Review of The Civic Constitution: Civic Visions and Struggles in the Path Toward Constitutional Democracy by Elizabeth Beaumont

Americans have long struggled over not only substantive ideas of liberty and equality, but also the propriety of popular methods for defending these values. The author approves the shelter of runaway slaves, which held out the prospect of violence, but would she countenance such practices as the creation of armed citizen groups to resist the return of fugitive slaves or slave stealing, which entailed waylaying traveling slaveholders and liberating slaves whether or not they had asked for help