TY - BOOK ID - 85470130 TI - Frontier democracy PY - 2015 SN - 1316463761 1316464156 1316465713 1316464547 1316466493 1316117294 1107090768 1107462894 1316461424 9781316466490 9781316117293 9781107462892 9781107090767 PB - New York, NY DB - UniCat KW - Constitutional conventions KW - Conventions, Constitutional KW - History KW - Northwest, Old KW - Northeastern States KW - Politics and government KW - Social conditions UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:85470130 AB - Frontier Democracy examines the debates over state constitutions in the antebellum Northwest (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) from the 1820s through the 1850s. This is a book about conversations: in particular, the fights and negotiations over the core ideals in the constitutions that brought these frontier communities to life. Silvana R. Siddali argues that the Northwestern debates over representation and citizenship reveal two profound commitments: the first to fair deliberation, and the second to ethical principles based on republicanism, Christianity, and science. Some of these ideas succeeded brilliantly: within forty years, the region became an economic and demographic success story. However, some failed tragically: racial hatred prevailed everywhere in the region, in spite of reformers' passionate arguments for justice, and resulted in disfranchisement and even exclusion for non-white Northwesterners that lasted for generations. ER -