I am working on a forthcoming book
I am working on my book... that is right, I'm writing a book for publication, probably to be released no earlier than late 2007. Having read and reviewed books voraciously over the years, and taken a leap into freelance journalism publishing articles in online e-zines and magazines, I have decided to put my knack for writing to use. The book itself will focus on topics related to political science and constitutional history and law. Its particular emphasis concerns republicanism and the federal polity—which is intersected by southern conservative thought or what scholars dub "South Atlantic republicanism."
I will write in a most straightfoward manner in terms understandable to laity, without the legalese that lawyers try to use to make themselves look smart.
Purpose
What I am looking at doing is piece together an anthology of free-standing essays on various topics of constitutional, political and perhaps cultural in nature. Likewise, I am considering adding an extremely selective compilations of letters, speeches, or writings from various founding fathers and antebellum southern conservatives for added perspective and historical context, which might encompass one-third of the book. Yes, the book will be imbued with a distinctively Old Republican or Jeffersonian perspective, reflective of Virginia's legal culture, and such thinkers as St. George Tucker, George Mason, Spencer Roane, John Randolph of Roanoke, John Taylor of Caroline, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and Abel Parker Upshur. Likewise, the favorite sons of the Carolinas such as Nathaniel Macon, Robert Hayne, and John C. Calhoun are featured as well. As Calhoun esteemed the "old Virginia school of politics," it should noted that Virginia was the epicenter of that South Atlantic republicanism, and as Calhoun insisted the Commonwealth was blessed with "leaders of clearest discernment and purest patriotism," which he sought to consciously emulate in his older years. If the book is Virginia-centric it is for good reason. Virginia gave America Presidents for nearly a quarter of a century and was most influential in the America's affairs from 1801-1825. Also, occasional detours might touch on the statesmanship of John Dickinson of Pennsylvania for example. Engrained within the southern conservative tradition was a constellation of English conservativism, in particular the Burkean politics of prudence and prescription as well the Old Whig English libertarian tradition expressed in Cato's Letters by Trenchard and Gordon. My elucidation emanates from this tradition. That means I have an esteem for republican self-government, constitutional limitations on government, a true federal polity and an uncompromisingly strict construction of the Constitution.
The book itself is forward-looking and deals with issues facing us today as well as history. But the principles we should remember are timeless. I contend for states' rights and a decentralized federal polity. This entails a restoration of the true character of the Union within the constraints of the Tenth Amendment. Jefferson dubbed the Tenth Amendment as the "foundation" of the Constitution. Therein, I offer an erudite and well-documented history of states' rights and federalism, and the drift towards consolidation in the American Republic. "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground," as the Jeffersonian maxim goes. Likewise, I illustrate how the federal judiciary and Progressives have rewritten the Constitution. Various conservative books today address the issue of dethroning the imperial federal judiciary, the U.S. Supreme Court—"junior-varsity Congress" as Scalia calls it. However, the mistake is that they seem to think that somehow the Congress might be compelled to spearhead the movement. Congress isn't culpable for the asinine social engineering to the degree the federal judiciary is, but they have an abysmmal track record at curbing federal power. They have no interest in meaningful reform or the abdication of their power, patronage and influence. Such a movement would have to be grassroots in nature.
The book will deal with more than constitutional matters and will offer cultural criticism as well. I will also discuss political economy and the interplay between the market economy and and the polity, and why the nature of the political order is integral to the ideal economic order. My dialogue on political economy carries the distinctive influence of John Taylor of Caroline who criticized subsidized capital and the Hamiltonian mercantile system in his tracts such as Tyranny Unmasked. Likewise, the French classical liberal Frédéric Bastiat famous for his critiques of "legal plunder" and twentieth-century Swiss economist Wilhelm Roepke have proven influential as well. I esteem a "natural economy" in the words of Taylor, though this laissez-faire order functions best within a decentralized federal polity. Through decentralization of the political order, subsidiarity, and localism, one can best effectuate the humane economy.
Essay Topics and Features
Here are just a few topics covered herein:
● Offers several biographical sketches of the Old Republicans and various southern conservative statesmen
● A examination of the principle of subsidiarity or sphere sovereignty, which is the foundation of a true federal polity
● Offers insights into the state ratifying conventions, which buoys the legitimacy of states' rights doctrine and illustrates original intent
● Features an erudite vindication of the true compact nature of the Union, as opposed to the dubious nationalist theory lauded by the Webster-Story-Lincoln school
● Provides a scholarly examination of states' rights doctrine from a constitutional and historical perspective
● Features an overview of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions—the so called Principles of 1798, and the doctrine of interposition.
● Presents an exposition on Calhoun's theory of concurrenct majority as embodied in his "Fort Hill Address," the "Disquisition" and the "Discourse."
● A brief overview and vindication of the right of secession
And on more issues of concern today and in the twentieth-century:
● Presents a plan for a number of grassroots constitutional reforms to restore the true federal character of the Union, the Tenth Amendment, and inaugurate a veritable devolution revolution where power is dispersed once again and not consolidated.
● An overview of the Watkins Amendment lauded by attorney and constitutional scholar William J. Watkins, which effectuates the creation of a Constitutional Commission which gives the state a concurrent voice in matters of constitutional law and ends the absurdity of the imperial judiciary being the final arbiter of all constitutional questions
● How and why we should recover the liniments of the agrarian tradition in a definitely post-agrarian era
● Embodies an exposition on how the Progressives and the Supreme Court rewrote the Constitution while laying waste to the notion of constitutionally-limited government
● Offers elucidation on the evolution of War Powers which have been usurped flagrantly by the Executive Branch from the Congress in the twentieth century.
● Features trenchant cultural criticism which explains how the activities, centralization and structure of the modern state have lead to the displacement of the intermediary institutions between the individual and the state whether the family, neighborhood, church, or voluntary and civic associations. The centralized state has dissolved the natural bonds and allegiances of civil society.
● My thoughts on why the Hamiltonian vision of a national empire, characterized by public sector indebtedness, patronage and privilege for an elite political class, interventionism in economic and foreign affairs, and an otherwise intrusive centralized government is unsustainable and will wither for better or worse.
● The possibility of on an emerging grassroots conservative hegemon to effectuate a devolution revolution—that is to peaceably devolve power from the federal leviathan back to the rightful authority of the states and people thereof. In effect, it represents a turn to more grassroots-based politics, local decision-making, and home rule.
● A prudent political economy and the search for the humane economy, and the advantages afforded by the restoration of honest money and a decentralized federal polity which could give rise to a broader and more affluent middle class, a wider dispersal of private property, more decentralized capital markets, and more vibrant and prosperous communities. The failures and the gridlock of our present political structures will force Americans to address its shortcomings. Should we heed the prudent wisdom of our forefathers, then we may attain a renaissance of liberty, freedom, prosperity and public virtue.
Confronting the reality of the Constitution in exile means that we have to be proactive in taking steps to recover the federal polity of the founding generation. Such reforms are rooted in the politics of prudence and prescription. "Politics is the art of the possible," declared Russell Kirk.
Ultimately, we must face the reality that underlying crisis facing the United States and the West is spiritual and cultural in nature, and not inherently political. But bad political decisions and structures act to corrupt and degrade society, which is why we must be prudent in our politics.
My mentors and influences
My mentors over the years have been able conservative thinkers such as Stephen A. Samson, Clyde N. Wilson, Forrest McDonald, the late M.E. Bradford, the late Russell Kirk, the late Robert Nisbet, the late Wilhelm Roepke, H.L. Cheek, Jr., and Donald Livingston. Some among the living, I count as my personal friends whom I have met before and correspond with. The first in fact was a professor of mine, and he elucidates quite well on the covenant origins of the American polity. Perhaps, one will grace my book with an introduction.
It was my proprietary studies of primary source materials that I ultimately credit with my acquisition of knowledge on constitutional history. I gravitated towards these mentors because I shared their predilections and perspective, and essentially came to the same conclusions as they did. Though, I gained perspective and clarity from their insights.
Source materials
I will be meticulous in my use of primary sources to vindicate my views. I have over 200 pages (double-spaced), 65,907 words of primary and secondary sources compilation materials of mostly quotes, systematically organized, meticulously footnoted, and interspersed with my commentary. Bear in mind, this is not the book itself, but the intellectual fodder for the book. It represents a systematic recollection of my studies through the years, and I started it in 2005. It is a work-in-progress which will continue to grow. I had distributed this work via e-mail to a select handful of friends, and dubbed it "A Citizen’s Guide to the Constitution and Republicanism." Granted, I have no intention of publishing this work itself now or later. It merely serves as materials for my present research which will form the basis of the book I am authoring.
Selective Bibliography
Primary Source Materials
Eds. Kaminski, John P. and Gaspare J. Saladino et al. The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1976)
Eds. Kurland, Phillip and Ralph Lerner. The Founders' Constitution. (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987)
Secondary Source Materials
Acton, Lord John, Selected Writings of Lord Acton, J. Rufus Fears, ed. 3 vols. (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2000).
Cheek, Jr., H.L., ed. John C. Calhoun: Selected Writings and Speeches, (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2003).
Cheek, Jr., H.L., Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of Disquisition and Discourse. (Columbia, MO: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2001).
Denson, John V., ed., Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2001),
Graham, John Remington, A Constitutional History of Secession. (Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub. Co., 2002).
Gregg II, Gary L., ed. Vital Remnants: America’s Founding and the Western Tradition. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 1999),
Livingston, Donald. Philosophical Melancholy and Delirium, (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1993.)
Lutz, Donald. Colonial Origins of the American Constitution. (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1999).
McDonald, Forrest. States’ Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876. (Lawrence, KN: Univ. of Kansas Press, 2001).
Tucker, St. George, View of the Constitution of the United States. (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1999).
Watkins, Jr., William J., Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
Wilson, Clyde. From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition. (Columbia, SC: Foundation for Amer. Education, 2003).
Woods, Jr.,Thomas E. The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2004).
Upshur, Abel Parker, The True Nature and Character of the Federal Government, (Dahlonega, GA: The Confederate Reprint Company, 2004)
(FYI The screenshot below is an sample essay which will be in the book. It is not the title of the book. I have a tentative title in mind, but I am keeping it under wraps.)
I am working on my book... that is right, I'm writing a book for publication, probably to be released no earlier than late 2007. Having read and reviewed books voraciously over the years, and taken a leap into freelance journalism publishing articles in online e-zines and magazines, I have decided to put my knack for writing to use. The book itself will focus on topics related to political science and constitutional history and law. Its particular emphasis concerns republicanism and the federal polity—which is intersected by southern conservative thought or what scholars dub "South Atlantic republicanism."
I will write in a most straightfoward manner in terms understandable to laity, without the legalese that lawyers try to use to make themselves look smart.
Purpose
"Long before our time the customs of our ancestors molded admirable men, in turn these men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however, inherited the Republic as if it were some beautiful painting of bygone ages, its colors already fading through great antiquity; and not only has our time neglected to freshen the colors of the picture, but we have failed to preserve its forms and outlines."
—Marcus Tullus Cicero (106 B.C. - 43 B.C.)
What I am looking at doing is piece together an anthology of free-standing essays on various topics of constitutional, political and perhaps cultural in nature. Likewise, I am considering adding an extremely selective compilations of letters, speeches, or writings from various founding fathers and antebellum southern conservatives for added perspective and historical context, which might encompass one-third of the book. Yes, the book will be imbued with a distinctively Old Republican or Jeffersonian perspective, reflective of Virginia's legal culture, and such thinkers as St. George Tucker, George Mason, Spencer Roane, John Randolph of Roanoke, John Taylor of Caroline, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and Abel Parker Upshur. Likewise, the favorite sons of the Carolinas such as Nathaniel Macon, Robert Hayne, and John C. Calhoun are featured as well. As Calhoun esteemed the "old Virginia school of politics," it should noted that Virginia was the epicenter of that South Atlantic republicanism, and as Calhoun insisted the Commonwealth was blessed with "leaders of clearest discernment and purest patriotism," which he sought to consciously emulate in his older years. If the book is Virginia-centric it is for good reason. Virginia gave America Presidents for nearly a quarter of a century and was most influential in the America's affairs from 1801-1825. Also, occasional detours might touch on the statesmanship of John Dickinson of Pennsylvania for example. Engrained within the southern conservative tradition was a constellation of English conservativism, in particular the Burkean politics of prudence and prescription as well the Old Whig English libertarian tradition expressed in Cato's Letters by Trenchard and Gordon. My elucidation emanates from this tradition. That means I have an esteem for republican self-government, constitutional limitations on government, a true federal polity and an uncompromisingly strict construction of the Constitution.
The book itself is forward-looking and deals with issues facing us today as well as history. But the principles we should remember are timeless. I contend for states' rights and a decentralized federal polity. This entails a restoration of the true character of the Union within the constraints of the Tenth Amendment. Jefferson dubbed the Tenth Amendment as the "foundation" of the Constitution. Therein, I offer an erudite and well-documented history of states' rights and federalism, and the drift towards consolidation in the American Republic. "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground," as the Jeffersonian maxim goes. Likewise, I illustrate how the federal judiciary and Progressives have rewritten the Constitution. Various conservative books today address the issue of dethroning the imperial federal judiciary, the U.S. Supreme Court—"junior-varsity Congress" as Scalia calls it. However, the mistake is that they seem to think that somehow the Congress might be compelled to spearhead the movement. Congress isn't culpable for the asinine social engineering to the degree the federal judiciary is, but they have an abysmmal track record at curbing federal power. They have no interest in meaningful reform or the abdication of their power, patronage and influence. Such a movement would have to be grassroots in nature.
"Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
—Thomas Jefferson
The book will deal with more than constitutional matters and will offer cultural criticism as well. I will also discuss political economy and the interplay between the market economy and and the polity, and why the nature of the political order is integral to the ideal economic order. My dialogue on political economy carries the distinctive influence of John Taylor of Caroline who criticized subsidized capital and the Hamiltonian mercantile system in his tracts such as Tyranny Unmasked. Likewise, the French classical liberal Frédéric Bastiat famous for his critiques of "legal plunder" and twentieth-century Swiss economist Wilhelm Roepke have proven influential as well. I esteem a "natural economy" in the words of Taylor, though this laissez-faire order functions best within a decentralized federal polity. Through decentralization of the political order, subsidiarity, and localism, one can best effectuate the humane economy.
"We can breathe the air of liberty only to the extent that we are ready to bear the burden of moral responsibility associated with it."
—Wilhelm Roepke
Essay Topics and Features
Here are just a few topics covered herein:
● Offers several biographical sketches of the Old Republicans and various southern conservative statesmen
● A examination of the principle of subsidiarity or sphere sovereignty, which is the foundation of a true federal polity
● Offers insights into the state ratifying conventions, which buoys the legitimacy of states' rights doctrine and illustrates original intent
● Features an erudite vindication of the true compact nature of the Union, as opposed to the dubious nationalist theory lauded by the Webster-Story-Lincoln school
● Provides a scholarly examination of states' rights doctrine from a constitutional and historical perspective
● Features an overview of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions—the so called Principles of 1798, and the doctrine of interposition.
● Presents an exposition on Calhoun's theory of concurrenct majority as embodied in his "Fort Hill Address," the "Disquisition" and the "Discourse."
● A brief overview and vindication of the right of secession
And on more issues of concern today and in the twentieth-century:
● Presents a plan for a number of grassroots constitutional reforms to restore the true federal character of the Union, the Tenth Amendment, and inaugurate a veritable devolution revolution where power is dispersed once again and not consolidated.
● An overview of the Watkins Amendment lauded by attorney and constitutional scholar William J. Watkins, which effectuates the creation of a Constitutional Commission which gives the state a concurrent voice in matters of constitutional law and ends the absurdity of the imperial judiciary being the final arbiter of all constitutional questions
● How and why we should recover the liniments of the agrarian tradition in a definitely post-agrarian era
● Embodies an exposition on how the Progressives and the Supreme Court rewrote the Constitution while laying waste to the notion of constitutionally-limited government
● Offers elucidation on the evolution of War Powers which have been usurped flagrantly by the Executive Branch from the Congress in the twentieth century.
● Features trenchant cultural criticism which explains how the activities, centralization and structure of the modern state have lead to the displacement of the intermediary institutions between the individual and the state whether the family, neighborhood, church, or voluntary and civic associations. The centralized state has dissolved the natural bonds and allegiances of civil society.
● My thoughts on why the Hamiltonian vision of a national empire, characterized by public sector indebtedness, patronage and privilege for an elite political class, interventionism in economic and foreign affairs, and an otherwise intrusive centralized government is unsustainable and will wither for better or worse.
● The possibility of on an emerging grassroots conservative hegemon to effectuate a devolution revolution—that is to peaceably devolve power from the federal leviathan back to the rightful authority of the states and people thereof. In effect, it represents a turn to more grassroots-based politics, local decision-making, and home rule.
● A prudent political economy and the search for the humane economy, and the advantages afforded by the restoration of honest money and a decentralized federal polity which could give rise to a broader and more affluent middle class, a wider dispersal of private property, more decentralized capital markets, and more vibrant and prosperous communities. The failures and the gridlock of our present political structures will force Americans to address its shortcomings. Should we heed the prudent wisdom of our forefathers, then we may attain a renaissance of liberty, freedom, prosperity and public virtue.
Confronting the reality of the Constitution in exile means that we have to be proactive in taking steps to recover the federal polity of the founding generation. Such reforms are rooted in the politics of prudence and prescription. "Politics is the art of the possible," declared Russell Kirk.
“I think that in the dawning centuries of democracy, individual independence and local liberties always be the products of art. Centralized government will be the natural thing.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
"To live within a just order is to live within a pattern that has beauty. The individual finds purpose within an order, and security - whether it is the order of the soul or the order of the community. Without order, indeed the life of man is poor, , brutish, and short."
—Russell Kirk
Ultimately, we must face the reality that underlying crisis facing the United States and the West is spiritual and cultural in nature, and not inherently political. But bad political decisions and structures act to corrupt and degrade society, which is why we must be prudent in our politics.
My mentors and influences
My mentors over the years have been able conservative thinkers such as Stephen A. Samson, Clyde N. Wilson, Forrest McDonald, the late M.E. Bradford, the late Russell Kirk, the late Robert Nisbet, the late Wilhelm Roepke, H.L. Cheek, Jr., and Donald Livingston. Some among the living, I count as my personal friends whom I have met before and correspond with. The first in fact was a professor of mine, and he elucidates quite well on the covenant origins of the American polity. Perhaps, one will grace my book with an introduction.
"The secondary teacher regards himself as learning from the masters alogn with his students. He should not act as if he were a primary teacher... He should not masquerade as one who knows and can teach by virtue of his original discoveries. The primary sources of his own knowledge should be the primary sources of learning for his students, and such a teacher honestly functions only if he does not aggrandize himself by coming between the great books and their ...readers."
—Mortimer Adler
It was my proprietary studies of primary source materials that I ultimately credit with my acquisition of knowledge on constitutional history. I gravitated towards these mentors because I shared their predilections and perspective, and essentially came to the same conclusions as they did. Though, I gained perspective and clarity from their insights.
Source materials
"The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he no brain of his own."
—C.H. Spurgeon
I will be meticulous in my use of primary sources to vindicate my views. I have over 200 pages (double-spaced), 65,907 words of primary and secondary sources compilation materials of mostly quotes, systematically organized, meticulously footnoted, and interspersed with my commentary. Bear in mind, this is not the book itself, but the intellectual fodder for the book. It represents a systematic recollection of my studies through the years, and I started it in 2005. It is a work-in-progress which will continue to grow. I had distributed this work via e-mail to a select handful of friends, and dubbed it "A Citizen’s Guide to the Constitution and Republicanism." Granted, I have no intention of publishing this work itself now or later. It merely serves as materials for my present research which will form the basis of the book I am authoring.
Selective Bibliography
Primary Source Materials
Eds. Kaminski, John P. and Gaspare J. Saladino et al. The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1976)
Eds. Kurland, Phillip and Ralph Lerner. The Founders' Constitution. (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987)
Secondary Source Materials
Acton, Lord John, Selected Writings of Lord Acton, J. Rufus Fears, ed. 3 vols. (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2000).
Cheek, Jr., H.L., ed. John C. Calhoun: Selected Writings and Speeches, (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2003).
Cheek, Jr., H.L., Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of Disquisition and Discourse. (Columbia, MO: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2001).
Denson, John V., ed., Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2001),
Graham, John Remington, A Constitutional History of Secession. (Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub. Co., 2002).
Gregg II, Gary L., ed. Vital Remnants: America’s Founding and the Western Tradition. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 1999),
Livingston, Donald. Philosophical Melancholy and Delirium, (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1993.)
Lutz, Donald. Colonial Origins of the American Constitution. (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1999).
McDonald, Forrest. States’ Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876. (Lawrence, KN: Univ. of Kansas Press, 2001).
Tucker, St. George, View of the Constitution of the United States. (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1999).
Watkins, Jr., William J., Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
Wilson, Clyde. From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition. (Columbia, SC: Foundation for Amer. Education, 2003).
Woods, Jr.,Thomas E. The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2004).
Upshur, Abel Parker, The True Nature and Character of the Federal Government, (Dahlonega, GA: The Confederate Reprint Company, 2004)
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.
~Jessamyn West
It evolved into a different direction than I first foresaw, and began as little more than a brainstorming session the themes are the same, but what i thought was just the first chapter is now the tentative title of the book.
Posted by
Ryan S. |
4:59 PM