Trace how Hamilton’s constitutional arguments, early federal policies, and the Marshall Court’s doctrines shaped a nationalist tradition that expanded federal power and constrained state authority.
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Compare Hamilton’s nationalist proposals at Philadelphia with his defenses of limited federal authority during ratification.
Analyze how debt assumption and the national bank transformed disputes over enumerated powers and the Necessary and Proper Clause.
Evaluate the constitutional arguments surrounding the Whiskey Rebellion response and Washington’s neutrality proclamation.
Explain how judicial review, the Contract Clause, McCulloch, and federal appellate jurisdiction strengthened national authority over the states.
Contrast Story’s nationalist interpretation of the Constitution with compact theories emphasizing state sovereignty and divided authority.
Trace the course’s argument from Hamiltonian nationalism through Marshall Court doctrine to incorporation of federal rights against the states.
This course presents a critical history of the nationalist constitutional tradition associated with Alexander Hamilton and extended by John Marshall, Joseph Story, and Hugo Black. It begins by comparing Hamilton’s centralizing proposals at Philadelphia with his ratification-era assurances about limited federal power and enduring state authority. It then examines how debt assumption, the national bank, enforcement during the Whiskey Rebellion, and the neutrality proclamation raised enduring disputes over implied powers, executive authority, and federal coercion. Turning to the Marshall Court, the course analyzes judicial review, the Contract Clause, federal appellate control over state courts, and McCulloch v. Maryland as mechanisms for strengthening national institutions. It concludes by contrasting Story’s nationalist constitutional narrative with compact theories of the Union and by tracing incorporation as a later extension of federal judicial supervision over the states.
Historian and Author · The Brion McClanahan Show
Brion McClanahan is an American historian and author whose work examines the Founding era, the Constitution, and the American political tradition.
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