The Constitution in Congress: The Jeffersonians, 1801-1829

Because of the judicial branch's tremendous success in reviewing

legislative and executive action in the United States, legal scholars

have traditionally looked only to the courts for guidance in

interpreting the Constitution. This, the second book in David P.

Currie's multivolume series, looks to the legislative and executive

branches for insights into the development of constitutional

interpretation.

Currie examines the period of Republican hegemony from the

inauguration of Thomas Jefferson in 1801 to the election of Andrew

Jackson in 1829. During this time of great leadership and

controversy, many benchmark issues—the abolition of the new Circuit

Courts, the Louisiana Purchase, the Burr conspiracy, the War of 1812,

the Monroe Doctrine, and the Missouri Compromise, among others—were

debated and decided almost exclusively in the legislative and

executive arenas. With its uniquely legal perspective and

comprehensive coverage, The Constitution in Congress

illustrates how the executive and legislative branches matched the

Supreme Court in putting flesh and blood onto the skeleton of the

Constitution.