Liberty, Order, and Justice: An Introduction to the Constitutional Principles of American Government [Paperback]

James McClellan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0865972567 | ISBN-13: 978-0865972568 | Edition: 3rd

American Founding and Constitution

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James McClellan is the James Bryce Visiting Fellow in American Studies at the Institute of United States Studies, University of London.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 649 pages
• Publisher: Liberty Fund; 3rd edition (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865972567
• ISBN-13: 978-0865972568
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Government     > Constitutions

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My best read in 2009, November 16, 2009

By 

John M. Balouziyeh (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Liberty, Order, and Justice: An Introduction to the Constitutional Principles of American Government (Paperback)

James McClellan's Liberty, Order, and Justice is the best book I have read so far in 2009. This seminal book is as important to the history and roots of American constitutional government as Russell Kirk's Roots of American Order is to American political history. No other book that I am aware of does as well a job in presenting an engaging history of the American constitutional order and of presenting a wealth of information on the constitutions of ancient Greece and Rome, the English natural law and natural rights traditions, and the formation of the American political conscience. The key documents that helped shape what would become the American mind, including the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights, are discussed in prose so engaging that it makes it difficult for the reader to put the book down. This book is an excellent choice for anyone interested in American constitutional history.
The following is my summary of McClellan's excellent treatise:

Introduction
McClellan's work deals with the principles and characteristics of the American political order by familiarizing readers with the basic principles of the Constitution. Resting on the assumption that "in order to achieve liberty, order, and justice, we must first establish limited constitutional government" (p. xx), the book examines the constitutional foundations of the nation by looking to the English origins of the American Constitution, the first Constitutions of the American States, and the principles that pervade the American Constitution, as well as the interpretation and process for the amendment of the Constitution. Throughout the book, McClellan pays special attention to the separation of powers and the limits placed on the federal government by the Constitution.

Part 1. The Constitution's Deep Roots
McClellan begins by setting down the four primary characteristics of a good constitution: (i) to "provide for stability and continuity in the governing of a country"; (ii) to "restrain government from assuming powers that rightfully belong to other political entities or to families or individuals"; (iii) to "establish a permanent arrangement that enables public officials and others with political authority to represent the people they govern"; and (iv) to "hold public officials directly accountable to the people" (p. 6-7). McClellan goes on to examine the constitutions of the Greek and Roman civilizations that the American Founders would have studied. Although the American Founders could trace the values of republicanism and political virtue that imbued their young republic, the principles of ancient Greece and Rome cannot fully explain the American experiment. The American Founders found many shortcomings in the ancient constitutions, which did not fully account for man's nature. The Founders instead turned towards an English heritage to animate their political order.
The American Constitution, which was evolutionary rather than revolutionary, drew many of its precepts from English traditions. America's legal order was in many ways a continuation of England's common law, which America modified according to its own circumstances. For example, although America inherited the English distinction between cases at common law and cases at equity, the Founders allowed for "the fusion of law and equity in the Supreme Court" (p. 38). In like manner, although America, assigned a role to a representative legislature modeled after the English Parliament in the enactment of laws, it rejected the English principle of legislative supremacy, and instead subjugated the American legislature's laws to the scrutiny of an independent judicial power.
The new American republic can thus be contrasted with the republic that arose in France after the French Revolution. Whereas the American founders "never thought of repudiating their American past, their British past, or their classical past" (p. 52), the French Revolution, in the eyes of Edmund Burke, "sought a radical break with the past and [attempted] to create a whole new society based on visionary theories of government" (p. 53). The framers of the American Constitution, in contrast, sought to ground their ideas in the political and moral heritage of Hebraic, classical, and British cultures" (p. 52). As for the lawfulness, character of the conduct, quality of the object, and compass of resistance of the American and French Revolutions, the German diplomat Friedrich Gentz observed that "'every parallel' drawn between the French and American revolutions `will serve much more to display the contrast than the resemblance between them'" (p. 57).

Part 2. America's First Constitutions and Declarations of Rights
The American colonists adopted the English system of representative government, but introduced a residency requirement for elected representatives and did not have an aristocracy-based upper chamber. Furthermore, the American experiment included an element of local self-government that was stronger than that of Britain and continental Europe.
In 1607, lured by tales of great wealth, English settlers founded Jamestown. In 1620, Pilgrims arrived to Plymouth, Massachusetts, seeking religious liberty, and later being followed by all dissenting Protestants. Agreeing to submit themselves to laws enacted by a self-governing body, the settlers formed the Mayflower Compact, which "marks the introduction into the American colonies of a compact theory of government which would later serve as the basis for both popularly based State constitutions and the United States Constitution" (p. 97).
Because the colonies were viewed by Britain primarily as a commercial enterprise, Britain was not much concerned with political control or the administration of the colonies. The American colonies were thus largely left to self-government. Local government in the form of townships in New England and counties elsewhere played such a significant role in the development of the American political system that de Tocqueville cited them as "a major reason for the successes of the American democracy" (p. 108).
Although the Americans were prosperous under British rule, England's new tax impositions and restrictions on colonial commerce in 1763 marked an "important turning point in Anglo-American relations" (p. 111). The Americans questioned the constitutional basis of Parliament's actions and, reflecting on the nature of free government, concluded that their only recourse was in secession (p. 112). In response to the Stamp Act of 1765, the colonies sent delegates to New York to draft a statement of colonial grievances, arguing that "Parliament had exceeded its authority in passing the Stamp Act because the colonies, not being represented in Parliament, could be taxed only by their own assemblies" (p. 113).
A string of events following thereafter ultimately led to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to justify the separation and enumerate the abuses of the King against the colonies. Prodded by Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Americans announced on July 4, 1776 their decision to separate and announced a series of natural rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) and constitutional, common law, and charter rights to which the American colonists were entitled.
Although Jefferson, the principle author of the Declaration, did not set out "to find out new principles, or new arguments never before thought of," but rather, to summarize ideas that had at the time been recognized, McClellan argues that the Western natural law tradition beginning with Aristotle offers a very different conception from the contractual theory embodied by the Declaration. Whereas the former tradition suggests that man's natural state is one of family and community, the latter tradition resonates a great deal with the Enlightenment thinkers, especially Locke, which suggests that man's natural state is a state of nature where "all men lived not in family units or villages but ... [r]oaming the plains and forests at will, each man ... free to come and go as he pleased" (p. 128). In the state of nature of Locke and Hobbes, men came together to form civil society and government only to secure their natural rights. They were free to dissolve government when it failed to protect their natural rights. We can thus conclude that, although the founders believed they were invoking principles from a long-standing Western tradition, the thinkers that were being quoted stood in tension with this tradition. McClellan resolves this tension by arguing that the founders believed that they were invoking the long standing Western natural law tradition, but had confused this by implementing natural rights terminology.
At about the same time as the Declaration Independence, the Articles of Confederation were written. The Articles, which served as a constitution for the united colonies, were agreed upon by Congress on November 15, 1777. Two days later, they were submitted to the State legislatures for ratification, and all of the states ratified them within by 1781. The Articles took effect on March 1, 1781, establishing the "United States of America" while preserving the "sovereignty, freedom and independence" of each of the individual States (Arts. I-II). The States joined together through the Articles in order to provide for "their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare" (Art. III). The Convention would later give way to the Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 that gave birth to the United States Constitution.

Part 3. The Achievement of the Philadelphia Convention
In the summer of 1787, fifty five delegates charged with the task of revising the Articles of Confederation and putting the government on a "sound financial footing" (p. 243) gathered together in Philadelphia's Constitutional Convention. The delegates... Read more ›

0 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, February 4, 2010

By 

pocket (VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liberty, Order, and Justice: An Introduction to the Constitutional Principles of American Government (Paperback)

I have read MANY books in my life. Books my wife says would kill most people because they are so dry.

I have to say that Liberty, Order, and Justice will be the death of me.