Strictures on Nullification

Everett, Alexander Hill, 1790-1847Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 181K words
Chapters: 19

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Strictures on Nullification by Alexander Hill EverettAuthor: Everett, Alexander Hill, 1790-1847,Language: English, Class: E300: History: America: Revolution to the Civil War (1783-1861), Release Date: Sep 17, 2012

Editor's review

This book is Alexander Hill Everett's political tract rebutting nullification, a historical document from the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Its value lies in presenting the constitutional debate of the early nineteenth-century United States over federal power and states' rights: the author responds argumentatively to the claim that a state may declare a federal law void, reflecting the elite concern of the time for federal unity and constitutional order. Readers should not expect a neutral survey; it is itself a polemical text with a clear stance, and its strength lies precisely in its argumentative structure, rhetorical strategy, and historical context. It is suitable as a primary source for the history of early American political thought and constitutional debate; read alongside relevant historical background, it makes the points of contention between the two sides clearer. As a public-domain e-book, its formatting is plain; read it with questions in mind and distinguish the author's claims from factual narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of early American political thought and constitutional history
Researchers needing primary nineteenth-century political tracts
History readers interested in the federal power versus states' rights debate
Readers seeking to train their reading of English political prose

Not a good fit for

General readers looking for a comprehensive or popular history of the Civil War
Those wanting a neutral scholarly survey rather than a polemic
Beginners unaccustomed to long English political sentences and unwilling to look up background

Reading tips

First learn the basic facts of the nullification crisis, then read the author's specific rebuttals.
Mark the author's core arguments and evidence while reading, distinguishing claims from facts.
Compare with other political tracts of the same period to see how the two sides differed.
The English sentences are long; read slowly in sections and take brief notes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What historical issue does this book discuss?

It discusses the early nineteenth-century American constitutional debate over whether a state has the right to declare a federal law void. Everett, taking the position of rebutting nullification, responds to states' rights claims in political-tract form; it is a historical document from the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War, not a general history.

Are the views in the book objective and neutral?

No, it is not a neutral survey. The book is a polemical text with a clear stance, and the author's aim is to refute nullification; readers should therefore distinguish the author's claims from factual narrative and preferably compare with other historical materials to understand the points of contention between the two sides more fully.

Is it suitable for coursework?

It is suitable as a primary source for early American political thought or constitutional debate, especially for training in analyzing political prose. But because it is highly argumentative and background-dense, it is best used under a teacher's guidance and supplemented with general and constitutional history materials, so as not to rely on a single partisan text.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Everett, Alexander Hill, 1790-1847 Author · American · 1790–1847

Alexander Hill Everett (1790–1847) was an American diplomat and editor. He served as minister to Spain and edited the North American Review, exercising some influence in nineteenth-century American political commentary and literary criticism. One work by him is held in this collection, Strictures on Nullification. On the available evidence, the book engages the contentious issue of nullification in American politics, reflecting his inclination as a political writer to address conflicts between the federal system and states' rights. Public information about the details of his life is limited; his writing generally took contemporary political questions as its starting point, with an argumentative style suited to the public debates of his time.