Rogers M. Smith, The Reconstruction Amendments, American Constitutional Development, and the Quest for Equal Citizenship, 2 J. Am. Con. Hist. 680 (2024).
Scholars debate whether the Reconstruction Amendments constituted a Second Founding, a revolutionary break with the original Constitution, or a fulfillment of it. Most conservatives contend that it is Progressives and liberals in the 20th century who truly broke with the U.S. Constitution. This article contends first, that a focus on citizenship, the fundamental political identity of members of a republic, shows that Reconstruction was more a Second Founding than a fulfillment of the First Founding. Second, the Reconstruction amendments and statutes implanted the views of those who saw the Constitution as a means for realizing the goals of the Declaration of Independence more firmly into the Constitution. Third, while Reconstruction was the largest turning point in American political development in U.S. history, its reforms also provide a bridge between the goals and principles of the First Founding and the 20th century’s constitutional reformers. Finally, the article concludes that this history makes the quest to secure equal citizenship, with respect for the rights of all, central to the American constitutional enterprise.
