This book presented the history of an idea and of a people who tried to live by that idea before the Civil War – the idea we know today as American constitutionalism, defining “the people” as a collective sovereign. With Independence, Americans confronted how that collective sovereign could, like a king, speak clearly in one voice on local as well as on national concerns in a large and diverse country. One solution was to hear the voice of this sovereign through written constitutions.

This did not mean that the collective sovereign could be heard speaking primarily through a written constitution, as is the accepted wisdom today. During their Revolution and for a half-century thereafter, Americans were more open to the idea than we are today that a collective sovereign could rule without insisting on institutions or procedures to verify and discern the sovereign's will. This understanding made sense under an American constitutionalism that considered the people both the ruler and the ruled. But as memories of the Revolution faded, applying the principle of the collective sovereign's ability to act became a growing source of dispute.

The problem of determining the people's will was evident from the start, as illustrated by reaction to the news of Independence. John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, wrote General George Washington on July 6 enclosing a copy of the Declaration of Independence.