The Michigan Constitutional Conventions of 1835-36
The Michigan Constitutional Conventions of 1835-36

Author: Michigan. Constitutional Convention

Publisher: Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan Press ; London : H. Milford, Oxford University Press

Published: 1940

Total Pages: 654

ISBN-13:

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In the years immediately preceding 1837, when Michigan was at last admitted to the Union, her constitution and State Government were devised by her pioneer inhabitants. The formal proceedings of the Constitutional Conventions of 1835-36 were printed at the time but are now extremely rare volumes. The debates in the Constitutional Conventions were never officially printed, but author Harold M. Dorr has been able to extract many of them from contemporary newspapers and has combined them with the official records in such a way as to present the complete story of how one American state faced and solved the problem of its own organization. Thus, the volume contains materials that the historical student could not gather for himself except at the expenditure of much time and trouble. Dorr is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.

Frontier Democracy
Frontier Democracy

Author: Silvana R. Siddali

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 1107090768

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Frontier Democracy examines the debates over state constitutions in the antebellum Northwest (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) from the 1820s through the 1850s. This is a book about conversations: in particular, the fights and negotiations over the core ideals in the constitutions that brought these frontier communities to life. Silvana R. Siddali argues that the Northwestern debates over representation and citizenship reveal two profound commitments: the first to fair deliberation, and the second to ethical principles based on republicanism, Christianity, and science. Some of these ideas succeeded brilliantly: within forty years, the region became an economic and demographic success story. However, some failed tragically: racial hatred prevailed everywhere in the region, in spite of reformers' passionate arguments for justice, and resulted in disfranchisement and even exclusion for non-white Northwesterners that lasted for generations.