Presidential Elections and Their Constitutional Impact

90-Day Study 2016

Presidential Elections and Their Constitutional Impact

90-Day Study 2016

 

INTRODUCTION

Essay #1 – Introduction – Millennials’ Time to Choose – If you were to ask George Washington, he would reference the Electoral College and wonder why popular elections are taking place in the first place. They imagined a convention where all candidates of any political viewpoint would gather and the electorate would decide then and there. Election of 1800 anybody? Unfortunately, our Founders’ ideal presidential election protocol has not been in effect for quite a while.

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Essay #2 – Why Was the Electoral College Created? – The Founders had principled reasons for creating the Electoral College. These delegates were well-versed in the successes and failures of other political systems, and they wanted to avoid the mistakes that had been made in other countries. Moreover, they understood human nature. They knew that people are fallible and that power corrupts. Perhaps the most important thing to understand about the Electoral College—and the Constitution in general—is that the Founders were not trying to create a PURE democracy. They wanted to be self-governing.

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Essay #3 – Does the Electoral College Still Work? – Our founding generation would doubtless be surprised to discover that America’s presidential election system has become the subject of some controversy. The Electoral College and other constitutional protections were created so that we might accomplish the near-impossible: be self-governing. The Electoral College operates today as a unique blend of democracy and federalism. We have a two-phase election process in this country. Taken together, these two steps ensure that both individuals and states are taken into consideration when a President is elected.

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Essay #4 –  1789, George Washington and the First Presidential Election Under the New Constitution – The First Presidential Campaign—George Washington, 1788-89—George Washington won the first presidency under the newly established Constitution. He ran unopposed, professed not to want the job, remained for the most part at Mount Vernon, and yet won unanimously. Many believe he never campaigned, but instead acquiesced to a call to duty from his countrymen. The timing for this first election was tight. The Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788. On April 16, 1789, Washington left Mount Vernon to take the oath of office on April 30th. Washington took the thirty-five-word oath prescribed by the Constitution. The United States had just witnessed a peaceful transition to an entirely new government and had inaugurated its first elected chief executive.

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Essay #5 – 1792, George Washington Sets the Tone for America as Its First Elected President – What allowed the Americans to glide above potentially disruptive forces, was the stabilizing influence of President George Washington. Elected in 1789 by unanimous vote of the 69 electors from the ten states represented in the Electoral College, Washington set the tone for the constitutional, political, and social dimensions of the presidency. Ever-cognizant of his role in this novel experiment in self-rule, Washington sought to portray himself as above partisanship.

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Essay #6 – 1796, John Adams Defeats Thomas Jefferson: Surviving America’s First Election Between Competing Political Parties – Six months before his retirement from the presidency, George Washington gave a farewell address to the nation. Among several memorable passages is his warning about the evils of the spirit of party, particularly as it manifests itself in republican forms of government. “This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature having its roots in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments…; but in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.” George Washington’s personal propriety and political sobriety had established sound precedents for his successors about the constitutional dimensions of the presidency and the appropriate conduct in office of a republican head of government. The unifying Washington was gone. The clouds that had appeared on the political horizon in the previous election now had gathered.

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Essay #7 – 1800, Thomas Jefferson Defeats John Adams: The First Peaceful Transfer of the Presidency from One Political Party to Another – John Adams’ narrow victory over Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1796 foreshadowed the contentious political environment of Adams’ sole term. The Constitution did not envision the development of political parties. There was no bipartisan mood in Washington, D.C., then, when Jefferson headed to his March 4, 1801 inauguration. He memorably said in his First Inaugural Address there would be no punishments of the defeated party’s leaders (as there had been in republican France). John Adams did not hear this vow, however: he rose early and headed back to Massachusetts without a “fare thee well.” The transfer of power was non-violent, but the anger and hurt feelings roused by the politics of John Adams’ administration kept former friends Jefferson and Adams estranged for many more years.

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Essay #8 – Election of 1800: Constitutional Implications of the Alien and Sedition Acts – A raging fever of increasingly fierce partisanship swept through the country. Despite the universal hatred of political parties as instruments of faction that would destroy the common good, Federalist and Republican parties had emerged in the 1790s because of differences over domestic and foreign policies. Newspapers at the time were generally organs of party and launched vituperative attacks on the other side generally seeing them as unpatriotic and self-interested. The idea of a legitimate opposition criticizing the policies of the other party had not yet entered the American mind. The Alien and Sedition Acts played an important and prominent role in the election of 1800. Republicans thundered against the laws and made them campaign issues. The laws seemed to confirm what they feared to be the centralizing tendencies of Federalist policies.

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Essay #9 – 1800, Electoral College Tie Between Jefferson and Burr, Throwing an Election Into the House of Representatives for the First Time – Today, having the House of Representatives elect the president seems strange. To prevent such electoral stalemate in the future, the 12th Amendment, adopted in 1804, provided for separate, distinct votes for president and vice-president. The political storm that had broken in the “Revolution of 1800” soon washed away the Federalist Party. However, unsurprisingly, factionalism survived and led within a generation to another critical presidential election decided in the House of Representatives.

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Essay #10 – 1804, Thomas Jefferson Defeats Charles Pinckney: The Significance of the 12th Amendment – The election of 1804 is markedly less significant than the “Revolution of 1800.” While the triumph of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans over John Adams and Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party is noted by Jefferson as an event that “will ameliorate the condition of man over a great portion of the globe,” 1804 failed to merit such hope for the future of humanity. It would, however, measure the ability of the new Constitution to remedy itself through the amendment process and lead us to questions on the nature of the executive branch and what representation in a republic means.

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Essay #11 – 1804, The Constitutional Significance of the Louisiana Purchase: An Election Issue – Adding the new territory—together with his elimination of all internal taxes, his reduction of the national debt, and his refutation of critics’ predictions that he would unleash in America all the excesses of the French Revolution—helped Thomas Jefferson in 1804 to secure a landslide 162-14 electoral vote victory. Even Massachusetts, the former Federalist stronghold, sided with Jefferson.

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Essay #12 – 1808, James Madison Defeats Charles Pinckney: The Embargo Act of 1807 – Tensions boiled over with the Chesapeake incident. Besides Thomas Jefferson’s mobilization for war, Congress obliged another of the president’s requests and passed the Embargo Act in the waning days of 1807. The Embargo Act prohibited all American ships from trading internationally and banned all American exports, though curiously it did not ban British imports carried by their ships. The embargo resulted in a disastrous collapse of American trade and had significant effects on American domestic politics.

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Essay #13 – James Madison Defeats Dewitt Clinton: The Wartime Election of 1812 – In the closing months of James Madison’s first term, only the sixth term since the ratification of the Constitution, war came to the United States. Great Britain pursued a hostile policy toward the United States on the high seas; ignoring the flag and seizing cargos and crews at will. This led to the Non-intercourse Act of 1809, which cut off trade with Britain (and France) until the situation improved. By 1812 the situation had become unbearable. On June 1st, Madison spoke to Congress in what would become known as his “War Message.” Madison explained the many grievances against American sovereignty, and the many diplomatic steps that had been taken to resolve the issue peacefully. This is the first time an American President has made the case for war to the American people through their representatives. It became a precedent that has been followed by every wartime President since.

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Essay #14 – 1816, James Monroe Defeats Rufus King: The Hartford Convention – In February, 1809, a serious proposal was launched to gather a convention of New England states to nullify the Embargo Act. When Thomas Jefferson and his successor, Secretary of State James Madison, denounced these efforts, the Federalists cited the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, drafted by these two eminences in 1798 in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The administration’s leaders were further shocked by a flurry of resolutions from New England towns, some of which threatened secession from the United States. In 1814, Britain extended its blockade to New England. In October of that year, Massachusetts called for a New England Convention to meet at Hartford, Connecticut, to discuss “their public grievances and concerns” and “defence against the enemy…and also to take measures if they shall think proper, for procuring a convention of delegates from all the United States, in order to revise the Constitution thereof.”

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Essay #15 – 1816, Constitutional Issues Surrounding the Second Bank of the U. S. – The debate over the national bank divided along partisan lines with the Federalists arguing the implied powers of the Constitution granted congress the authority to establish a bank. This power, they argued, was derived from the necessary and proper clause: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18. Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, and James Madison, then serving in the House of Representatives, opposed the new bank for fear it would benefit the industrial North and the investor class at the expense of the South and the population in general. They also argued that a strict construction of the Constitution gave no such power to the government but only to the states and the people as stated in the 10th Amendment. Nowhere in the Constitution was such a power explicitly given to the national government.

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Essay #16 – 1820, James Monroe Won Unopposed: The Missouri Compromise – During James Monroe’s first term, one of the topics taking center stage was slavery and what to do with new territories. Congressional leaders worked to develop what was hoped to be a legislative solution, which came to be known as the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise was an effort by the United States Congress to address slavery and create a balance between the slaveholding and free states. Congress struggled with the issue for some time. In 1819, Missouri applied for statehood. Admitting Missouri to the Union as a “slave state” would give the Southern states a numerical majority and more power in Congress. New York Representative James Tallmadge, Jr. introduced an amendment to Missouri’s statehood application, including restrictions on slavery and its eventual elimination in the state.

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Essay #17 – McCulloch v. Maryland: Not Quite a Campaign Issue? – McCulloch claimed that it was not within the power of a state to tax a congressionally-chartered instrument of the national government. Maryland sued and won in its own courts, and McCulloch appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court. On the horizon, the issue of the bank, and of the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution in McCulloch v. Maryland, would linger for years. The congressional rechartering of the bank would be vetoed once-and-for-all by Andrew Jackson in the 1830s, and the issue of federalism versus confederalism would require the Civil War for its’ settlement. Even beyond the 1860s, the McCulloch opinion would serve as the foundation of innumerable controversies over the balance of power between the national government and the states. And this issue would find expression in many subsequent presidential campaigns.

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Essay #18 – 1824, John Quincy Adams Defeats Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and William Crawford: Party Nominating Conventions and Popular Votes in Elections – The 1824 presidential election produced the infamous “Corrupt Bargain,” in which the House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams as President rather than Andrew Jackson, who finished first in the popular vote and in the Electoral College (but did not reach a majority in either). More important, however, is the fact that the 1824 election led to the creation of strong political parties and the system of national nominating conventions for the two main parties.

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Essay #19 – 1824: The Second Instance of an Election Decided in the House of Representatives – The election of 1824 dramatically and successfully demonstrated the complex constitutional mechanisms that resolved elections according to the principles of federalism in the House of Representatives when no winner emerged in the Electoral College. The historic election would also see the decline of the one-party system and subsequent rise of the Democratic and Whig Parties in upcoming elections.

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Essay #20 – 1828, Andrew Jackson Defeats John Quincy Adams: The Two-Party System – Andrew Jackson’s defeat of John Quincy Adams in the 1828 presidential election has often been heralded as the beginning of the second American party system. While historians today offer a more complicated interpretation of the two-party system that emerged in the 1820s and 1830s, the 1828 contest between Jackson and Adams was unquestionably a pivotal turning point in American political history.

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Essay #21 – 1828, Controversy Over Andrew Jackson’s War Record and the Question of Civilian Control Over the Military – The Constitution places civilian control of the military in its actual operations firmly in civilian hands—those of the President. Article II, Section 2 states, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States,” and of the militia, too. Controversy continues to this day over the question of whether it is the President or the Congress who may initiate a war, but this is a question of which civilian branch has that authority, not one of military independence. The complaints about Andrew Jackson in 1828 illustrate an important political principle, one that remains current in the United States today and in every political regime around the world, to one extent or another. Although the many, being many, outnumber the few, the few, being few, are often better organized and better positioned for self-defense than the many. That being the case, do the many not need a champion?

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Essay #22 – 1832, Andrew Jackson Defeats Henry Clay, William Wirt: Re-Chartering of the Bank of the U.S. – Chartering the Bank had been a constitutional battleground since before the adoption of the Constitution. The First Bank’s charter expired in 1811. By 1832, the constitutionality of the Second Bank of the United States was generally accepted. Andrew Jackson begged to differ. The bill landed on Jackson’s desk in early July, 1832. Old Hickory struck with his veto message. Jackson denounced the Bank as a monopoly of the “money interests” that oppressed the average person and against which the law had long protected. Jackson rejected the Supreme Court’s finding that the Bank was a federal instrumentality and could be immunized from state taxes. Instead, argued Jackson, Congress’ attempt to do so benefitted a private entity and attacked the “most essential powers reserved by the States,” something never imagined by the Framers. The Bank struck back, tightening credit and triggering a brief recession. That maneuver backfired. Despite occasional efforts, no successor emerged to the Bank until the Federal Reserve System was created in 1913.

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Essay #23 – 1832: The Anti-Masonic Controversy – The Anti-Masonic party became the main opposition party in New York and the first “third party” in United States politics. The Anti-Masonic Party held the first national nominating convention in American history when it gathered from September 26 through September 28, 1831, in Baltimore, Maryland. Andrew Jackson easily won re-election, securing the majority of the popular vote for the second time. Jackson also easily won the electoral college with 219 of the 286 votes. While William Wirt only picked up seven electoral college votes, the Anti-Masonic Party’s emergence as a third party raised constitutional questions of ways in which a third party could throw the presidential election into the House of Representatives by winning a key state or two.

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Essay #24 – 1836, Martin Van Buren Defeats William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster, Hugh White: The Unusual Practice of Running Three Candidates by One Party (The Whigs) in Different Parts of the Country – Andrew Jackson’s popularity was not enough to insulate him from the backlash of his efforts to steer federal funds to favored state banks and dismantle the Bank of the United States. By the mid-1830s the Whig party, as the opposition came to be known, was able to battle the Democratic party on almost equal terms throughout the country. The issues were different in all parts of the country. Fragmented and unable to agree, the Whigs ran three regional candidates against Martin Van Buren. The Whig party strategy was to throw the election into the House of Representatives where the Whigs would then unite behind a single candidate.

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Essay #25 – 1836: The Tariff Issue and the Constitution – The tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 created great resistance in the South, with South Carolina most vocal in its discontent. Displeased with what the state considered inadequate tariff reductions in the Act of 1832, South Carolina called a state convention where it adopted the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 null and void within South Carolina after February 1, 1833. The Ordinance asserted that the tariff acts were unconstitutional and as a result, South Carolina was not bound by them. As the “Nullification Crisis” continued, South Carolina began military preparations to defend against any Federal attack against the state and threatened secession from the Union.

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Essay #26 – 1840, William Henry Harrison Defeats Martin Van Buren: The Appeal of Running Military Heroes for President and the Issue of Generalship as a Qualification for Executive Office – George Washington, probably the most admired man in America, wielded power, but did not cling to it. He was virtuous enough to lay down his sword and go home to Mt. Vernon and not jump at the chance to be “King George.” The idea that Presidential candidates should have military experience is deeply rooted in American Society. Early in the country’s history, Americans fought to claim a continent both from native inhabitants and foreign powers that sought after its riches. Voters felt connected to those who shared combat experience and respected those who served. With twelve United States Presidents having served as generals and still others making their name in uniform, excellence in service was a way to demonstrate leadership.

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Essay #27 – 1841: The Presidency of John Tyler – John Tyler has been controversial among scholars. Some have characterized him as a principled, states’ rights constitutionalist. Others have described him as an ineffectual political opportunist. Tyler’s construction to the Constitution, which made him president rather than acting president; his exercise of the veto for nonconstitutional reasons; and the incorporation of Texas without a treaty were not examples of “strict construction,” in the sense of narrow construction. At least the first two, however, reflected the Framers’ view as expressed in the Federalist Papers. On constitutional and policy grounds, Tyler used the veto to protect state interests in an effort to defuse secessionism. Tyler’s respect for the Constitution’s doctrine of limited powers required a strong presidency. His presidency confirmed the observation of Federalist No. 51 that the interests of the man will defend the office.

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Essay #28 – 1844, James K. Polk Defeats Henry Clay, James Birney: Texas Annexation as It Related to the Issue of Slavery – Texas declared its independence from the Republic of Mexico in 1836. A large majority of Texans favored annexation by the United States, but both Whig and Democrat leaders were reluctant to bring Texas into the difficult political climate surrounding the question of slavery. Despite the widely different views on westward expansion and the annexation of Texas, the presidential election was an extremely close one, with Henry Clay winning the Northeast and border South, while James K. Polk won in the Southern States. Polk received 49.5 percent of the popular vote and 170 of the 275 Electoral College votes.

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Essay #29 – 1844: The Issue of Oregon Territorial Boundary – In the early 1840s, thousands of settlers from the Midwest traveled to Independence, Missouri, where they loaded hundreds of pounds of food, tools, and supplies on their oxen-drawn wagons. They launched an epic overland trek 2,000 miles to the Oregon Territory and braved its dangers in order to participate in the fur trade in earlier decades, but now mostly for farm land. The individual decisions of these ordinary Americans in search of opportunity in the West would have implications for international affairs and the election of 1844.

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Essay #30 – 1848, Zachary Taylor Defeats Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass: Popular Sovereignty in the Territories, Cass’s Issue That Would Affect U.S. Constitutional Politics for the Next Decade – The Missouri Compromise of 1820, it has been said often, delayed the Civil War for a generation. The act could not, however, eliminate the reality of slavery and the inherent contradiction of such an institution existing in a society founded on the idea of freedom. The Compromise had loaded the dice in favor of at least a gradual erosion of the slave states’ power, thereby also virtually guaranteeing a serious clash, if those states eventually found themselves in an existential political trap.

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Essay #31 – Election of 1848: Abolitionism and the Constitution – The 1848 election highlighted the deep divide in the nation on the issue of slavery. Shortly after the election, Senate Majority Leader Henry Clay came up with the Compromise of 1850, one final attempt to keep the nation united. The issue of slavery helped shape the outcome of the 1848 Presidential Election. The next twelve years would see increased threats of secession and great debates on the question of slavery. That question would not be decided for another 17 years, after the significant bloodshed and loss of lives of the Civil War.

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Essay #32 – 1852, Franklin Pierce Defeats Winfield Scott, John Pitale: The Controversy over the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 – The question of slavery continued to shape Presidential elections in 1852, with Franklin Pierce’s views on accepting and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act and Compromise resulting in his large margin of victory and inauguration as the 14th President. Pierce served only one term and, like his predecessor, was rejected for renomination by his political party, in part due to his views on the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Slavery would continue to divide the nation, leading up to eventual secession and the Civil War.

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Essay #33 – 1856, James Buchanan Defeats Millard Fillmore, John C. Fremont: The Kansas-Nebraska Act – The country was close to dissolution. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was the overriding issue of the campaign. Republicans vehemently opposed the act with the slogan “Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Frémont and victory!” Republicans argued that if the Missouri Compromise could be ignored, the Kansas/Nebraska Act could be ignored as well. Democrats, on the other hand, steadfastly supported the act. They argued James Buchanan could hold the Union together.

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Essay #34 – 1856: The Rise of the Republican Party – On February 23, 1854, in response to the controversy over the looming adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a meeting was held in Ripon, Wisconsin. The purpose was to consider political means to oppose the extension of slavery. The meeting resolved that a new, “Republican” party be formed. Similar meetings were held in other Midwestern states throughout the year. The 1856 presidential election winner, James Buchanan, received 1,836,000 votes and carried 19 states with 174 electoral votes. A purely sectional result was avoided because Buchanan carried 5 non-slave states, with 62 electoral votes. The next election would have no such electoral fig leaf to hide the corrosive sectionalism that had eaten away the country’s foundation.

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Essay #35 – 1860, Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address and Mathew Brady’s Lincoln Photo: The Making of the President – Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential campaign, yet on a national level, he had served only a single term in the House of Representatives. He had gained renown from his famed debates with Senator Stephen Douglas, but remained a minor political figure. How did he make himself a viable candidate? He pulled off this feat in a single day—Monday, February 27, 1860. In the evening, he would address New York Republicans at Cooper Union. This was part of a debate series sponsored by the Young Men’s Republican Union. Instead of resting that afternoon, Lincoln made an appointment with Mathew Brady. Lincoln wore a new black suit, new shoes, and a new top hat to the photography session. Brady still faced a challenge, however.

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Essay #36 – 1860, Abraham Lincoln Defeats Stephen Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, John Bell: Constitutional Issues Surrounding Secessionism and “The Crisis of the House Divided” – The election of 1860 would polarize the nation and challenge the durability of the Constitution. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia established a new government for the United States of America. For over seventy years, the country had fought fierce political battles over slavery and federalism. Compromises, pacts, and informal precedents managed to hold the country together. This still-young nation would soon become engulfed in a savage civil war that would eventually complete the work begun in 1787. As 1860 dawned, old quarrels over slavery put extraordinary pressure on the increasingly shaky union.

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Essay #37 – 1860, Stephen Douglas’ Understanding of the Constitution – Stephen A. Douglas, deathbed instructions for his sons, June 3, 1861. Stephen Douglas’ instruction to his sons to uphold the Constitution should have been quite clear. He had spent three decades in public life, including 18 years in the United States Congress. He had given hundreds if not thousands of speeches on the critical constitutional issues of his day: organization and admission of new states and the regulation of slavery in territories purchased from France and won in war with Mexico. Stephen Douglas had once argued that Popular Sovereignty was a constitutional fix for the country’s problems. He would later argue Popular Sovereignty could undo the effect of a Supreme Court decision. His actions through his career were clearly steered by the chance conditions of the moment, rather than by fixed principles. The same can be said about his constitutional thought.

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Essay #38 – 1860, John C. Breckinridge’s Understanding of the Constitution – John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky entered the year 1860 as Vice President, having been elected to that office in 1856 as a Democrat from the Stephen Douglas wing of the party. The Southern Democrats at their convention nominated John C. Breckinridge for president and Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon as vice-president, and adopted the Southern platform rejected in Charleston. Breckinridge was an ardent supporter of “popular sovereignty.” While in the House of Representatives, he had worked with his friend Senator Stephen Douglas to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. After he lost the election, Breckinridge supported last ditch efforts to avoid secession. He, like Jefferson Davis, unsuccessfully labored to douse the secessionist fires that both had fanned before and during the election. Their efforts to contain forces they had helped unleash proved as unavailing as John Bell’s effort to ignore those forces altogether.

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Essay #39 – 1860, John Bell’s Understanding of the Constitution – John Bell became a strong advocate for Tennessee to become part of the Confederacy, defecting from the Unionist views he had advanced for years leading up to the election. Bell’s defection shocked many who knew him, and was attributed to his panic over the prospect of President Abraham Lincoln and the Union taking over Tennessee. On June 8, 1861, shortly after the Battle of Fort Sumter, Tennessee seceded from the Union. Bell soon retired from public life. The intentional silence on the question of slavery by the Constitutional Union Party was not likely to be a solution to the strife and threats of secession brewing at the time.

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Essay #40 – 1860, Abraham Lincoln’s Understanding of the Constitution (Part 1): Its Relation to the Declaration of Independence – Abraham Lincoln’s understanding a free society cannot be constructed if Thomas Jefferson’s postulates of equality and inalienable right are denied. Lincoln’s political life is defined in large part by Lincoln’s recognition that of all institutions, the institution of chattel slavery – the status of a person as property – is most violently at odds with the principle of individual human equality set forth in the Declaration. Lincoln maintained throughout his political career that the Constitution was anti-slavery and that the Constitution’s provisions protecting slavery were compromises with the institution of slavery for the sake of union, made with a view towards the eventual eradication of slavery.

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Essay #41 – 1860, Abraham Lincoln’s Understanding of the Constitution (Part 2): The Importance of the Union – After almost ten months of silence, Abraham Lincoln’s critical 1861 inaugural address was much anticipated. In the face of the secession crisis, the new president’s view of the constitutional nature of the Union needed to be clearly stated. Given that slavery was tearing the country apart, Lincoln initially addressed both his understanding of his constitutional authority and his intent. In Lincoln’s view of the Constitution and the Union, neither Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, nor Texas had left the Union. In the balance of his address, Lincoln struck a conciliatory tone, speaking of bonds, history, heritage and the practical aspects of sharing the continent. Lincoln saw any effort to destroy the Union as a treasonable offense worthy of the death penalty.

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Essay #42 – 1864, Abraham Lincoln Defeats George McClellan: Constitutional Issues Raised by Lincoln’s Conduct of the War – Abraham Lincoln was the Republican incumbent in 1864. His election in 1860 was followed by Southern secession by a number of states before he was sworn in as President. Shortly after his first inauguration, the Civil War commenced with the attack on Fort Sumter. Lincoln declared martial law and suspended the right to writs of habeas corpus. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his now famous Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, setting free all slaves in Confederate states. Many questioned the constitutional authority of a President to issue such a proclamation; Lincoln asserted that it was within his authority as a “war power.”

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Essay #43 – 1864, Holding a Presidential Election During a Civil War – Abraham Lincoln relied heavily on his presidential oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” as well as authority broadly implied from his own constitutional powers as chief executive and commander in chief. That noted, Congress approved Lincoln’s actions in the overall conduct of the war and in promoting internal security and order by adopting various laws to authorize (in many cases retroactively) the President’s actions. The election of 1864 was a verdict on Lincoln’s war and security policies judged in light of the progress made on the ground against the Confederate States’ military.

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Essay #44 – Civil War Amendments – In the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Congress sought to enshrine the Emancipation Proclamation. The intent was to eliminate possible future challenges to the end of slavery in the Union. In a tense vote in the House on January 31, 1865, sixteen Democrats broke party lines to join Republicans in passing the 13th Amendment. In 1868, Congress sought to protect the rights of former slaves and passed the 14th Amendment, Of all the Reconstruction Amendments, the 14th is perhaps the most significant to jurisprudence today, and the most hotly contested. The 15th Amendment reads about as straightforward as the 13th, and like the previous two amendments, entailed a bitter ratification fight, particularly in the South. It enshrined the right to vote for all persons, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

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Essay #45 – 1868, Ulysses S. Grant Defeats Horatio Seymour: Reconstruction and the Constitution – Victorious in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant and the Republican Party could no longer be coerced by southern threats of secession to obey southern wishes. On the campaign stump Republicans waved “the bloody shirt” of the fallen to persuade the American people to vote against false constitutional doctrines of antebellum southern leaders, and to vote for the man who intended to press on with Reconstruction. The American people responded and voted for their hero over Horatio Seymour. Amidst the terrible difficulties in Washington D.C., Grant took up his duties as President of the United States.

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Essay #46 – 1868, Constitutional Issues Surrounding Black Suffrage – A cardinal principle in the American theory of republican government, the type of government that the Americans wanted to establish in 1776, is that the people are sovereign by natural right. Related to this principle is another, that each of the sovereign people must be equal before the law inasmuch as they are equal by nature. That is, if the law limits liberty in any fashion, the disability must fall on all alike. The principles of republican government forbid the law from disabling or privileging one class of citizens separate from another.

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Essay #47 – 1872, Ulysses S. Grant Defeats Horace Greeley: The Continuing Controversies over Reconstruction – The Civil War, 1861-1865, was an inter-regime war, and the final act of a long dramatic political conflict between the principled republicanism of the American Founders and the principled, revolutionary oligarchy of antebellum southern statesmen. In its aftermath, the American government attempted the most difficult task in human affairs, regime change. They aimed at politically destroying southern oligarchy and to re-establish republicanism on the restored principles of the Declaration of Independence. The American Founders say that not only was slavery wrong but it threatened the survival of their grand project, the firm establishment of republicanism.

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Essay #48 – 1872, Civil Service Reform – Financial corruption is a direct enemy and threat to republicanism. That is because when an officer of the government is suborned by gift or gain, he or she is representing the policy aims of the giver of gain, and not the people for whom his or her service is due. The regular appearance of remarks on financial corruption in the proceedings of Congress in the Nineteenth Century might seem to indicate that American Government always was susceptible to the highest bidder. Rather, these comments are markers of Americans’ strong dislike and fear of corruption than they are proof that financial corruption was in fact eating the roots of their republicanism. The Americans had good reason to regard financial corruption in their government as an unmitigated evil, and so they loudly denounced it when they espied it, and publicly shamed, if not impeached, corrupt politicians upon discovery.

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Essay #49 – 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes Defeats Samuel Tilden: The End of Reconstruction – We remember 1865 as the year when our Civil War ended. But by another measure, the standard of von Clausewitz, that war is politics continued by other means, the political conflict that erupted into formal war did not end until after Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president in 1877. The period known as Reconstruction after the war continued that political conflict and was also violent, though the combatants were paramilitaries and its wars were not wars of maneuver with grand armies.

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Essay #50 – 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes v. Samuel Tilden: Controversy over Election Returns in This Election – Not long after the Civil War began, the poet Julia Ward Howe witnessed a procession of Union troops near Washington, D.C. Later that night, words stirred her from her sleep; she arose and caught them on paper. The lines of the Battle Hymn of the Republic that Howe penned that night alerted the hearer that God’s retributive justice had awakened, as Thomas Jefferson predicted (“his justice cannot sleep forever”), and at that moment, was moving upon the earth. The total number of undisputed electoral votes was 184 for Tilden and 165 for Hayes. The disputed electoral votes were 20. The Constitution provided no roadmap to deal with the problem. To complicate matters, the House of Representatives was in the hands of Democrats, and Republicans controlled the Senate. The nation was once again in uncharted waters. The disputed election led to incendiary talk.

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Essay #51 – 1880, James Garfield Defeats Winfield Scott Hancock: The Tariff Controversy, Post-Civil War – The election of 1880 was a snapshot of the American political landscape as it existed in the wake of the Civil War. Two of the major issues of the campaign, tariffs and currency, could trace their origins directly to the Civil War. The results showed the continued stark regional divide between north and south. Powerful political machines battled for control of high political office and continued to grapple with the aftereffects of policies passed during the war. The country had concluded the great struggle over its identity, but what it would do with its newfound peace was still being worked out. With the election of James Garfield, many hoped that the country would make strides toward resolving the conflicts. Unfortunately, their hopes would be dashed in just four short months following the election.

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Essay #52 – 1884, Grover Cleveland Defeats James G. Blaine: The Issues Surrounding the Furor Stirred by the “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion” Slogan, Regarding Religious Freedom and Anti-Catholic Prejudice – Whether the separation of church and state argument will continue to hold where public education is concerned is not clear. What is clear is that his support of it more than 100 years ago made James G. Blaine a hero of sorts to Protestants fearful of the changes the influx of largely Catholic immigrants from Europe might bring to America who, as a result, rallied to the Republicans’ side. To those potentially affected adversely by these measures, however, it branded Blaine as anti-Catholic. The inability of politicians to decide on the meaning of the 1st Amendment’s “establishment” and “free exercise” clauses as well as their ability or inability to enact laws that help immigrants assimilate into the national culture are constitutional questions that were issues in 1884 and are still with us today.

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Essay #53 – 1888, Benjamin Harrison Defeats Grover Cleveland: The Constitutional Issues Raised by Cleveland’s Veto of Pension Legislation for Veterans – Grover Cleveland’s war against government waste was best summarized by one pension veto: “I believe this claim for pension to be a fraud from beginning to end. . . .” Cleveland’s veto message emphasized the already voluminous number of fraudulent pension bills that crossed his desk on a weekly basis. He believed that no wounded veteran who had suffered from valiant efforts in defense of the Union would approve of a bill that placed his efforts on the same plane with the behavior of shirkers and deserters.

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Essay #54 – Grover Cleveland: Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth President of the United States – Grover Cleveland was the twenty-second and the twenty-fourth president of the United States, and the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. His first term began in 1885 and ended in 1889, during which he worked to balance federal spending. In his second term, from 1893 to 1897, Cleveland struggled to restore the American economy after the Panic of 1893. As the first Democrat to win the presidency in twenty-four years, Cleveland remained true to his Democratic platform by representing the concerns of workers and the rights of laborers.

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Essay #55 – William McKinley: Twenty-Fifth President of the United States – William McKinley was the twenty-fifth president of the United States. He served two terms in office, during which he oversaw the beginning and conclusion of the Spanish-American War and worked to resolve the bimetallism issue in America at the time. His second term was cut short when he was assassinated just over seven months into his term in office. During his time in Congress, two major issues arose: bimetallism and the raising/lowering of tariffs. McKinley wanted to raise tariffs to protect businesses. Election of 1896: McKinley notably switched his views to match the party he represented in the election: instead of favoring bimetallism, McKinley favored the gold standard. This flip led many businesses to support the Republican candidate.

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Essay #56 – 1896, William McKinley Defeats William Jennings Bryan: The Gold Standard vs. Bimetallism – America’s politics leading into the 1896 election looks familiar. The political system was broken: In five presidential elections, no one received 50 percent and for 20 of 24 years, America had divided government and gridlock in which little got done. The animosity between the parties was beyond normal partisanship: they were still fighting the Civil War. The 1896 campaign was fought over whether America would have a gold-based currency like major European powers or a bimetallic standard of gold and silver currency, maintained at the ratio of 16 units of silver for each unit of gold. William McKinley won the votes of industrial workers in factories, smelters, mills and mines throughout the North and Border states, becoming the first president since Grant in 1872 to win more than 50 percent.

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Essay #57 – 1904, Theodore Roosevelt Defeats Alton Parker: Anti-Trust Legislation – The candidates who squared off in the presidential election of 1904, Republican President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and Democrat Alton Parker, were both native to New York State; beyond that one commonality, they were a study in contrasts. Once in office, Roosevelt turned his prodigious intellect to the issues of moment – labor strife and the growing power of “trusts,” the interconnected corporate conglomerates controlled by tycoons who wielded power to set exorbitant rates in key industries such as transportation, oil and steel. Popular sentiment against the trusts was high. Roosevelt started with the railroads because they were emblematic of Congress’s constitutional power to “regulate commerce… among the several states.”

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Essay #58 – 1904 and 1908 Elections: Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” vs. William Jennings Bryan’s Populism – After the Civil War, as American society began to quickly evolve from agrarian to industrial, politicians from both major parties raised concerns about the rise of corporations, banks, and businesses, and the need for protection of the individual. Shortly after taking office, Roosevelt introduced his domestic policy, the “Square Deal,” a pledge that no group would be favored but that all would be treated fairly by the President and his administration. Populism was developed in the late 1800s by farmers and agrarian interests who believed industrialists, including bankers, were forming policies and protecting business interests at the expense of farmers. Populism sought to address these inequities by changing the economic system. Progressivism emerged at the dawn of the 1900s and was a political movement objecting to perceived slights to the middle class by the rich. Populism focused on changes to the economic system, while progressivism was focused on changing the political system.

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Essay #59 – 1908, William Howard Taft Defeats William Jennings Bryan – The 1908 Presidential election featured the incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt following through on his promise to not seek a third term and encouraging the Republicans to nominate Secretary of War William Howard Taft. While a number of third party candidates ran against Taft, the only non-Republican candidate who garnered any significant votes was the Democratic nominee, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan served two terms as a Representative. Bryan first ran for President in the 1896 presidential election and ran again in 1900. 1908 was his third nomination for President by the Democratic Party. Taft’s constitutional legacy is in his nominations of six Justices to the Supreme Court and, more importantly, becoming the first and only former President to serve as Chief Justice (or any Justice) of the Supreme Court.

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Essay #60 – Progressivism and Its Theory of Constitutionalism – In The Federalist No. 47 James Madison asserted that “accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Indeed, the importance of the separation of powers was so widely accepted by the American public in 1788 that Madison could confidently declare it to be “the sacred maxim of free government.” But progressives held that there were no fixed truths—certainly no objective or unchanging standards of right to guide politics—and that all truth claims are contingent, merely personal “values” relative to other equally valid claims. Where the Founders went to great lengths to moderate democracy and limit government, the progressives believed that barriers to change had to be removed or circumvented to speed popular change and grow government. The rise of this so-called modern administrative state has fundamentally changed the idea of self-government in America.

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Essay #61 – 1912, Woodrow Wilson Defeats William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Eugene Debs: Woodrow Wilson’s “New Freedom” – Woodrow Wilson rejected the immutable, fixed principles of the Constitution and the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence. He believed that constitutional principles might have worked for the founding generation, but the modern age had challenges that made them obsolete and irrelevant. Moreover, constitutional devices that limited the power of government and tyranny such as checks and balances and separation of powers frustrated the ability especially of the executive to act for the good of the people. Wilson’s “Living Constitution” political philosophy was rooted in Darwinian science. Wilson’s presidency would clarify the ambiguities of the New Freedom. President Wilson’s progressivism would institute a larger federal government with vastly increased executive power. The creation of the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve were just a few examples of a greatly expanded state that would in turn be dwarfed by the warfare state introduced during World War I.

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Essay #62 – 1912,  Theodore Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” – William Howard Taft wanted no part of the rising Progressive movement in American politics. By 1910, Theodore Roosevelt did, for reasons that remain controversial. The Progressives put moral and political thought on foundation profoundly different from that of the American founders. Progressives rejected the founders’ thought. They replaced the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God with what they believed to be the laws of History. That is, they derived moral and political right not from an understanding of the nature of human beings. Roosevelt’s New Nationalism consists in part of increased centralization of government. By 1912 his re-conception would be complete, the rock upon which the Republican Party would split. This enabled the Democratic Party—now also firmly committed to its own brand of Progressivism as embodied by its candidate, Woodrow Wilson—to win the first of a series of electoral victories inspired by reformist novelties, including Wilson’s New Freedom, FDR’s New Deal, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Eventually, the regime designed by the founders would find itself much diminished, and the moral basis of that regime, animated by the (once) self-evident truths of the Declaration, would be obscured.

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Essay #63 – 1912, Eugene Debs’ Socialism and the U.S. Constitution – More militant than the American Progressives were the Socialists, led by Eugene V. Debs in their political manifestation as the Socialist Party. Debs, a former steam locomotive fireman, had come to prominence in 1894 as the leader of the American Railway Union during the union’s support of the striking Pullman Company workers. The strike was broken in part by President Grover Cleveland’s decision to send in troops to guard the trains after Debs’ union defied a court injunction against obstructing the railroads and the delivery of the mail. Debs served a term in jail for contempt of court, where he immersed himself on his time and on the taxpayers’ dollar in the writings of Karl Marx and various socialists. These legislative initiatives played into the hands of those elements of society who saw the courts and the traditional Constitution as an obstacle not just to be overcome, but to be replaced, on the journey to their “just society.”

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Essay #64 – 1916, Woodrow Wilson Defeats Charles Evans Hughes – The 1916 Presidential election pitted incumbent Democratic President Woodrow Wilson against Republican Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes. The election was a very close one and had significant ramifications for the “progressive” movement. The election was one of the closest in American presidential history. The nation waited for several days for the western states to report final results. When the dust had settled, Wilson had won the Electoral College, 277-254, and won 30 of the 48 states. At the time, 266 electoral votes were needed to win; had Hughes carried California with its 13 electoral votes, he would have been elected. Wilson became only the second president in our history to win re-election with a lower electoral percentage than his initial victory. The 1916 election had no direct impact on the United States Constitution, but did mark the emergence of the progressives in the political landscape. However, Hughes’ defeat would eventually have consequences for the judicial branch.

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Essay #65 – Warren G. Harding: Twenty-Ninth President of the United States – Warren Harding’s presidency ushered in the period known as the Roaring Twenties because of the boom in economic growth, relatively peaceful foreign relations, and the generally excited mood of the American people. As his first act as president, Harding reversed many of the antibusiness regulations Wilson had placed on various corporations, leading to a new vitality in American enterprise. This was a part of Harding’s “America First” plan, which included five main points: (1) tariffs on imports would be raised; (2) immigration would be restricted; (3) the Budget Accounting Act would create a strict federal budget that would end in surplus; (4) taxes on businesses would be lowered; and (5) federal expenditures would be cut to rates lower than prewar levels.

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Essay #66 – 1920: The Sedition Act and Eugene Debs: Raising of the Issue of the “Red Scare” – In 1900, Eugene Debs ran for President on the Social Democracy of America ticket, but only received 0.6 percent of the popular vote and no electoral votes. In June 1918, a month after passage of the Sedition Act, Debs gave an anti-war speech in Ohio and was arrested and charged with ten counts of sedition. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes cited to Schenck v. United States(1919), a case in which Charles Schenck, a Socialist, was convicted under the Espionage Act under nearly identical circumstances. The ruling in Schenck is famous for the “clear and present danger test.” The initial “Red Scare” had commenced. Based on fears of a Bolshevik Revolution in the United States, and with the enforcement power of the Sedition Act and Espionage Act, the nation attempted to prevent the rise of socialism and communism. Debs went to prison on April 13, 1919, following the Supreme Court’s affirmance of his conviction. While incarcerated in Georgia, Debs ran for President in 1920.

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Essay #67 – 1924, Calvin Coolidge Defeats Robert M. Lafollette, Burton K. Wheeler (Progressive Party), and John W. Davis: The Direct Election of Presidents – Calvin Coolidge won the general election handily. The real legacy of the 1924 election is twofold. First, it helped to advance the conservative policies of Calvin Coolidge, who continued to press forward with spending reductions, tax cuts, and reductions to the national deficit. Coolidge remains to this day a hero to many conservatives because he was the most successful conservative president – who most successfully advanced a conservative agenda – of the last century. Ronald Reagan had a deep appreciation for Coolidge and hung his portrait in the Cabinet Room of the White House – an important gesture. Second, the 1924 election had a dramatic effect on the Democratic Party. Prior to 1924 the Democratic Party was typically defined in old, historical terms: as the party of secession, states’ rights, and the only party in the South. Progressives in the North, Midwest, and Plains states could not migrate to such a party. The Democrats were deeply divided in 1924.

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Essay #68 – Women’s Suffrage and the Impact on Presidential Elections – On June 4, 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which secured women’s right to vote. States ratified the Amendment in August 1920. Although women were not guaranteed this right until the passage of the 19th Amendment, some states recognized this right for women well before 1920. The United States is founded on the principle that all men are created equal. Americans—both male and female—have the opportunity and the responsibility to uphold these principles by participating in government, including Presidential elections. This is not only done on Election Day, but also by participating as an active citizen in numerous other ways.

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Essay #69 – Herbert Hoover: Thirty-First President of the United States – Herbert Hoover was born August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa to his parents, Jesse Clark and Hulda Randall Minthorn Hoover. He died October 20, 1964, in New York City, New York at the age of 90. Hoover served one term, during which he struggled to combat the Great Depression that began the first year he was in office. Herbert Hoover worked hard his entire life – a trait that stemmed from his turbulent and tragic childhood. He expected others to do the same but also cared for those around him. Often shy in crowds, he never liked public speaking but was a natural leader nonetheless.

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Essay #70 – 1928: The Effects of Urbanization on the U.S. and Its Implications for Constitutional Government – Contrast the national consensus of 1928 with 1876. America in 1876 was organized around small communities. This local mindset formed the national consensus, which universally rejected federal government activism. The enthrallment for urbanization and the nationalization of America shattered the intimacy of rural communities and urban neighborhoods. Urban political machines served as interim mechanisms to translate neighborhood culture into metropolitan-wide operations. This came at the price of corruption. The complexity, scope, and pace of challenges were reaching a breaking point. Business leaders also saw the benefits of adequate, predictable, urban services and infrastructure. Concerns about a slippery slope to Socialism or Communism were not voiced as every step forward was framed in terms of management, professionalism, honesty, the rule of law, and industrial innovation. Calvin Coolidge worried about his counter revolution in the hands of Herbert Hoover. The Republican platform of 1928 proved his worst fears.

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Essay #71 – 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt Defeats Herbert Hoover: How the Great Depression Threatened Constitutionalism – The 1932 Presidential election took place during the height of the Great Depression. The main fight for the White House featured the incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt promised the convention delegates, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” Hoover implemented a number of public works programs to address the Great Depression, but the unemployment rate rose to almost 25 percent; the stock market had collapsed. Critics of Roosevelt asserted that the New Deal was an encroachment on private property rights and greatly expanded the welfare state. Americans feared that many of the New Deal initiatives would be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The strong initiatives implemented by the Roosevelt administration to address the impact of the Great Depression were in jeopardy, pitting the Executive Branch against the Judicial Branch.

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Essay #72 – 1932: The “New Deal” – In his inaugural address, FDR laid out his vision for building a regulatory state. Congress complied with several programs in the First New Deal. A Second New Deal took shape in 1935 and 1936. FDR and the Democrats proudly enunciated the New Deal governing philosophy in the 1936 election. They frequently attacked business owners and bankers as “economic royalists,” “plutocrats,” and “malefactors of great wealth.” The New Deal did little to stimulate economic recovery but resulted in a legacy of a modern welfare state. The New Deal was an unprecedented amount of federal spending and regulation of the economy that was expanded in the decades after World War II. The constitutional principles of separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and limited government were all altered by a Living Constitution philosophy that asserted that constitutional government should be adapted to current circumstances. Therefore, the New Deal had profound political and constitutional implications for the twentieth century.

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Essay #73 – 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt Defeats Alfred Landon: Administrative Centralization and Its Implications for Constitutionalism – The constitutional flaws of the bureaucratic state arise out of the functional separation of powers and the protection of rights established in the Constitution. Under that charter, the people have delegated their law-making power to the Congress. At least theoretically, Congress may only legislate towards expressly delegated objectives, either directly or as is necessary and proper to accomplish them. The New Deal produced a tremendous increase in governmental power, both for the federal government as a whole at the expense of the states and the private citizen, and to the executive branch and the administrative bureaucracy at the expense of legislative authority. It definitively supplanted the decentralized classic liberalism of the received constitutional order with the regulatory welfare state and its still-expanding administrative bureaucracy controlled by a self-regarding elite leading the masses.

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Essay #74 – 1936, Supreme Court Opposition to New Deal Laws – President Franklin D. Roosevelt pursued an attack on the Supreme Court that was as audacious as it was unprecedented. While critics called the plan “court-packing,” his proposal would allow him to remake the federal judiciary into a rubber stamp adjunct of his administration. The plan would allow him to appoint up to 6 new Supreme Court justices and 44 new judges in the federal circuits and lower courts. If Congress wanted to regulate, subsidize or ban activity, the Courts required Congress and the President to identify which granted power they were exercising and if they couldn’t the laws would likely be held unconstitutional. This proved particularly a challenge to President Roosevelt who used America’s severe economic downturn to unleash federal authority in ways unheard of by our Founders.

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Essay #75 – 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Unprecedented Run for a Third Term – On November 5, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first and only U.S. president to be elected for more than two terms. The Founders chose not to include term limits in the Constitution. The decision to reject term limits came about after excruciating debate at the convention in Philadelphia. If the people had “good sense enough to receive a good Government” as James Wilson put it, should they not also be trusted to have the good sense to decide when to throw a leader out of office? Roger Sherman made a similar claim against what he called the “doctrine of rotation.” Why should the people be forced to throw out of office the men “best qualifyed to execute its duties”?

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Essay #76 – 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt Defeats Thomas Dewey: Constitutional Implications of Roosevelt’s Liberal Internationalism, United Nations – In his 1944 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a “Second Bill of Rights” that redefined the rights of the founding bill of rights. This radical pronouncement promised economic security and “positive rights” guaranteed by the federal government. The Dumbarton Oaks Conference drew up a plan for the United Nations which committed the United States to maintaining world security and peace. FDR argued that the United States had failed to fulfill this obligation after World War I by refusing to join the League of Nations.

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Essay #77 – 1948, Harry Truman Defeats Thomas Dewey, Strom Thurmond (“Dixiecrat”), Henry Wallace (Progressive Party): “States’ Rights” and Civil Rights Issues Raised by Dixiecrats – Although the Republican Party of 1948 had papered over its divisions between moderate-to-liberal business interests on the East Coast—represented by New York Governor Thomas Dewey—and Middle-Western conservatives—represented by Robert Taft and, behind him, Herbert Hoover—Democrats split bitterly into three groups. The mainstream of the party nominated President Harry Truman; the left wing (which included democratic socialists and some communists) ran Henry Wallace on the ticket of the Progressive Party; and the segregationist, southern Democrats ran South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond on the ticket of the States’ Rights Democratic Party or “Dixiecrats.” In one of the most famous upsets in American political history, Truman overcame his party’s fracturing and defeated Dewey, although the Dixiecrats won the combined 38 electoral votes of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina. The Progressives failed to win a single electoral vote.

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Essay #78 – 1948, Harry Truman: The Atomic Bomb, Cold War, Marshall Plan and the Fair Deal, and Civil Rights Reform – Harry S. Truman was the thirty-third President of the United States. His terms in office were from 1945-1949 and 1949-1953 for the Democrat Party. Harry Truman assumed the presidency in 1945 after the death of Franklin Roosevelt. As president, he oversaw the conclusion of both the European and the Pacific front in World War II. Truman won a surprise second term, during which time he worked to stabilize the American economy to prevent a second depression. Since the adoption of the Truman Doctrine, trillions of dollars have been sent overseas to countries requesting American aid in their fight against communist regimes and dictatorships.

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Essay #79 – 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower Defeats Adlai Stevenson: Communism and Civil Liberties – The election of 1952 brought about the first GOP presidential victory in more than 20 years. It came about while many in America were weary from World War II, and very apprehensive about the potential for subversion by the Soviet Union and its radical Marxist ideology. The House of Representatives convened a special committee after the mid-term elections of 1946 called the House Committee on Un-American Activities. It was clear to most Americans heading into the election of 1952 that there was indeed a real and grave threat posed by the Soviet Union and her Marxist supporters here and abroad. It was this backdrop that influenced the 1952 presidential campaign. Dwight Eisenhower successfully used a three-pronged campaign, attacking “Korea, Communism, and Corruption”— as failures of the outgoing Harry Truman administration. The Supreme Court, the newly elected president and (importantly by selecting Eisenhower), the American people all converged on a view that an aggressive effort to thwart Marxist-Leninism at home and abroad was a fundamental responsibility.

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Essay #80 – A Memorial Day Message by Constituting America Founder and Co-Chair Janine Turner – Constituting America first published this message from Founder & Co-Chair Janine Turner over Memorial Day Weekend, 2010, the inaugural year of our organization. We are pleased to share it with you again, as we celebrate our 6th birthday! 

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Essay #81 – 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower Defeats Adlai Stevenson – The years leading up to the 1956 election saw the Dwight Eisenhower administration embroiled in a world vastly different from the one in which the Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations were forced to defend the United States. Eisenhower received 57 percent of the vote with a large majority of Americans supporting Eisenhower’s foreign policy. Despite being handily defeated, Adlai Stevenson would go on to serve as ambassador to the United Nations and a voice for a progressive domestic agenda in the United States. This is a far cry from the vision of the office held by James Madison, or Thomas Jefferson, and anathema to any proponents of a limited government, or, arguably, a government of laws, not of men. Jefferson in his July 12, 1801 Letter to the New Haven Merchants, contends that one of the greatest and most difficult tasks of the executive is not Stevenson’s imagined duty to impel the American people to nobility, rather, it is the appointment of capable public servants.

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Essay #82 – 1960: The Election of the First Catholic President as a Vindication of the First Amendment’s Clauses on Religious Freedom and Religion Establishment – The American Founding ushered in a “new order for the ages” that included the unprecedented and remarkable natural right of liberty of conscience. The First Amendment protected this universal right of all humans and banned Congress from establishing an official religion. The Constitution also banned all religious tests for national office. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was a dashing young contender for the Democratic nomination who faced an American electorate which feared that a Roman Catholic president would follow the dictates of the pope in Rome. Plenty of evidence pointed to this widespread anti-Catholicism that Kennedy would have to overcome to have a chance of winning his party’s nomination not to mention the presidency.

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Essay #83 – 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson Defeats Barry Goldwater: The “Great Society” and the Constitution – The 1964 election between Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson was a watershed election. Goldwater “flipped” the South and by the early 1970s, the South was voting solidly Republican for the first time since Reconstruction. Johnson clashed with conservatives who bristled after nearly three decades of uncontrolled federal power grabs at the expense of the States. Part of Johnson’s platform became known as the “Great Society,” a labyrinth of unconstitutional federal legislation designed to implement Franklin Roosevelt’s “Second Bill of Rights.” Roosevelt insisted that Americans deserved housing, a job, medical care, food, clothing, and education, all on the back of the American taxpayer. This list of free goodies became the genesis for the progressive talking points of the modern era. Johnson listened hard and followed Roosevelt’s lead. Like its predecessor the New Deal, the Great Society doubled down on unconstitutional legislation and created the modern welfare state as we know it.

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Essay #84 – 1968, Richard Nixon Defeats Hubert Humphrey, George C. Wallace: The Rise of the “New Left” – The presidential election of 1968 was held amidst a deluge of violence and civil unrest. The simple fact that the election proceeded apace, as did a peaceful transition of power from one party to another, were welcomed signs of health in a body politic that some considered to be terminally ill. The sense of pride and optimism that Americans felt toward their country in the early 1960s would be severely tested in 1968. The party’s leaders sensed that a divisive war in the midst of domestic unrest at home would lead to a Republican victory. Richard Nixon ultimately secured the GOP nomination. He adopted the stance of a senior statesman dedicated to healing the nation. The final results of the election revealed the divided state of the United States. Nixon’s tenure in office would be marked by fierce partisan combat with the Democratic controlled Congress.

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Essay #85 – 1968, Supreme Court Decisions on Civil Rights: An Issue Raised by George C. Wallace – George C. Wallace was at the forefront of resistance to the Supreme Court’s civil rights decisions, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Wallace vociferously opposed the integration of schools in Alabama over the course of his career and took strong segregationist positions. Wallace did not spare his comments about the Supreme Court and unsuccessfully attempted to nullify the Court’s civil rights decisions. While he later tried to back down from his segregationist statements and views, his actions and words remain.

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Essay #86 – 1972, Richard Nixon: Thirty-Seventh President of the United States – Richard M. Nixon served as the thirty-seventh President of the United States. His terms in office were 1969-1973 and 1973-1974. Richard Milhous Nixon was the second of five sons born to Francis and Hannah Nixon. He enjoyed a religious and intellectual upbringing. His father ran a gas station and a general store, where Richard worked in his free time. He graduated in 1937 with a law degree. In 1941, he took a job at the Office of Price Administration and the Office of Emergency Management, but a year later, at the age of twenty-nine, Nixon joined the navy to fight in World War II. Nixon was anticommunist his entire life, but as president he learned to negotiate with communist countries to benefit the U.S. Most of Nixon’s successes came from international policy: his treaty with the Soviet Union, his negotiation to open trade with the People’s Republic of China, and his attempts to conclude the Vietnam War. In 1974, Nixon resigned because of Watergate.

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Essay #87 – A Different Take on Watergate – The American Mind with Charles R. Kesler: Presented by The Claremont Institute. Originally published on Jan. 30, 2014 in the third segment with University of Nevada Reno Professor John Marini, Marini and Kesler discuss President Richard Nixon and his losing battle with Washington bureaucracies. Used with permission. John: You have to begin to see what Nixon’s plan was after the election, and there you get a better sense of his view that this is the last time that we’re going to be able to take on the centralized bureaucratic apparatus and be able to hold it back.

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Essay #88 – 1972, Richard Nixon Defeats George McGovern: Watergate – In late July 1974, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that President Richard Nixon must release the most incriminating tapes to federal prosecutors. Sixteen days later, Nixon resigned the Presidency, avoiding certain impeachment and conviction by a nearly unanimous U.S. House and Senate. But the Watergate affair had little impact on the 1972 election. Nixon carried 49 states, while George McGovern won only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Nixon garnered 61 percent of the popular vote, compared to 38 percent for McGovern. In only four of the Nixon states did McGovern even come within 10 percent. The Watergate investigations spurred further investigations, and the scandal resulted in many reforms.

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Essay #89 –  Our Constitution Works: President Ford’s Date with Destiny – The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, the Grand Rapids Economic Club and the National Constitutional Center hosted “Our Constitution Works: President Ford’s Date with Destiny” on October 20, 2014 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The following is a partial transcript of the videotaped panel discussion. Used with permission. Doug DeVos, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Trustee, National Constitution Center Trustee and former Chair of the Grand Rapids Economic Club hosted the event. Steve Ford, son of Gerald & Betty Ford, illustrated his father’s belief in the pardon decision by retelling the story in which he personally asked his father about the pardon.

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Essay #90 – 1976, Jimmy Carter: Thirty-Ninth President of the United States – Jimmy Carter was the thirty-ninth President of the United States. As a member of the Democrat Party, his terms were from 1977-1981. His Vice President was Walter Mondale. James Earl Carter Jr. was the eldest of four children. As a young kid, James would help “mop” the cotton and peanut crops on the farm by picking the cotton and peanuts from the small bushes. James earned a dollar for every day he worked. He attended Southwestern Junior College for a year and Georgia Tech University. In 1943, he entered the Naval Academy, graduating in 1946 in the top 10 percent of his class. Almost immediately upon becoming president, Carter was faced with a slew of domestic problems. Inflation and unemployment numbers were rising. On April 25, 1980, an attempt by the Carter Administration to rescue the American hostages in Iran had failed. Jimmy Carter tried to fix a struggling U.S. economy while simultaneously working to promote international peace and stability.

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Essay #91 – 1980, Ronald Reagan Defeats Jimmy Carter, John Anderson: The Critique of the Administrative State – The three primary issues of the 1980 election were U.S.-Soviet relations (which had taken an alarming turn with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier), the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and the U.S. Economy. Though primarily focused on how things like tax policy, inflation, and the energy crisis were impacting the sluggish economy (and, by extension, jobs and competitiveness), then-candidate Ronald Reagan also knew that America was facing a growing problem from the administrative state. This is allowed to happen because, by and large, Americans are unaware of the power that the unelected bureaucracy has—and it is a power that reinforces itself over time. As bureaucrats expand the administrative state unchallenged, they are able to build upon prior advances into individual life. Reagan suggested that America had a problem with the impact of regulations, and he dared suggest the implementation of one regulatory assessment tool, cost-benefit analysis.

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Essay #92 – 1984, Ronald Reagan Defeats Walter Mondale: Geraldine Ferraro Nomination as Vice President and the Constitutional Implications of the Feminist Movement – Ronald Reagan’s policies resulted in brisk economic recovery (rising 7.3 percent that year with minimal inflation for the first time in a decade) and a stronger national defense. While Walter Mondale was promising to raise taxes, Reagan appeared statesmanlike during trips, where he poignantly honored the memory of the fallen on the fortieth anniversary of the D-Day invasion. On Election Day, American voters showed that they heartily approved of Reagan’s vision and success in achieving it. The president won forty-nine states in the Electoral College and 59 percent of the popular vote to trounce his opponent. Reagan’s victory seemed at the time to point to the triumph of the conservative message of less government, fewer taxes, economic growth, and a sturdy national defense in the Cold War. The New Deal coalition and the Great Society welfare state was gasping for survival in a country that had recovered from the devastating reversals of the 1970s.

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Essay #93 – 1988, George H.W. Bush Defeats Michael Dukakis – After beating back a primary challenge from Senator Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush started to campaign in earnest against Michael Dukakis, Democratic governor of Massachusetts. Bush’s campaign managers adopted the standard Republican attack on Democrats in the 1980s by portraying Dukakis as a tax-and-spend big government liberal, weak on national defense and confronting the Soviets, a card-carrying member of the ACLU, and weak on law and order issues. The most controversial issue that remains contentious to this day was related to law and order. Governor Dukakis was not only opposed to the death penalty but supported prison furloughs to violent felons. He had even vetoed a bill preventing first-degree murderers from enjoying the furloughs. George Bush won the 1988 election by a comfortable margin by winning 426 electoral votes and 53 percent of the vote. However, the strong economic boom of the 1980s finally ended in a recession that doomed Bush to one term.

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Essay #94 – 1992, Bill Clinton Defeats George H.W. Bush – Bill Clinton dealt with two government shutdowns during his presidency: one from November 14 to November 19, 1995, and another from December 16, 1995, to January 6, 1996. He still managed to stabilize the American economy and balance the national budget. Clinton also experienced several international successes and continued national prosperity, but he was forced to fight to overcome three scandals. Bill Clinton believed the government should provide programs to protect and enhance the well-being of United States citizens. At the same time, however, Clinton realized that government could get out of hand with too many regulations and too much spending, and agreed with Republicans that reforms were necessary. Clinton’s second term began with international success and domestic prosperity. Three scandals, however, halted all progress in the Clinton administration. In 1998, the House of Representatives moves to impeach Clinton.

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Essay #95 – 1996, Bill Clinton, Presidential Elections, and Constitutional Rule of Law – At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 a Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” to which Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” The 1996 presidential election cycle and the twenty years hence have demonstrated the fragility of Franklin’s “If.” What stands out about that election cycle and its aftermath was the public’s (non)reaction to President Bill Clinton’s and his supporters’ attempts to place him above the law, like a king, in the impeachment process regarding his inappropriate actions while serving as president of the United States. Popularity and unpopularity affecting the applicability of the rule of law, has now bled through all of our governmental institutions, enthralled our media and academic institutions, and now threatens to permeate everywhere in our culture, even private institutions. The Founders meant the rule and protections of law to apply equally to all persons and ideas no matter their popularity or unpopularity.

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Essay #96 – 2000, George W. Bush Defeats Al Gore, Ralph Nader: A Case Study on Choosing Electors – The presidential election of 2000 provided an excellent insight into the practical application of the Constitution’s provision for choosing electors for that office. After the polls closed on November 7, 2000, attention soon turned to the state of Florida and a growing controversy over punch-card ballots used in a few of its counties. The combined count of the electors from all of the states presumed to be assigned to the Democrat candidate Albert Gore, Jr. Republican candidate George W. Bush indicated that the race was going to be close, that the results of the popular vote for president in Florida would determine the outcome of the race. This was due to the fact that the assignment of electors would be determined by that popular vote. Concerned that the Florida vote count was going to be marred by the ballot controversy, attorneys for candidate Gore challenged the results of the statewide popular vote count in a Florida court of law.

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Essay #97 – 2004, George W. Bush Defeats John Kerry: Due Process, Terrorism, and the Constitution – By the time the 2004 election rolled around, it was high time that policymakers would step in and consider the impact of post-9/11 homeland security policy on individual rights and the Constitution—and given that the Democrats were the opposition party trying to win the White House (and win back both houses of Congress) in 2004, it is only natural that they would take the position that some questions had to be asked regarding due process rights and the expanding national security state. Enough time has passed that both sides ought to have learned their lessons regarding the balance between national security and civil liberties—recognizing that freedom, the broadest protection of individual rights—is what we ought to strive for.

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Essay #98 – 2008, Barack Obama: Forty-Fourth President of the United States – Barack Obama was the forty-fourth president of the United States. His terms in office were from 2009-2013 and 2013-2017 as a Democrat. His Vice President was Joseph Biden. Obama passed his landmark legislation, the Affordable Care Act; oversaw the capture and death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden; and enforced a multibillion dollar stimulus in an attempt to help the economy. He has struggled with a scandal regarding the surveillance of the American people by the federal government and an ever-growing debt and deficit. Barack Obama champions a large government that can care equally for all Americans. Not afraid to raise taxes for the wealthiest citizens or spend federal dollars, Obama worked to increase various welfare and health care benefits, and he has successfully passed the first legislation that mandates nationalized health care for all Americans. In 1995, Obama published his first book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

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Essay #99 – 2012, Barack Obama Defeats Mitt Romney – Only once before the twenty-first century has America had three consecutive eight-year presidencies: the years 1801-25 in which three members of “the House of Virginia,” Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe each won two general elections and served for eight years. In 2012, after an interval of nearly 200 years, Americans for the second time re-elected a third president to a second term, as Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney by a margin of 332 to 206 in the Electoral College and 51 percent to 47 percent in the popular vote.

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Essay #100 – Essay. 100: Constitutional Issues in the 2016 Election – Faithful readers of Constituting America’s 90-Day Study have followed the story of our constitution through each of our presidential elections. We have seen that the moral foundations of both of our constitutions—the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution that replaced it—find their most cogent expression in the Declaration of Independence. In this year’s election, once again the Constitution is at issue, although in some ways less clearly than in 1912, 1932, or 1964. The candidate required this year, as in every past election, for our constitutional republic is one who bases his or her platform squarely on the hope of restoring the original understanding of American constitutionalism. The candidate needs to understand American constitutionalism. Should America accept a president who identifies with Progressivism and therefore the notion of an “elastic” or “living” Constitution—only to include a list of legislative proposals that never says, but merely assumes, that such proposals are constitutional?

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