PREVIEW

The American Nation: Primary Sources (Book/ Paperback)

Product Overview

The American Nation: Primary Sources resumes the narrative begun in its companion volume, The American Republic which covered the first eight decades of U.S. history, ending at the onset of the Civil War. The American Nation continues the story through America’s entrance into World War II.

The American Nation makes available, in one volume, many of the most crucial documents necessary for understanding the variety of policies and viewpoints driving American public life during an important, substantive part of American history. The primary sources in The American Nation are relevant to the Civil War, Reconstruction, the rise of a national capitalist system and culture, the waves of reform-minded thought and policy that moved the nation toward formation of the national administrative and welfare states, and America’s emergence as a major power on the world stage. This period was a watershed in the history of the nation—the time of establishing and consolidating national power and laying the foundations of a national government committed to promoting the material well-being of Americans. It was an era that witnessed the development of the nation-state and the establishment of the New Deal regime, which set the stage for the radical social movements of the 1960s and beyond.

For decades debates have raged concerning the nature and impact of post–Civil War Reconstruction, as well as the major popular legal and ideological movements shaping the United States during the period up to World War II. This critical era encompassed the rise of mass-market corporatism and America’s entry into world politics. Recent social history has uncovered a great deal of information regarding the daily lives of Americans during this era. Of equal importance is an in-depth study of the public documents critical for an understanding of the effects of public acts and pronouncements on Americans. This volume will allow students and readers to readily engage, without interpretation, the original historical documents that have shaped the history of American public life.

Some of the primary documents include the Emancipation Proclamation, the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Monroe Doctrine. Some of the authors featured include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jefferson Davis, Robert LaFollette, Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, William Graham Sumner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Booker T. Washington, among many others.

Bruce P. Frohnen is Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University College of Law. He holds a J.D. from the Emory University School of Law and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University.

Table of Contents
xi Alphabetical Table of Contents
xiii Alphabetical List of Authors
xv List of Illustrations
xvii Introduction
xxi Note on the Texts

PART I: The Civil War

4 The Crittenden Compromise, 1860
7 South Carolina Ordinance of Secession, 1860
9 South Carolina Declaration of Causes of
Secession, 1860
12 Mississippi Ordinance of Secession, 1861
14 Mississippi Declaration of Causes of Secession, 1861
15 Virginia Ordinance to Repeal the Ratification of the
Constitution of the United States of America, 1861
15 Missouri Act Declaring the Political Ties Heretofore
Existing between the State of Missouri and the
United States of America Dissolved, 1861
16 Ordinance of the Kentucky Convention, 1861
20 Constitution of the Confederate States of
America, 1861
29 Farewell Speech to Congress, Jefferson Davis, 1861
31 Inaugural Address, Jefferson Davis, 1861
34 First Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln, 1861
39 Proclamation Calling the Militia and Convening
Congress, Abraham Lincoln, 1861
40 Proclamation of Blockade against Southern Ports,
Abraham Lincoln, 1861
41 Message to Congress in Special Session, Abraham
Lincoln, 1861
48 Proclamation Suspending Writ of Habeas Corpus,
Abraham Lincoln, 1863
51 Message to Congress on Gradual Abolishment of
Slavery, Abraham Lincoln, 1862
52 Proclamation Revoking General Hunte

About the Author(s)

Bruce P. Frohnen is an Associate Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University, Pettit College of Law. Prior to this he taught at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition he is a Senior Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. He began his legal career as a resident scholar with the Heritage Foundation and as a senior fellow with Liberty Fund. He later spent five years as a legislative aide to former U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham. Before joining the Ave Maria faculty, Professor Frohnen served as a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He previously held teaching positions at The Catholic University of America, Emory University, Oglethorpe University, Cornell College, and Reed College.