Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition

Abstract

In Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition, Justin Buckley Dyer provides a succinct account of the development of American antislavery constitutionalism in the years preceding the Civil War. Within the context of recent revisionist scholarship, Dyer argues that the theoretical foundations of American constitutionalism - which he identifies with principles of natural law - were antagonistic to slavery. Still, the continued existence of slavery in the nineteenth century created a tension between practice and principle. In a series of case studies, Dyer reconstructs the constitutional arguments of prominent antislavery thinkers such as John Quincy Adams, John McLean, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, who collectively sought to overcome the legacy of slavery by emphasizing the natural law foundations of American constitutionalism. What emerges is a convoluted understanding of American constitutional development that challenges traditional narratives of linear progress while highlighting the centrality of natural law to America's greatest constitutional crisis.

Ruling or being ruled? : the development of citizenship in the Cherokee Nation

“…For many Americans, the liberal conception of the state as an association of rights-bearing free agents who contract with one another for peace and happiness is often taken for granted (Collins 2006, 2). While the liberal tradition is a contested topic (Morgan 1975;Hartz 1991;Smith 1997;Dyer 2012), the liberal conception of citizenship is, generally speaking, a contract granting equal legal status to non-related individuals. This view of citizenship is distant from that espoused by groups grounded in non-liberal ancestral traditions.…”

“…For the Cherokee, hereditary citizenship was an essential component of their political thought, as it reflected how they constructed their views of both family and politics. Additionally, private property meant something different for the Cherokee-communally held lands were 75 The ideas upon which American institutions are founded is, of course, a highly contested topic (Morgan 1975;McDonald 1985;Hartz 1991;Smith 1997;Dyer 2012;Squire 2012;Seagrave 2015;Dow 2017;West 2017). I take the view that ideas matter in the construction and perpetuation of political institutions.…”