Lecture: Second Founding: The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment

Abstract:     
The story of the Framing of the Fourteenth Amendment is a lost story of American history, covered over by Southern inspiring myth making and an unwillingness to grapple with the central role of slavery in American history. Americans can take new inspiration from that story and use it as an example of how our popular democracy can be perfected. Even today, nearly a century and a half after the Second Founders did their work, their words and example move before us as a people, a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Keywords: Fourteenth Amendment, Thaddeus Stevens, John Bingham, Charles Sumner, William P. Fessenden, Slave Power

Accepted Paper Series