Creating the Land of Lincoln : the history and constitutions of Illinois, 1778-1870 /

Creating the Land of Lincoln : the history and constitutions of Illinois, 1778-1870 /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Cicero, Frank, Jr, author.
Imprint:	Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2018.
Description:	1 online resource
Language:	English
Subject:	Constitutions -- Illinois. Constitutional law -- Illinois. Constitutional history -- Illinois. Constitutional history. Constitutional law. Constitutions. Illinois.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12351311

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780252050343 0252050347 0252041674 9780252041679 9780252041679
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. Available to Stanford Law School Community. Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed March 16, 2018).
Summary:	"Creating the Land of Lincoln: The Forgotten History of Illinois tells the development of Illinois through the history of its 19th century constitutions. Illinois in the early 19th century was essentially a southern state sympathetic to slavery. Boundary changes written into the 1818 constitution that added a large land area in the north and a rapidly growing population immigrating from the north and east pushed the state's political trajectory northward. The debates about slavery changed, with intensified concern about the presence of free blacks, and legislative abuses grew, leading to the 1848 document. That process accelerated through the eighteen fifties, Lincoln's presidency, and the Civil War, resulting in the progressive 1870s constitution. In Creating the Land of Lincoln, Frank Cicero, Jr. takes a fresh look at generally neglected aspects of Illinois's political history, offering new insights into Abraham Lincoln, slavery, and Illinois politics as we approach the states 200th anniversary. It covers the period from 1673 to 1870, the year the third Illinois Constitution went into effect to last for 100 years. The events of that early period, and the three 19th century constitutions that reflected them, enabled the election of Abraham Lincoln and shaped the Illinois of the subsequent 150 years"--
Other form:	Print version: Cicero, Frank, Jr. Creating the Land of Lincoln. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2018

Description
Summary:	In its early days, Illinois seemed destined to extend the American South. Its population of transplants lived an upland southern culture and in some cases owned slaves. Yet the nineteenth century and three constitutions recast Illinois as a crucible of northern strength and American progress. Frank Cicero Jr. provides an appealing new history of Illinois as expressed by the state's constitutions--and the lively conventions that led to each one. In Creating the Land of Lincoln, Cicero sheds light on the vital debates of delegates who, freed from electoral necessity, revealed the opinions, prejudices, sentiments, and dreams of Illinoisans at critical junctures in state history. Cicero simultaneously analyzes decisions large and small that fostered momentous social and political changes. The addition of northern land in the 1818 constitution, for instance, opened up the state to immigrant populations that reoriented Illinois to the north. Legislative abuses and rancor over free blacks influenced the 1848 document and the subsequent rise of a Republican Party that gave the nation Abraham Lincoln as its president. Cicero concludes with the 1870 constitution, revealing how its dialogues and resolutions set the state on the modern course that still endures today.
Physical Description:	1 online resource
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780252050343 0252050347 0252041674 9780252041679
Access:	Available to Stanford Law School Community.