Constitutional Places: A New Coffee Table Book

I love this!  Josh Blackman and Yaakov Roth are putting together a book of photographs of places where great constitutional law cases arose.  They write:

In keeping with the mission of the Harlan Institute, which seeks to utilize the power of Web 2.0 to make the Constitution more accessible, we are asking (blegging in the cyber lingo) bloggers across the Nation to help us out, and submit photographs. You will be credited in the ultimate production.  If you live in any of these areas, we will find the exact location, and help you track it down.

They've got some great cases picked out that are in need of photographs.  Of course they're looking for a Ten Commandments monument (Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005)).  Other cases to think about adding ... Fletcher v. Peck, Johnson v. McIntosh, and Worcester v. Georgia -- and The Antelope.  There's a monument to the latter on Amelia Island, Florida, as I recall.   How about Euclid v. Ambler Realty, too?  And a school in Charlotte -- for Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg? 

Over at Volokh, Ilya Somin's talking about this project.

Not to sound too "popular constitutional" about things -- but maybe they'd want to include photographs of places important in constitutional thought even though they're not immediately connected to a case -- like Charleston, SC, ground zero for the nullification controversy, or Fort Sumter for that matter.  Or the Virginia state capitol, sight of debates over slavery in the 1830s and later the seat of the Confederate Congress.  Or Gettysburg.  Or maybe a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Now, this also makes me think .... what about great cases from the North Carolina Supreme Court?  Like, hmm, University of North Carolina v. Foy.  Sally Greene's already got State v. Mann fully covered.

Along the lines of "popular constitutionalism," the illustration is of a tree at the Brandywine Battlefield Park, which I took over winter break.  The tree was there at the time of the battle and so was the house in the background, which is where LaFayette had his headquarters.  I'll be talking soon some more about those heroes who barely staved off defeat of the revolutionary cause at Brandywine.  On that day (September 11, 1777), to invoke a nineteenth-centuryism, "escape itself was almost victory" for us.  John Marshall was there, as a young officer, and so were a bunch of other people who were almost captured.

Before we could proudly say of Franklin that he wrested lightning from the heavens and scepters from tyrannts, our cause had to actually wrest a scepter from a tyrannt.  Brandywine was part of putting those revolutionary ideas into practice, though as things worked out, there wasn't a whole lot of wresting scepters on that day, or in the dark freezing and starving times that followed at Valley Forge.

Comments

[Josh Blackman]

Professor Brophy,
Thanks for the link. If anyone has any photographs they would like to submit, please send them to me at [email protected]

[Matthew Reid Krell]

Dr. Brophy,

Would you believe that I have pictures of that same tree in full leaf from August? The Brandywine is right down the 202 from a place I used to frequent.

[Alfred]

That's awesome, Matthew -- great tree, isn't it?

[Arthur Cleveland]

Dear Doctor Brophy,

Wonder where you got the bit on Lafayette's use of the Gilpin House, located on the Brandywine Battlefield park. Since 2008, the longstanding myth of Lafayette spending a night (or THE night) before the battle of Brandywine has been finally removed from the Park's signage and website. The house that you see was given the title of "Lafayette's Headquarters" first in 1846, following a stop by Lafayette in 1825 in which one of the three local newspapers happened to say he had spent a night prior to the battle there. This attribution was never confirmed by any other source. A few weeks following the 1825 visit, the inhabitant, Gideon Gilpin, died, and in an article in Niles' Register of Baltimore, the stop by Lafayette is attributed to where Lafayette went to have his wound bandaged. Both myths make no sense militarily if you study the battle and Lafayette's letters.
The Gilpin house was not on the actual battlefield, as the Pennsylvania Line retreated from Chadds Ford at dusk past the house. The only section standing in 1777 was the front stone section, the rear kitchen being 1782 and the frame section 1835.

The view of the tree is seen in Andrew Wyeth's Pennsylvania Landscape, in N. C. Wyeth's Buttonwood Farm and as well in paintings by Howard Pyle and his students. Hopefully before too long we'll get a web page up to explain the myth and the remarkable use of the property by these most distinguished American artists.

[Alfred]

Arthur Cleveland -- thanks for this information. I'm not sure where I first heard the story that the Gilpin house was LaFayette's headquarters, but here's one recent source:
http://www.thebrandywine.com/attractions/battle.html

The story is widespread on the net. I look forward to learning more about this, particularly about how confidently we can debunk (or authenticate) accounts from the 1820s. Has anything been published on the debunking of the LaFayette headquater's story? I'm not surprised that the account is of flimsy authenticity; that's true of so much of American history. As you know better than I, the records of much of what happened at Brandywine are sketchy, partly because we were scrambling to save the remnants of our forces, not recording what was happening.

When you get the web page up, let me know; I'd like to link to it.