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The People's Privilege: The Franking Privilege, Constituent Correspondence, and Political Representation in Mid-Nineteenth Century America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2013
Extract
In his book The Dignity of Legislation, Jeremy Waldron bemoans the lack of attention legal philosophers have paid to legislatures and legislation. This oversight, Waldron suggests, has impoverished our understanding of legislatures as legal institutions, and has led jurisprudes to see only the “indignity of legislation.” Legal historians have hardly been more attentive, preferring to leave legislatures to political historians and political scientists. So although we have myriad studies of roll call votes, for example, we lack a genuine understanding of the legal history of legislatures or legislation. Our failure to appreciate the role of legislatures and legislation is especially characteristic of studies of the pre-Civil War period, a period in which the state has been famously described as a “state of courts and parties,” and characterized by the legislature's “decline of authority.” Even those who have uncovered a rich governmental theory and practice in the nineteenth century have focused more on courts and statutory interpretation. Willard Hurst criticized this inattention to the legal history of legislatures years ago, noting the “tendency to identify legal history with the history of courts and court-made doctrine.” Our court-centered approach has left us with only a partial understanding of the role of law in American history. “In order to see law in its relations to the society as a whole,” Hurst continued, “one must appraise all formal and informal aspects of political organized power— observe the functions of all agencies (legislative, executive, administrative, or judicial) and take account of the interplay of such agencies with voters and nonvoters, lobbyists and interest groups, politicians and political parties. This definition overruns traditional boundaries dividing the study of law from study of political history, political science, and sociology.”
- Type
- Forum: Legal History and Legislatures
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2013
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90. A. Bainbridge, South Pass, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 18, 1861, box 34, folder 15; George Stowell, Polo, to Stephen A. Douglas, March 28, 1856, box 3, folder 25; Obadiah Jackson, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 31, 1857, box 8, folder 15; Michael Tait, Joliet, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 1, 1858, box 8, folder 22; Samuel Ashton, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, May 9, 1858, box 4, folder 3 (emphasis in original); and W.L. Deneen, Lebanon, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 21, 1857, box 7, folder 20.
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95. Andrew Harvie, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, November, 11, 1853, box 3, folder 1; C.C. Alexander, Sterling, to Stephen A. Douglas, November 24, 1857, box 6, folder 10; Magnus Miller, Rock Island, to Stephen A. Douglas, June 17, 1857, box 5, folder 18; O.B. Maples, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 4, 1857, box 6, folder 17; Arthur Windett, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 29, 1857, box 8, folder 13; B. Cameron, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, April 5, 1856, box 3, folder 26; Mrs. Adaline Buffum, Joliet, to Stephen A. Douglas, March 4, 1861, box 36, folder 4; James Fee, Camp Point, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 23, 1857, box 8, folder 1 (emphasis added); Fayette Walker, Evanston, to Stephen A. Douglas, June 11, 1857, box 5, folder 18 (emphasis in original).; J.J. Brown, Charleston, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 30, 1857, box 8, folder 14; B. Caulfield, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, March 9, 1857, box 5, folder 2; and William A. Monroe, East Paw Paw, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 14, 1861, box 34, folder 12.
96. W.J. Stephenson, et al., Ashly, to Stephen A. Douglas, August 29, 1857, box 6, folder 6 (emphasis added); William Ross, Pittsfield, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 21, 1857, box 7, folder 22; R.L. Wheeler, Elgin, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 1858, box 8, folder 20; James Barnard, PM, Wilkesboro, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 8, 1861, box 34, folder 3; Isaac McCann, Ashmore Station, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 14, 1860, box 34, folder 11; and E.A. Collins, Galena, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 11, 1861, box 34, folder 7.
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102. Of the 1142 letters examined, 402 writers identified their party affiliation by name. Of this total, 394 identified themselves as Democrats, 4 as Republicans, 3 as Whigs, and 1 as Loco Foco.
103. Cornelius Knapp, Albany, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 28, 1861, box 34, folder 25.
104. H.G. Weston, Peoria, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 17, 1857, box 7, folder 11; Charles Eggleston, Peoria, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 8, 1852, box 2, folder 2; G.L. Iliet [?], Pottsville, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 2, 1852, box 2, folder 3; William McCormack, Danville, to Stephen A. Douglas, April 1, 1856, box 3, folder 26; and James Murphy, Williamsburgh, New York, to Stephen A. Douglas, March 13, 1856, box 3, folder 22.
105. Johannsen, James Vendevanter, PM, LeRoy, to Stephen A. Douglas, Feb. 11, 1856, box 3, folder 15, 467, 550–60, 622.
106. Ward H. Lamon, Danville, to Stephen A. Douglas, May 2, 1856, box 4, folder 3 (emphasis in original); John Dickson, Camden Mills, to Stephen A. Douglas, April 15, 1857, box 5, folder 8 (emphasis in original); Joshua Rucker, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, May 18, 1857, box 5, folder 14; and [Luke?] Wilson, Libertyville, to Stephen A. Douglas, June 3, 1857, box 5, folder 17.
107. James Vandevanter, PM, Le Roy, to SAD, Feb. 11, 1856, box 3, folder 16 (emphasis in original).
108. John McCallister, Council Hill, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 27, 1857, box 4, folder 14. McCallister confessed to committing this criminal act. His apology was that, “I live in one of the damd. English abolitionist Black Republican holes in the U.S. … I am the only man in this Township that fights for the Democratic Cause.”
109. John, Spreading the News, 120.
110. James McNulty, Illinois, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 1, 1856, box 3, folder 16; A.W. Herrington, Seneca, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 11, 1856, box 3, folder 16; Issac Dimmick, Ottawa, to Stephen A. Douglas, April 20, 1857, box 5, folder 10; J.M. Anderson, Summerhill, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 24, 1857, box 8, folder 3; A. Diller[?], Brighton, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 11, 1856, box 3, folder 22; and Unknown, Kankakee City, to Stephen A. Douglas, April 10, 1857, box 5, folder 7.
111. H. Tobias, Brickton, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 9, 1857, box 6, folder 20; A. Eddy, et al., Riley, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 1858, box 8, folder 18; E. Bursall, Jr., Edgington, Rock Island, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 28, 1856, box 3, folder 19; C. C. Alexander, Sterling, to Stephen A. Douglas, November 24, 1857, box 6, folder 10; and W. M. Learing, Princeton, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 22, 1857, box 7, folder 25.
112. McCormick, “Party Period and Public Policy,” 287, 290–95.
113. For a discussion of this theme, see Altschuler, Glenn C., and Blumin, Stuart M., Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 3–13Google Scholar.
114. Jed Shugerman, “The People's Courts: The Rise of Judicial Elections in America” (PhD diss., Yale University, 2008).
115. John Philip, Arlington, to Stephen A. Douglas, January, 1858, box 8, folder 19; John McCallister, Council Hill, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 7, 1857, box 4, folder 14; and Cushman, Ottawa, Illinois, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 17, 1857, box 4, folder 18.
116. James Murphy, Williamsburgh, New York, to Stephen A. Douglas, March 13, 1856, box 3, folder 22; B. O'Connor, Beloit, Wisconsin, to Stephen A. Douglas, November 22, 1857, box 6, folder 10; and M. [?] Peoples, Mt. Pleasant, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 7, 1852, box 2, folder 1.
117. George A. Schufeldt, Jr., Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 21, 1857, box 7, folder 22; H. Butler, Libertyville, to Stephen A. Douglas, Aug. 12, 1857, box 6, folder 3; Henry Jones, to Stephen A. Douglas, box 9, folder 4; L.M. Chapman, Sterling, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 4, 1857, box 6, folder 17; and John Liming, Perry, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 22, 1857, box 7, folder 24.
118. R. Andrus, Bloomington, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 5, 1852, box 2, folder 4; Rev. Wingate J. Newman, Franklin, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 8, 1861, box 34, folder 4; Joseph Thomas, Orange(?), to Stephen A. Douglas, December 20, 1857, box 7, folder 18; Joseph Knox, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, March 10, 1861, box 36, folder 10; and John Lindesmith, Blue Ridge, to Stephen A. Douglas, January 16, 1861, box 34, folder 13.
119. W.(?) Gallahan, Meeny, to Stephen A. Douglas, February 9, 1852, box 2, folder 4 (emphasis in original); Mrs. M.B. Davis, Chicago, to Stephen A. Douglas, November 11, 1857, box 6, folder 8; and Kate Hipple, Plymouth, to Stephen A. Douglas, December 24, 1857, box 8, folder 3.
120. Wood, Gordon S., Representation in the American Revolution, revised ed. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 4–5Google Scholar.
121. Id. 1.
122. Wood, Radicalism, 259.
123. The best work on political representation has focused on the eighteenth century; see Adams, Willi Paul, The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology and the Making of the State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era, expanded ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 228–53Google Scholar; Wood, Gordon S., The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Rakove, Jack N., Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (New York: Vintage Books, 1997)Google Scholar; Reid, John Phillip, The Concept of Representation in the Age of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989)Google Scholar; and Pole, J.R., The Gift of Government: Political Responsibility From the English Restoration to American Independence (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983)Google Scholar; and Political Representation in England and the Origins of the American Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966)Google Scholar. For the nineteenth century, see, for example, Zagarri, Rosemarie, The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776–1850 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Argersinger, Peter H., “The Value of the Vote: Political Representation in the Gilded Age” Journal of American History 76 (1989): 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shields, Johanna Nicol, “Whigs Reform the ‘Bear Garden’: Representation and the Apportionment Act of 1842,” Journal of the Early Republic 5 (1985): 355CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Pole, J.R., “Suffrage and Representation in Massachusetts: A Statistical Note,” The William and Mary Quarterly 14 (1957): 560CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “Representation and Authority in Virginia From the Revolution to Reform,” The Journal of Southern History 24 (1958): 16Google Scholar, and “Suffrage and Representation in Maryland From 1776 to 1810: A Statistical Note and Some Reflections,” The Journal of Southern History 24 (1958): 218Google Scholar; see also Grazia, Alfred De, Public and Republic: Political Representation in America (New York: Knopf, 1951)Google Scholar. There are also several studies on the right to vote. For a good synthesis of that work, see Keyssar, Alexander, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York: Basic Books, 2000)Google Scholar.
124. Mettler, Suzanne and Milstein, Andrew, “American Political Development From Citizens' Perspective: Tracking Federal Government's Presence in Individual Lives Over Time,” Studies in American Political Development 21 (2007): 110CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Julian Zelizer has also recently encouraged historians to look beyond voting and elections to understand citizenship. Zelizer, Julian E., “History and Political Science: Together Again?” Journal of Policy History 16 (2004): 127, 130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
125. John, Spreading the News.