James A. Michener “Legacy: A Novel” Random House, 1987, 176 pp.

Here’s a book you can read in one day which gives you an overview of US history from the Constitutional Convention up to the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s.  Michener, as always, follows a family, in this instance the Starr’s, through the generations.  Each ancestor chronicled was close to the important historical happenings of their era, much like Forrest Gump.  This short book is an excellent quick view of our countries history.

My Notes:

Pg. 68:  Chief Justice Marshall often carried in his pocket that incredible statement about Shays’ Rebellion which Jefferson had issued from the safety of his cushy job in Paris:

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.  What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?  Let them take arms!  What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is its natural manure.

“Imagine a man like that as President!” Marshall grumbled.

Important court cases of Marshall:

Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819):  established the sanctity of contracts.  It is in this case and not Citizens United v. FEC in which the Supreme Court first recognized corporations, as associations of people and may exercise many of the rights of natural persons.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): allowed the government to adjust to the nation’s evolving needs but remaining loyal to the framework of the Constitution.  For instance, a national bank was ruled allowable even though the Constitution did not mention it because the powers are implied.  And that in vital areas defined by the Constitution, the powers of the federal government prevailed over those of the states. 

Taney’s Infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

The Court held that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States.

Book Chapters:

Jared Starr: 1726–1787

Simon Starr: 1759–1809

Justice Edmund Starr: 1780–1847

General Hugh Starr: 1833–1921

Emily Starr: 1858–1932

Richard Starr: 1890–1954

Rachel Denham Starr: 1928–

Norman Starr: 1951–