Kevin Gutzman offers a fresh look at the famous statesman, described as “a revolutionary who effected radical change in a growing country.” Although often described as an American political enigma, whose image is claimed by almost everyone, Gutzman’s new exposition does much to sort fact from faction. Additionally, it brilliantly impresses a Jeffersonian imagine upon the minds of its audience.
To come to Amar’s deductions on the Electoral College, one must actively ignore the entire breadth of the Philadelphia Convention debates and a battery of other contradictory evidence.
Territories and states are distinctly different entities, and the federal government was not intended to have the same regulatory power over regions within states themselves.
Whether the founders predicated their determination on the works of Vattel, Blackstone, or an alternative explanation cannot be determined with absolute certainty. The extent to which other scholars will admit this, in my eyes, is evidence of their intellectual honesty.
Jefferson cited the Tenth Amendment as the “foundation” of the Constitution in opposing the bank. Jefferson said this despite Feldman’s claim that Jefferson wanted the document to sunset anyway. This, of course, would have made his entire argument irrelevant and unintelligible.
One will never hear Williamson’s name mentioned alongside southern political giants like Jefferson, Madison, or Rutledge. Still, the deeds he left behind were unforgettable bright spots in a tumultuous era.
