BOOK REVIEW
JAMES MADISON AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE BILL OF RUGHTS, RICHARD LABUNSKI, Oxford University Press, USA, 2006
In these times when the Bill of Rights is under constant attack, especially as they relate to the rights of criminal defendants and political oppositionists across a spectrum of issues, it is appropriate that militant defenders of those rights look at the history of the struggle to incorporate these seemingly self-evident rights into the American body politic. And that is the correct way to view this question-the struggle. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, despite fights to have them incorporated into the organic frame of government, this action was defeated. Thus, when the author of the book under review entitled his book James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights he hit exactly the contradictory attitudes toward their implementation that has followed them from the beginning of the constitutional period.
Many commentators have remarked that if a poll was taken of Americans today and the ideas of the Bill of Rights was presented in enumerated form they would be defeated as far too radical. Unfortunately there is some truth to this assertion. Thus, James Madison’s struggle to have them incorporated through the constitutional amendment process takes on added significance today. I have commented more than once that the leaders of the American Revolution were big men (and they were for the most part men) out to do a big task-and they did it. And Madison played no small part around the construction of the constitution.
This is the story presented here. The striking part about the whole struggle is that James Madison does not, on the basis of his reputation and lifestyle, come quickly to mind as the obvious leader of such actions. Nevertheless he, and essentially he alone, saw the process through from the winnowing out of the many proposed amendments from many quarters to the cumbersome ratification process. Hats off to Mr. Madison. Will future generations be able to say that we were the best defenders of those precious rights against those in American politics who would relish the return of Star Chamber proceedings? The Bill of Rights, whatever their limitations, are not window dressing. Think about that the next time you have to invoke one of them.
JAMES MADISON AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE BILL OF RUGHTS, RICHARD LABUNSKI, Oxford University Press, USA, 2006
In these times when the Bill of Rights is under constant attack, especially as they relate to the rights of criminal defendants and political oppositionists across a spectrum of issues, it is appropriate that militant defenders of those rights look at the history of the struggle to incorporate these seemingly self-evident rights into the American body politic. And that is the correct way to view this question-the struggle. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, despite fights to have them incorporated into the organic frame of government, this action was defeated. Thus, when the author of the book under review entitled his book James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights he hit exactly the contradictory attitudes toward their implementation that has followed them from the beginning of the constitutional period.
Many commentators have remarked that if a poll was taken of Americans today and the ideas of the Bill of Rights was presented in enumerated form they would be defeated as far too radical. Unfortunately there is some truth to this assertion. Thus, James Madison’s struggle to have them incorporated through the constitutional amendment process takes on added significance today. I have commented more than once that the leaders of the American Revolution were big men (and they were for the most part men) out to do a big task-and they did it. And Madison played no small part around the construction of the constitution.
This is the story presented here. The striking part about the whole struggle is that James Madison does not, on the basis of his reputation and lifestyle, come quickly to mind as the obvious leader of such actions. Nevertheless he, and essentially he alone, saw the process through from the winnowing out of the many proposed amendments from many quarters to the cumbersome ratification process. Hats off to Mr. Madison. Will future generations be able to say that we were the best defenders of those precious rights against those in American politics who would relish the return of Star Chamber proceedings? The Bill of Rights, whatever their limitations, are not window dressing. Think about that the next time you have to invoke one of them.
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