THE RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTSWere They a New Constitution?

A NEW CONSTITUTION RADICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL?

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• Social Compact• Individualism (liberty)

• Republican Elitism

• Organic Nationhood

• Equality of All Persons

• Democracy

First Constitution – 1787New Republic based on a

2nd Constitution – 1860sbased on:

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JUDGES ORIGINALLY IGNORED THE 2ND CONSTITUTION

Later, they through “Incorporation,”

they applied Federal

Constitutional law to State law.

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FIRST CONSTITUTION:

Maximum Expression Individual Freedom At least, against the encroachment of federal

government power. Carves out a space for each person to stand

alone, free of government interference. Rule by a “virtuous few” – landowners

(stakeholders) Dominant value was Liberty, rather than Equality

Government was the “enemy”

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1865 A NEW ORDER

NationhoodEqualityPopulism

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A UNION TO A NATION

Voluntary Consent “Makes the People”

History makes the Nation

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PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the

common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and

establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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A NEW PREAMBLE: THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this

continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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A SECULAR PRAYER

Reminds Americans of the Collective Commitment to:

•NATIONHOOD•EQUALTY•DEMOCRACY

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CRYSTALLIZATION

Of Natural Law Principles

Not from cool deliberation (of the Constitutional Convention)

Rather, from the suffering of a “redemptive” war

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CHANGES ?

Outlawed slavery that the original had sought to protect.

Exchanged republican elitism for popular democracy.

Redefined nationhood as an inescapable, organic state rather than voluntary association.

The Gettysburg Address appealed to a “higher law”

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OLD UNROOTED “SOCIAL COMPACT”

The new order not only represents the votes of legislatures or delegates, but the votes of hundreds of thousand dead soldiers.“Shall not have died in Vain”

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RADICAL DEPARTURE FORM THE ORIGINAL

The Gettysburg Address and the Amendments defined Citizenship Not in the Original

They bring the principle of equality to the fore.

Movement toward Universal Suffrage

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THE 1ST CONSTITUTION NEVER:

Defined CitizenshipDefined NationalityIt skipped “equality”Minimized “Popular Democracy”

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2ND CONSTITUTION

marked the consolidation of the U.S. into a European-like nation-state.

Nationhood and nationalism appeal to the heart, not the analytic mind.

It believes in an affirmative government. No longer a threatening enemy of liberty.

(13th) now a partner in building a society free of interpersonal exploitation.

More European-like Constitutional freedom the then original’s libertarianism.

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EQUALITY BECOMES PARAMOUNT

Commitment of all persons affected by U. S. law.

Requires equal participation of all citizens and equal treatment.

Religious element: All men are made in the image of God.

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