ABSTRACT
Transformation is by far the dominant theme in the historiography of nineteenth-century America. Over and over, the events and experiences of the period are represented in the language of change. This is, of course, as it should be. After all, rapid changes took place, and the archival remainders of the period are themselves replete with metaphors of change. In myriad ways, the nation at 1900 looked nothing like it was upon the election of Thomas Jefferson. This is particularly true of the geographic size of the country and the consequences of territorial expansion for the growth of an industrial economy, for the debate over slavery and the outbreak of the Civil War, and for the displacement of the population (indigenous, immigrant, and enslaved). It is also true of the law and conceptions of legality. As legal historians of early America are keen to remind us, there was an extensive system of law in place before the Revolution, but nineteenth-century reform movements dramatically affected the forms of legal action, training for the practice of law, and the organization of the bench and bar. As importantly, entirely new bodies of substantive law emerged to regulate new forms of social and economic action. As Christopher Tomlins has emphasized, “law became the paradigmatic discourse explaining life in America, the principal source of life’s ‘facts.’” 1
