| 来源类型 | Article
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| 规范类型 | 评论
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| How the Bill of Rights Completed the Constitution |
| Robert A. Goldwin (1922-2010)
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| 发表日期 | 1997-05-01
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| 出版年 | 1997
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| 语种 | 英语
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| 摘要 | Contemporary Americans find it difficult not to take the Bill of Rights for granted as part of the Constitution; this is true even for those who are aware that the Constitution originally did not include it. From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constitution (AEI Press; $24.95) tells the story of the ratification of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The book, by AEI Resident Scholar Robert A. Goldwin, returns to 1789, when the Constitution was new and its success by no means certain. From Parchment to Power shows how the Bill of Rights both completed the theoretical framework of the Constitution and greatly buttressed popular support for it in its infancy.
As the First Congress opened, the status of the Constitution was tenuous. It had been ratified by slim margins in a number of the states, and representatives of two prominent states, Virginia and New York, were pressing for a second constitutional convention in order to consider amendments. Such a convention would have created an opening for opponents of the Constitution and for others who wished to make significant changes to it, much as the Constitution itself was drafted at a convention that had been given the more modest mandate of revising the Articles of Confederation.
Much popular support for holding another convention was based on the uneasiness many citizens felt about whether their individual rights would be secure under the new governing charter. In a brilliant feat of lawmaking, James Madison was able to craft a set of amendments that assuaged those concerns but did not disturb any provisions of the original document.
The original plan for the book, Mr. Goldwin says, was to explain simply why and how the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, but the project developed into a study of what is required to develop a lasting constitution for a democratic republic. The U.S. Constitution has enjoyed a longevity unknown to any other, and Mr. Goldwin attributes its durability in large measure to Madison’s wisdom and legislative skill in crafting the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights and shepherding them through the First Congress. In telling this dramatic story, the author explains how Madison went from firmly opposing the inclusion of a bill of rights to being the leading advocate of the one that was eventually ratified.
Harvey C. Mansfield of Harvard University praises From Parchment to Power as “a thoughtful and authoritative account of Madison’s statesmanship in the making of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Aided by lifelong reflection, fresh observations, and surprising inferences, Robert Goldwin explains those documents not as patchwork compromise but as a single whole of Madison’s creation and persuasion, a triumph of democratic deliberation and extraordinary leadership.”
Mr. Goldwin is the senior editor of AEI’s series on the Constitution and the author of one of the volumes, Why Blacks, Women, and Jews Are Not Mentioned in the Constitution, and Other Unorthodox Views. He was a special consultant to President Gerald Ford and has taught political science at the University of Chicago, among other institutions. |
| 主题 | Society and Culture
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| 标签 | US Constitution
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| URL | https://www.aei.org/articles/how-the-bill-of-rights-completed-the-constitution/
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| 来源智库 | American Enterprise Institute (United States)
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| 资源类型 | 智库出版物
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| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/235868
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推荐引用方式
GB/T 7714 |
Robert A. Goldwin . How the Bill of Rights Completed the Constitution. 1997.
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