This classic work explains the evolution of American political thought from the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution. In so doing, it illuminates the origins of the present American political system.

pt. I. The ideology of revolution -- ch. I. The Whig science of politics: History and reason ; The English constitution ; Power against liberty ; English corruption ; The pattern of tyranny ; The preservation of principles -- ch. II. Republicanism: -- A new people for a new world ; The appeal of antiquity ; The public good ; The need for virtue ; Equality ; Whig resentment ; The Pennsylvania revolution -- ch. III. Moral reformation: The easy transition to republicanism ; The debate over the genius of the people ; Republicans by nature ; American corruption ; A Christian sparta ; Republican regeneration -- pt. II. The constitution of the states -- ch. IV. The restructuring of power: Foundations for freedom ; The transformation of the magistracy ; The power of appointment ; Separation of powers -- ch. V. The nature of representation: The representative legislature ; Virtual representation ; The explicitness of consent ; Ambassadors to an extraneous power -- ch. VI. Mixed government and bicameralism: The American defense of the mixed state ; Mixed republics ; The senatorial part of the society ; Persons and property ; Simple democracy ; A radical experiment in politics ; The homogeneity of orders ; A double representation of the people -- pt. III. The people against the legislatures -- ch. VII. Law and contracts: Written and unwritten law ; The contract of rulers and ruled ; The constitution as fundamental law ; The social contract ; The ambiguity of American law -- ch. VIII. Conventions of the people: The novelty of constitutional conventions ; The deficiency of conventions ; The people out-of-doors ; A power superior to the ordinary legislature -- ch. IX. The sovereignty of the people: The Anglo-American debate over sovereignty ; The Articles of Confederation ; The disintegration of representation ; The transferal of sovereignty ; The disembodiment of government -- pt. IV. The critical period -- ch. X. Vices of the system: The incongruity of the crisis ; The perversion of republicanism ; The abuses of legislative power ; Democratic despotism ; Political pathology ; The continuance of hope -- ch. XI. Republican remedies: Constitutional reform ; Whiggism against itself ; The revision of separation of powers ; The enhancement of the judiciary ; The abandonment of the states -- pt. V. The Federal Constitution -- ch. XII. The worthy against the licentious: The federalist revolution ; The separation of social and political authority ; Aristocracy and democracy ; The extended sphere of government ; The filtration of talent -- ch. XIII. The Federalist persuasion: The repudiation of 1776 ; Consolidation or confederation ; The primal power of the people ; The irrelevance of a bill of rights ; The alliance of power and liberty ; The checking and balancing of power ; The redefinition of bicameralism ; The triumph and end of American ideology -- pt. VI. The Revolutionary achievement -- ch. XIV. The relevance and irrelevance of John Adams: The ensnaring of the Enlightenment ; No special providence for Americans ; The balanced constitution ; The anomaly of the Defence of the Constitutions ; An inquiry into the principles and policy of the government of the United States -- ch. XV. The American science of politics: Democratic republics ; The pervasiveness of representation ; The equation of rulers and ruled ; The parceling of power ; The end of classical politics.