versions of declarations, documents from the revolution and the bill of rights...

If you like history this is interesting. If you are like me and see that our country is heading for disaster and you feel like it must get back to basics, this book will give you a good idea of how and why it was founded.

Its not a light read or "fun" but you get an honest understanding of politics from the men and women who stepped up and did their part to create what we know as freedom.

[Phuong Dao · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book s about how the Bill of Rights was created. It talks about the history behind the Bill of Rights and why it is so important in the Constitution. Back in the day when the king of England tried to gain total power of the people in the colonies, they rise up against him and fought for their independent. After many meeting, they decided to add the Bill of Rights in the Constitution because they want the rights to be reserve for the people of the United States.

[Michael Hattem · Rating 4 out of 5]

About as good as a single-volume paperback collection of documents can be. It also includes a General Introduction by the collection's editor, Jack Rakove, one of the preeminent early American historians of the last 40 years.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of letters and documents addressing the hard part of the American Revolution - -what to do after the Independence was achieved. Given the diversity of very strongly help opinions, it is marvelous that a federal government was achieved.

[Matt Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of the main documents leading up to the revolution and the framing of the constituion. Absolutely fascinating.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was tough to get through because there are some not very interesting or understandable parts. That said, this is a great book and important for context of why the government as we know it today was set up the way it was. There are many instances of the word "property" and assertions to the right of property, which suggests that private ownership was very important to these men. These are people who protested against British-imposed taxes so that makes sense that they would emphasize the right to protect their property.

There are parts of this book that made me cringe and opened my eyes to the mindset of the founders toward slaves. There are passages that expose their logic about black people and their (the founders') belief that blacks are fundamentally different in their intelligence and disposition than white people. From Thomas Jefferson's 'Notes on the State of Virginia':

"I advance it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind. It is not against experience to suppose that different species of the same genus, or varieties of the same species, may possess different qualifications." (Pg. 282)

And his reasoning goes on from there in that document. For me it helps explain the fundamental irony at the heart of the American Revolution: that a group of men who ultimately decided that they wanted autonomy for themselves did not extend that thinking to other groups, namely the blacks (and women, who are not even part of the revolutionary and constitutional discussions; their voices are absent from these documents, with the exception of Abigail Adams' letters to John Adams, which though they contain lines like the vague "I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be Eaquelly Strong in the Breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs" [Pg. 67] hardly constitute a feminine voice of any given weight).

The founders saw themselves as being equal to, or the same species of, the British and other Europeans, and so wanted to be recognized legally and commercially as equals. They didn't see blacks as being the same species so they didn't see slavery as an inconsistency.

There's also a line that I actually really like, from Benjamin Rush: "Hear [your country] proclaiming, in sighs and groans, in her governments, in her finances, in her morals, and in her manners, 'THE REVOLUTION IS NOT OVER!' " (Pg. 313). I believe in that sentiment, that we are still trying to create a good country. But my vision of a good country includes one with more inclusive rights than what the founders envisioned.

[Nathan Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me preface this by saying that it was NOT an easy read at times. It was very dense and took me a long time to get through. If you are looking for entertainment, it will not be your cup of tea.
What it does do well is give an overview of the evolving thought process which led us to fracture from England, form a confederation of states, then form a federal government and finally establish the bill of rights.
It does this through an examination of many speeches and personal letters of our founding fathers, as well as drafts and then final documents including the Declaration of Independence, the articles of confederation, the us constitution and the bill of rights. You get a sense of why things were included and others left out.
These are the words of some of the smartest people of theirs or anyone’s time.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Pastor Acosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book! I learned so much of the founding of America from reading the documents in this book. One can actually sense the moments of struggle our Nations founders faced as they penned their concerns and requests to be a free nation from the tyrannical king of England. Loved it from beginning till the end. I appreciate much more our beautiful country after reading this book.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good set of original documents from the time of the creation of an independent United States. Particularly interesting are the letters between Madison and Jefferson just before and just after the ratification of the Constitution, as well as Madison’s speech introducing the Bill of Rights to Congress.

[goatmilksoda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not a good reading book, but it's useful. It's nice to see the way our country was founded and see what is actually written in the constitution and why that is, but it's really tedious to pour over it for hours on end.

[Autumn Rybin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite part was the speech Benjamin Franklin gave urging everyone to sign the constitution and be united. “Compromisers may not make great heroes, but they do make democracies.”
- Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

[Rob Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential history! Essential reading!

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy reading and a great place to start when studying American history.

[Craig Bolton]

Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights (Barnes & Noble Classics) by Various (2006)

[DK]

http://mynook.barnesandnoble.com/prod...

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The annual July read.