The Second Founding

• Author: Lorelei Laird
• Pages: 11-11

IN THE AFTERMATH of the Civil

War, the United States had a

“Second Founding”—a period of

Reconstruction a nd re-examination

of beliefs about freedom and equa l-

ity under the law. Central to that

e ort were the 13t h, 14th and 15th

Amendments, which not only out-

lawed slavery but laid the ground-

work for modern civil rights law.

On May 9, the National Constitu-

tion Center in Philadelphia wi ll give

the Recons truction Amendment s,

as they’re sometimes ca lled, pride of

place with a new perma nent exhibit:

“Civil War and Reconstr uction: The

Battle for Freedom and Equalit y.”

“We think it’s crucially impor tant

at the National Constitution Center

to give the Second Founding equal

prominence to the fi r st,” says Je rey

Rosen, president and CEO of the

center. “So you can see the origin al

Constitution and its promise a nd its

compromises, and then you can see

the achievement and vision of equal-

ity in the Second Founding as well.”

Rosen, who also teache s constitu-

tional law at the George Washingt on

University Law School , says u nder-

standing the Reconst ruction Amend-

ments is vital to unders tanding

“where the action is in const itu-

tional law today.” The new exhibit

explains in deta il how all three

amendments came to be, usi ng origi-

nal copies of the amendments to dis -

cuss their creation and the debate s

around their adoption. The exhibit

will also d iscuss contemporary events

that infl uenced or st emmed from

the amendments, such as the ris e of

African-American political o ce-

holders during Reconstruct ion.

Professor Thavolia Glymph of

Duke University, a historian of the

19th-centur y U.S. who worked on the

exhibit, cautions that Re construction

did not instantly or universa lly cre-

ate equality for newly fre ed slaves.

In many ways, she says, the white

majority found ways to negate those

protections, such as conv icting black

people of crimes so they could be

used as free pri son labor.

“So you have these really impor tant

amendments that provide citizen-

ship, the right to vote and freedom,”

Glymph says. But “actual fre edom fell

short of the constitutional g uarantees

is one way to think about it.”

Part of that story w ill be told using

contemporary ar tifacts—many on

loan from the Gett ysburg Foundation

via the Civil War Museum of Phila-

delphia.

Rosen calls speci al attention to

Dred Scott’s origina l petition for

freedom, which eventual ly led to a

U.S. Supreme Court decision that

upset the nation and set the stage for

the Civil War. The center will al so

display a fragment of a fl ag raised by

Abraham Lincoln at Independence

Hall and a pike belonging to aboli-

tionist John Brown. The collection

also includes everyday items such a s

advertisements for slave auctions,

carpetbag lugga ge and a military

hymnbook from the 1860s.

“What we’re try ing to do in the gal-

lery is tell the stor y of the evolution

of the American bat tle for liberty and

equality,” says Rosen, “and how the

equality promised i n the Declaration

of Independence was thwarte d in

the original Cons titution, resur-

rected by Lincoln at G ettysburg,

fought for by Frederick Douglass and

other heroes, and fi n ally enshrined

in the Constitution in the Civ il War

Amendments.”

Starting June 19, v isitors can see

some of that history come to li fe with

performances of Fo urte en, a theat-

rical perfor mance of Civil War-era

texts. The wr itings come from every-

day people and infl uential fi gures—

and some who were both. The fi rs t

text is Scott ’s petition for freedom.

The opening date of the play—also

known as Juneteenth, wh ich com-

memorates the day the Union Army

told slaves in Texas that they had

been freed—will r un intermittently

throughout 2019 and 2020.

“Civil War and Reconstr uction”

will be prominently plac ed next to

the center’s main exhibit on constit u-

tional history. It will a lso drive new

material to the cent er’s free online

Interactive Const itution exhibit

aimed at educators and students.

“We hope that this will be pa rt of

a revival of intere st in the post-Civil

War Amendments,” Rosen says. “It’s

just one of the most central constit u-

tional stories.”

—Lorelei Laird

PHOTOS BY DANIEL KONTZ/NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER

The Second

Founding

A new exhibit explains the

importance of the Civil War

Amendments

Opening Statements

MAY 2019 ABA JOURNAL || 11

A military hymnb ook from the 1860s

Using Civil War artifac ts and photos, actor s

perform the play Fourteen.