Sedition
How America’s Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis
Publishing at a time of constitutional crisis at the federal level, Marcus Alexander Gadson’s book Sedition takes an in-depth look at how earlier violent crises played a key part in shaping and altering the constitutions of individual US states.
Sedition covers six moments in US history—three before the Civil War and three in its aftermath—in which fights over state constitutions turned violent. These conflicts in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kansas, South Carolina, Arkansas, and the Carolinas demonstrate that “Americans who hate their constitution will do anything to change it.”
Perhaps the most famous of these crises involved “Bleeding Kansas” in the 1850s, after Congress decided that Kansas would decide by “popular sovereignty” whether to allow enslavement when the territory transitioned to statehood. The conflict featured pro- and antislavery forces invading the state, attacks on some key leaders, and a series of competing constitutions before one was ratified just months before the Civil War.
The other cases are no less fascinating. In Pennsylvania’s “Buckshot War,” parties invoked competing state constitutions to claim victory in the legislative elections. In the case of Arkansas, the state’s postwar attempt to write a new constitution to reenter the Union led to two governors claiming to hold the job and militias in support of each clashing before the president put an end to the fighting. All these situations featured fights over voting rights and who was eligible to vote, foreshadowing future conflicts along those lines.
The book covers each crisis in impressive detail, explaining the context in which it occurred, the various sides and their goals, and how the situation played out. It also asks important questions about what different outcomes would have meant for the state and for the country as a whole.
As frightening as it is informative, Sedition is an important political science book about the precariousness of democracy.
Reviewed by
Jeff Fleischer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
