American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment - Hardcover

Magliocca, Gerard N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814761453 ISBN 13: 9780814761458

Publisher: NYU Press, 2013

Synopsis

John Bingham was the architect of the rebirth of the United States following the Civil War. A leading antislavery lawyer and congressman from Ohio, Bingham wrote the most important part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees fundamental rights and equality to all Americans. He was also at the center of two of the greatest trials in history, giving the closing argument in the military prosecution of John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. And more than any other man, Bingham played the key role in shaping the Union’s policy towards the occupied ex-Confederate States, with consequences that still haunt our politics.  American Founding Son provides the most complete portrait yet of this remarkable statesman. Drawing on his personal letters and speeches, the book traces Bingham’s life from his humble roots in Pennsylvania through his career as a leader of the Republican Party. Gerard N. Magliocca argues that Bingham and his congressional colleagues transformed the Constitution that the Founding Fathers created, and did so with the same ingenuity that their forbears used to create a more perfect union in the 1780s. In this book, Magliocca restores Bingham to his rightful place as one of our great leaders.  

About this title

Review:

“American Founding Son is plainly a labor of love.”

-Daniel W. Crofts

"Magliocca has created a book jammed with information and firsthand sources. History buffs will love it, and Civil War connoisseurs will embrace it. However, in the end, its message is for everyone. Words with meaning can be the best legacy a person can leave behind, even if no one ever remembers your name."-Los Angeles Review of Books

"Gerard Magliocca has done nearly as much as anyone could to resurrect John Bingham, and he has succeeded in making Bingham come alive as an important political player in the Civil War era. The author is also candid enough to admit his uncertainties about Bingham. Even if he can't entirely convince us of the revolutionary nature of Bingham or his amendment, he has certainly restored Bingham to a rightful place in Civil War political and legal history."-Wall Street Journal

“How this leading antislavery lawyer shaped Union policy vis-à-vis the defeated South and wrote most of the amendment guaranteeing equal rights to all Americans.”-American History

"Magliocca presents this evidence in a fine narrative, an excellent example of an intellectual biography.  It preserves a chronological presentation, without obscuring the primacy of the subject's legal and political thoughts."-David Upham,Online Library of Law and Liberty

"Gerard Magliocca makes the most of the sometimes scanty evidence to paint an illuminating portrait of Ohio Congressman John Bingham, the author of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment and perhaps our most neglected 'framer' of the Constitution.  From leading the impeachment prosecution of President Andrew Johnson, to serving as Ambassador to Japan, Bingham's life was fascinating. And so too is this book that every student of our constitutional history should read."-Randy E. Barnett,Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory & Director, Georgetown Center for the Constitution

"This is a worthy biography that will illume...many of the controversies that surround interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment....Certainly, the picture that emerges from this book is much fuller than scholars have had to date."-John R. Vile,Law and Politics Book Review

“This is a worthy biography that will illume, without settling, many of the controversies that surround interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

-John R. Vile

"Gerard Magliocca traces Bingham's life from humble beginnings in Pennsylvania through his career as a leader of the Republican Party.  This is an excellent examination of Bingham, who was a major force in shaping the America that emerged from the Civil War."-Frank J. Williams,Civil War News

"On Dec. 8, 1863, just two weeks after delivering the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln gave his third State of the Union to Congress.  In the 19th century, the State of the Union was called the Annual Message, and it was a written document rather than a speech.  While much of this annual message was the usual laundry list of the administration's foreign and domestic acts, at the end Lincoln turned to the progress of war - and began to sketch the outlines of peace." -Gerard N. Magliocca,The New York Times: Opinionator

About the Author:

Gerard N. Magliocca is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He is the author of three books on constitutional law, and his work on Andrew Jackson was the subject of an hour-long program on C-Span’s Book TV.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0814761453
• ISBN 13: 9780814761458
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304