A more perfect union : Joseph Story's synthesis of natural rights philosophy and the common law.

This dissertation reconsiders the jurisprudence of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story by evaluating his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States as a project of civic education. Reading the Commentaries on the Constitution in this light directs attention to the Nullification Crisis, the context for Story's Commentaries. As such, Story's project of civic education ought to be understood as a response to the rise in states' rights constitutionalism in Antebellum America, which advanced a reading of the U.S. Constitution grounded in American social compact theory. In response, Story articulated a national conception of popular sovereignty that contextualized the American notion of consent through a synthesis of natural rights philosophy and the common law. Against arguments that suggested the incompatibility of natural rights philosophy and the common law, especially those put forward by Thomas Jefferson and his followers, Story argued that the American people developed a particular understanding of consent through generations of colonial life. This American notion of consent used principles and definitions of the common law to articulate Lockean liberal aims of consent-based government. As such, this dual foundation for American self-government structured the American understanding of popular sovereignty, delegated power, and federalism. Story thus uses his synthesis of natural rights philosophy and the common law to adopt a tiered understanding of sovereignty. The American people hold primary or absolute sovereignty while they grant functional sovereignty to the state and national governments. These kinds of sovereignty, while adopted from definitions provided by Blackstonian common law, articulate the system of delegated power at the heart of American constitutionalism. Story's dual foundation for a national conception of popular sovereignty allows for the wider application of consistent principles of federalism. As such, this dissertation considers several aspects of this application, ranging from the aims articulated in the U.S. Preamble to Indigenous sovereignty and the problem of American slavery. That is, Story's synthetic account of American constitutionalism offers an avenue to evaluate central issues of Antebellum America.

Author dc:creator

• Staab, Brigid Flaherty, 1994-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ward, Lee, 1970-

• Constitutional interpretation.
• American political thought.
• Federalism.
• Constitutionalism.

Statement dc:rights

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Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13112

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:tdl-ir.tdl.org:2104/13112