Heeding the Deed, Part 2 (LAW-CONST2)
Exploring the 'deed' of constitutional amendment, this lecture traces how the Republican Government clause evolved through the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, linking it to Reconstruction's democratic standards. It also examines the national draft, showing how wartime necessity shaped its constitutional acceptance.
The Republican Government clause sat quiet for decades, then became the engine of Reconstruction. Akhil Reed Amar traces how the deed of amending reshaped its meaning.
Continuing the enactment method, this lecture follows the process that produced the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments: former Confederate states held to high democratic standards, required to enfranchise free Black citizens, and monitored by federal power that echoes the later Voting Rights Act. Amar closes with the national draft, arguing that what looked unconstitutional to Daniel Webster in 1812 became settled law only after the army's role in the Union changed.
Heeding the Deed, Part 1 (LAW-CONST2)
Next · Lecture 5Hearing the People, Part 1 (LAW-CONST2)
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