ABSTRACT
Legal language in America, a species of the political discourse of popular sovereignty, underwent significant changes during the nineteenth century. Overall, the rhetorical development of the law was characterized by several overlapping patterns: popularization and fragmentation on the one hand, and increasing specialization and sophistication on the other, as elites sought to tame the revolutionary features of America’s early democratic culture. The colonists, a fairly homogeneous and literate population, inherited a revolutionary tradition with British and continental antecedents. That rhetorical tradition emphasized limits on bureaucratic authority, fair process, a distinction between higher law and ordinary law, and the people as sovereign. Beyond certain cultural proclivities, several other factors contributed to the rapid spread of legal language in the United States and made it difficult for elites to dictate the law’s development.
