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Book Review
Canada and the United States
Saul Cornell. The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 17881828. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, for the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va. 1999. Pp. xvi, 327. Cloth $55.00, paper $19.95.
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This is a study of the ideology developed by the Antifederalists in opposition to the U. S. Constitution and its subsequent effect on the creed of the Jeffersonian Republican Party. Although Saul Cornell mentions the Antifederalist contribution to the dissenting tradition in America, he wisely sidesteps two pitfalls: the use of Antifederalist quotations by modern opponents of central authority (militia movements National Rifle Association) and the "original intent" school of modern political scientists. |
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Cornell recognizes that the Antifederalists represented a variety of social and economic interests, "incredible regional diversity" and never developed a coherent political philosophy. He nevertheless is able to identify certain themes that persisted across geographical and social boundaries and over time. Because the Antifederalists never held a convention or drafted an alternative document, the only thing that tied them together was print. Cornell therefore undertook a textual analysis of Antifederalist essays, speeches, and correspondence. |
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