Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy (review)

Abstract

Reclaiming American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy. By William J. Watkins. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004. Pp. xxiv, 236. Cloth, $39.95.)In a short 1999 article, William Watkins proposed that is quintessence of Americanism (http://www.mises.org/story/223). He has now written a book-length treatise developing this fairly unconventional take on nation's political tradition. In doing so, Watkins has chosen his evidence selectively, overlooking a wide range of scholarship that may have forced him to qualify his claims. Rather than a careful and balanced assessment of and their place in nation's political history, this book is a briskly argued brief on behalf of a version of American federalism in which state has been retrieved from dustbin of southern history, stripped of its association with (according to Watkins recent scholarship has shown that there was no nexus between . . . and presentation] of slavery [117]), and repositioned at center of nation's constitutional tradition. The last half of book traces how a small band of virtuous Americans have reclaimed of 1798 in their efforts to protect original purity of our constitutional (154) against forces such as the Lincoln dictatorship (148), War on Republic (120, more commonly known as Civil War), regulatory apparatus that emerged in Progressive Era and New Deal, and chains Americans have forge [d] . . . for themselves with programs such as Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid (159).Watkins is strongest when he outlines thinking behind 1798 resolutions, particularly Jefferson's. While he is not first to note that Jefferson advocated Virginia and Kentucky's secession from union in 1798, he goes further than most historians in suggesting that this strong emphasis on state sovereignty, rooted in compact theory of Constitution, lay at core of Jefferson's and perhaps even Madison's vision of federalism. When Watkins extends this claim to assert that was one of the first principles of American Revolution (1) and a central component of broader political thought of founding era, he is on much shakier ground. After all, Kentucky legislature, led by John Breckinridge, significantly muted language that Jefferson had sent them. They removed term nullification from resolution and excised Jefferson's suggestion that they correspond with other states in order to encourage coordinated resistance across nation. Watkins does not trace out political machinations within Kentucky legislature, so we have no idea whether Breckinridge was representative of his fellow legislators or was imposing moderation upon an otherwise radical assembly. Watkins also acknowledges that no other state in union responded positively to Kentucky's watered-down resolution, and indeed, most rejected argument even after radical language of had been excised. Meanwhile, Virginia resolution authored by Madison never broached doctrine of state nullification. That should not come as much of a surprise, since in 1787 Madison had advocated A; federal veto over state laws. But since Watkins has already decided that principles of lay at core of American political tradition, he quickly passes over such inconvenient details.When Watkins extends his investigation into nineteenth century, his account suffers from a similar paucity of concrete evidence and an overreliance on one figure, in this case John C. Calhoun. Considering current historical interest around questions of memory and invention of tradition, one might expect that a chapter on legacy of resolutions would provide an examination of how a range of political actors in nineteenth century created that by deploying and reconfiguring memory of 1798 in new contexts. …