Creating the Land of Lincoln: The History and Constitutions of Illinois, 1778–1870 By Frank Cicero Jr.

Abstract

Cicero’s project is to show how the Illinois constitution framed the state’s progress from a western territory in 1818, governed by southern-leaning politicians, to a modern agricultural, industrial, and educational powerhouse. Cicero’s contention that state constitutions are profoundly important in shaping and reflecting citizens’ values is a welcome corrective to the received wisdom that these documents are too confusing or poorly constructed to be of interest to scholars. Cicero’s analysis takes into account the individual lives of men like Abraham Lincoln, as well as community histories of the African Americans living and working in Illinois. This approach allows him to use the constitutions as a window into the way Illinoisans understood the politics, society, and fundamental democratic values of their own time.