Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
5-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
History
Major Professor
Michael E. Woods
Committee Members
Luke Harlow, Christopher Magra, Kevin Portteus
Abstract
The United States Constitutional Convention of 1787 met behind closed doors. Therefore, Americans only learned the details of the proceedings gradually, as members of the Convention disclosed their recollections of the events and as accounts of the proceedings fitfully entered public conversation in the decades after 1787. Between the Constitution’s genesis in 1787 and its greatest test of endurance, the outbreak of civil war in 1861, Americans debated the Convention’s intentions, personalities, and deliberations as they developed various methods for interpreting the Constitution—methods which remained relatively consistent across the nineteenth century.
This dissertation analyzes the impact of successive revelations about the Convention and traces how various memories of the event shaped the development of American constitutionalism. In turn, we learn more about the meaning of the Founding era for subsequent generations and its role in shaping national identity, while we simultaneously witness the burgeoning popular constitutionalism of the antebellum United States and the ways in which divergences in constitutional exegesis contributed to the sectional fissures that resulted in civil war. This study speaks to questions about cultural memories of the Founding era, political manipulation of historical records, and debates about constitutional interpretation—all of which testify to perennial questions inherent in republican self-government. Americans’ varied responses to these questions in the nineteenth century affected the contours of political, cultural, and intellectual debate no less than our responses today affect contemporary political controversies about history and the Constitution. This work contributes critical analysis of historical precedents to inform our understanding of constitutional debates, past and present.
Recommended Citation
Deanda, Amanda M., "A “Memorable Occasion:” Remembering the Convention and Interpreting the Constitution, 1787—1861. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2025.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12346