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Tracing The History of the United States: Rebuilding the Constitutional Amendment – The Second Nation
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Friday, October 22 19:30-21:30
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Tencent Conference: 533 5762 4688
The Second Nation: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Reforested the U.S. Constitution
Tells the story of constitutional amendments during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction
Learn about the United States
This little book is not to be missed
Pulitzer Prize winner
Historian Fanner
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The Declaration of Independence proclaimed equality as an American ideal, but it was not until the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments that this ideal was established as law. In today's America, issues such as citizenship of the place of birth, the right to vote, due process, and equal protection face serious political challenges once again. This book helps readers to clearly understand this little-known history of reconstruction and the historical roots of contemporary problems in the United States.
1 Rights can be acquired or denied
On racial justice, the Supreme Court recently proved more sympathetic to white plaintiffs who complained that affirmative action policies led to reverse discrimination than for blacks seeking help overcoming the legacy of centuries of slavery and apartheid. John Marshall Harlan's famous quote " Our Constitution is a color-blind constitution " , which attacked the majority in the Placesy case , drew attention to the egalitarian tenets of a second nationhood , was recently invoked by conservative justices to challenge any consideration of race. The Supreme Court seems to view "racial classification," rather than inequality, as the root cause of the nation's racial problems. This view, which is more rooted in modern politics than in the actual history of reconstruction, has contributed to the retreat of long-standing racially conscious efforts to promote equality. The first sentence of the Amendment to the Fourteenth Constitution, the principle establishing citizenship of the place of birth, has recently caused considerable controversy as it applies to the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. Prominent politicians have called for the complete repeal of this part of the amendment. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, President Donald Trump said he planned to issue an executive order overturning that principle. The idea that the president could unilaterally repeal the enshrined provisions of the Constitution is alarming. One would guess which clause might be repealed next.
Of course, the legal era we live in today is very different from that of the late 19th century. But the shadow of retreat from reconstruction still hangs over contemporary judicial decisions. However, if the political environment changes, the reverse interpretation that emerges in reconstruction and its consequences, as well as stronger claims about the rights enshrined in the Constitution at the time of the second statehood and the power of the federal government to enforce those rights, remain feasible. There is no reason to think that the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment cannot be revitalized as a weapon against the entrenched inequalities in slavery, or that the provisions of the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment relating to the privileges or immunities of citizens must be a dead letter, or that it must not contain the rights deprived of slavery and the rights necessary to become a full member of American society today, such as adequate education or even the right to a "reasonable wage," Lincoln said in the Emancipation Proclamation, Emancipated slaves were entitled to these wages. Why shouldn't voting rights be considered a privilege of citizenship enjoyed by all adult Americans in the 21st century? There is no reason why the court cannot reasonably consider "social racism" — the Concept that the Supreme Court arrogantly rejected in order to justify affirmative action and school integration programs — nor is there any reason to argue that the principle of state conduct must hinder federal efforts to protect the rights of all Americans from violation by private groups. Nor is there any reason to rely on the unconscionable invocation of the Constitution's commercial provisions in pursuit of the goal of racial equality. The key issue here is not that reverse interpretation is a true meaning of reconstructing constitutional amendments, but that there are alternatives to the actual jurisprudence of the Supreme Court that are rooted in historical records that would give these constitutional amendments greater power.
In Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, he saw slavery as the root cause of the Civil War and implicitly asked Americans to face up to the legacy of slavery without hesitation and to think creatively about how to realize the illusions of slavery's destruction. These three constitutional amendments formed part of the country's response to Lincoln's vision. Their tortuous history reminds us that, as James Madison warned in the Federalist Anthology, constitutional guarantees can only serve as a "parchment barrier" to the freedoms of Americans in some cases.
Rights can be acquired or taken away. A century and a half after the end of slavery, the cause of equal citizenship remains unfinished. Whatever the flaws, the post-civil war era can inspire those who strive for a more egalitarian and just society. We live every day in the midst of reconstruction and reconstruction of a complex heritage that has been overthrown. Since the ideals of freedom, equality and democracy are always questioned, our understanding of the re-establishment of constitutional amendments will always be an ongoing exercise. As long as the legacy of slavery and apartheid continues to haunt our society, we can look forward to Americans returning to this country's second founding period and finding new meaning there for our turbulent times.
2 What is the second nation-building?
The Civil War and subsequent reconstruction constituted a pivotal period in American history. The war destroyed slavery, ensured the survival of the Union, and triggered the economic and political changes that laid the foundations of the modern state. During reconstruction, on the ruins of slavery, the United States made its first attempt to build an egalitarian society that, though flawed, did mean a lot at the time. Some of the problems that have plagued American society today, such as huge wealth inequality and power inequality, terrorist violence, and intense racism, are still plaguing American society.
But perhaps the most tangible legacy of this era is the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Article 13 of the Constitutional Amendment abolished slavery altogether. Article 14 constitutional amendments established the principle of citizenship by birth and the principle of equality before the law, and sought to address key issues arising from the war, such as the future political role of the leaders of the Confederacy and the payment of the debts of the Confederacy. The goal of the Article 15 constitutional amendment is to ensure the right of black men to vote in this reunified country.
Together with far-reaching congressional legislation designed to give former slaves judicial rights, the right to vote, and free access to public places and to protect them from violence, the Re-Establishment Amendments have greatly enhanced the powers of the federal government, transferring much of the power to define civil rights from the states to the commonwealth. They constructed a new type of constitutional relationship for each individual American and the House of Commonwealth Andthorn, and played a crucial role in creating the world's first interracial democracy, in which those who had only been freed from slavery a few years earlier exercised important political power. The final provision of the three constitutional amendments all empower Congress to legislate to enforce the provisions, ensuring that reconstruction will be an ongoing process rather than a fleeting event. This in itself is a major innovation. The Bill of Rights makes no mention of how the freedoms it enumerates will be enforced and protected.
These amendments introduced words to the federal Constitution such as "equal legal protection" and "suffrage" (and the term "male" denoting eligibility, which angered feminist activists at the time), which both reflected and enhanced a new era of individual rights awareness among Americans of all races and backgrounds. The changes were so great that these constitutional amendments could not simply be seen as a change in the established structure, but as a "second nation-building," a "constitutional revolution," in the words of Republican leader Carl Schultz, which created a whole new literature that redefined the status of blacks and the rights of all Americans.