Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding / Edition 1

by David C. Hendrickson

Overview

That New England might invade Virginia is inconceivable today. But interstate rivalries and the possibility of intersectional war loomed large in the thinking of the Framers who convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to put on paper the ideas that would bind the federal union together.

At the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin rejoiced that the document would "astonish our enemies, who are waiting to hear with confidence . . . that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats." Usually dismissed as hyperbole, this and similar remarks by other Founders help us to understand the core concerns that shaped their conception of the Union. By reexamining the creation of the federal system of the United States from a perspective that yokes diplomacy with constitutionalism, Hendrickson's study, according to Karl Walling, "introduces a new way to think about what is familiar to us."

This ground breaking book, then, takes a fresh look at the formative years of American constitutionalism and diplomacy. It tells the story of how thirteen colonies became independent states and found themselves grappling with the classic problems of international cooperation, and it explores the intellectual milieu within which that problem was considered. The founding generation, Hendrickson argues, developed a sophisticated science of international politics relevant both to the construction of their own union and to the foreign relations of "the several states in the union of the empire." The centrality of this discourse, he contends, must severely qualify conventional depictions of early American political thought as simply "liberal" or "republican."

Hendrickson also takes issue with conventional accounts of early American foreign policy as "unilateralist" or "isolationist" and insists that the founding generation belonged to and made distinguished contributions to the constitutional tradition in diplomacy, the antecedent of twentieth-century internationalism. He describes an American system of states riven by deep sectional animosities and powerful loyalties to colonies and states (often themselves described as "nations") and explains why in such a milieu the creation of a durable union often appeared to be a quixotic enterprise. The book culminates in a consideration of the making of the federal Constitution, here styled as a peace pact or experiment in international cooperation.

Peace Pact is an important book that promises to revolutionize our understanding of the era of revolution and constitution-making. Written in a lucid and accessible style, the book is an excellent introduction to the American founding and its larger significance in American and world history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700614936
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	04/29/2003
Series:	American Political Thought
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x (h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Part One: Introduction

1. To Philadelphia

2. The Great Debate of 1788

3. The Unionist Paradigm

4. An Experiment in International Cooperation

Part Two: The Lessons of History

5. An Age of Inquiry

6. Greece and Rome

7. Universal Monarchy and the Balance of Power: The View from the Eighteenth Century

8. Republiques Federative and Machiavellian Moments

9. The British Setting: Continental Connections and the Balanced Constitution

Part Three: The British Empire and the American Revolution

10. From War to War

11. Constitutional Crisis

12. Burden-Sharing & Representation

13. Plans of Union and the Imperial Predicament

14. “The Great Serbonian Bog”

15. Rights and Wrongs, Prophets and Seers

16. Independence and the Union

Part Four: Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union

17. Problematics of Union

18. The “Dickinson Plan”

19. Deadlock and Compromise

20. The Basis of Congressional Authority

Part Five: A Foreign Policy of Independence

21. Foundations of the New Diplomacy

22. States, Sections, and Foreign Policy

23. The Armistice of 1783

Part Six: Peace Pact: The Writing and Ratification of the Constitution

24. Vices of the Critical Period

25. To the Great Compromise

26. Commerce, Slavery, and Machiavellian Moment

27. Sovereignty in “A Feudal System of Republics”

28. Federals and Anti-Federals

29. Conclusion

A Note on Capitalization, Style, and Bibliography

Appendix. The Argument Diagramed

Figure 1. Associations of States: Comparataive State Systems and Empires

Figure 2. Constitutional Interpretation: Varieties of Federal Union, 1763-1787

Figure 3. American Political Thought: The Unionist Paradigm, c. 1776

Figure 4. Theories of American Politics

Figure 5. American Diplomacy and Theories of International Relations

Figure 6. Objectives, Doctrines, and Principles of Early American Diplomacy

Figure 7. General Map of Interpretation

The Constitution in History: Bibliographical Essay

List of Short Titles

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

A complex and remarkable book that may well mark an important paradigm shift in early American history. . . . Deftly combining intellectual, constitutional, and diplomatic history, Hendrickson significantly reorients our understanding of the creation of the American republic.”—American Historical Review

“Hendrickson’s masterly work immediately joins Peter S. Onuf and Nicholas G. Onuf’s Federal Union, Modern World: The Law of Nations in an Age of Revolutions as one of the leading attempts to view the making of America in international perspective.”—Journal of American History

“An exemplary contribution to our understanding of the early republic.”—William and Mary Quarterly

“A remarkable book—engaging, learned, and well-written. . . . Highly recommended.”—Choice

“A splendid and important book.”—International History Review

“An extraordinary achievement, a wonderful book that should change the way readers understand the origins of the federal republic. Few scholars have grasped as well as Hendrickson the importance of federalism for the founding and explained its centrality so persuasively. This will, I am convinced, initiate an important paradigm shift in the field.”—Peter Onuf, author of Jefferson’s Empire: The Language of American Nationhood

“Hendrickson’s magnificent study convincingly demonstrates why the origins of the United States should be viewed from a diplomatic as well as a constitutional angle and therefore seen as a ‘peace pact’ that is comparable to the great peace settlements of European history. This is a very important contribution to both international studies and American history.”—Robert Jackson, author of The Global Covenant: Human Conduct in a World of States

From the Publisher