Democracy, Liberty, and Property
This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as a design element in Liberty Fund books is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash.
Original © 1966 by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. Originally published as part of the American Heritage Series under the general editorship of Leonard W. Levy and Alfred Young. Foreword to the Liberty Fund edition and index © 2010 by Liberty Fund, Inc.
This eBook edition published in 2011.
eBook ISBN: E-PUB 978-1-61487-134-7
CONTENTS
Foreword to the Liberty Fund Edition, with Suggested Further Reading, by G. Alan Tarr
I The Massachusetts Convention of 1820–1821
6. The Basis of Representation
7. Joseph Story on Representation
8. Daniel Webster on Representation
9. “Address to the People”
TABLES
1.1 The Massachusetts Counties in Relation to Legislative Representation
1.2 The Division of the Vote by Counties on Two Questions in the Massachusetts Convention
10. Statement of the Votes for and against the Articles of Amendment, in the Several Counties
II The New York Convention of 1821
Introduction
Chronology
11. The Council of Revision and the Veto Power
12. The Term of the Governor
13. The Appointive Power
14. The Senate and the Suffrage
15. The Negro and the Suffrage
16. Blasphemy and Libel
17. Reform of the Judiciary
TABLES
2.1 The Vote by Districts on the Convention Bill, Suffrage, and Judicial Reform, and the Revised Constitution, in the New York Convention
2.2 The Vote of Radicals and Conservatives on Selected Questions in the New York Convention
III The Virginia Convention of 1829–1830s
Introduction
Chronology
Representation
18. Cooke on Democratic Representation
19. Upshur on Majorities and Minorities
20. Doddridge in Rebuttal
21. Leigh on Power and Property
22. Randolph on the Federal Issue
23. Marshall on Compromise
24. Summers on the Gordon Plan
25. Gordon on the Gordon Plan
The Suffrage
26. The Non-Freeholders’ Memorial
27. The Freehold Suffrage Defended
28. The Reformers’ Rebuttal
Structure and Change
29. The Executive
30. The County Courts
31. The Amendment Article
32. The Question of Ratification
TABLES
3.1 Population and Representation in Virginia by Districts, 1820–1830, and the Vote on Ratification of the Constitution of 1830
3.2 The Sectional Division on Selected Questions in the Virginia Convention
Index
Notes
FOREWORD TO THE LIBERTY FUND EDITION
This volume reproduces key debates from the important constitutional conventions held in Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia during the 1820s. The New York and Virginia conventions drafted constitutions to replace the original constitutions in those states, and voters by sizable majorities approved the new charters. The Massachusetts convention proposed a series of amendments to the state’s first (and only) constitution, several of which were approved by voters. The constitutional changes that the conventions introduced not only affected political development in the three states but also, given the states’ preeminence within their regions, influenced constitutional change in neighboring states.
In embarking on constitutional reform during this period, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia were hardly unique. During the first half of the nineteenth century, Americans enthusiastically embraced the view, asserted in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, that “no free