Alternative Constitutions for the United States

[David S Poepoe]

Alternative Constitutions for the United States: A Documentary History by Steven R. Boyd.

Those of you with access to an academic library may be able to get your hands on this one. I came across it quite by accident yesterday. The author examines 10 alternative constitution suggested or promoted by various individuals since 1860. Undoubtedly there was some qualifying criteria to make the final cut, but they are interesting. Each constitution is examined in detail and printed in whole.

Contents:

William B. Wedgwood: The Reconstruction of the Government of the United States of America (1861)
-Interesting in that Wedgwood refers to his work as the 'Constitution of the Democractic Empire'. Executive power, at the very top is vested with a President and an Emperor.

Victoria C. Woodhull: Constitution of the United States of the World (1870)

James C. West: A Proposed New Constitution for the United States (1890)

Frederick Upham Adams: A Majority Rule Constitution (1893)

Henry O. Morris: Waiting for the Signal - apparently from a novel printed in 1898.

Eustace Reynolds: The New Constitution: A Suggested Form of Modified Constitution (1915)

Hugh L. Hamilton: The Second Constitution of the United States of America (1938)

Thomas Carlyle Upham: The New Constitution for the United States: A Democratic Ideal for the World (1941)

Leland D. Baldwin: A Reframed Constitution (1972)

Rexford G. Tugwell: The Emerging Constitution: An Imperative for Modern America (1974)

Haven't gone thru the work, tho I think I only came across one recommendation for a unicameral legislature. Very interesting in that quite a few set exact limits on the Congress' ability to tax.

 

[Major Major]

In the late sixties, Arthur Waskow, a New Leftist activist, proposed a new constitution. It had such things as representation by racial community and by employment -- it was essentially one person, three votes. Everything was owned by the community, the country had to provide huge foreign aid, and so on and so on. The book where I read it also had a critique by a Japanese New Leftist who was scathing about how it didn't go nearly far enough.