Presented by Willard Hurst as part of his course "Introduction to Modern American Legal History" at the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1978. This lecture focuses on the presence of federalism within a growing American society. Hurst investigates the importance placed upon individualism and personal will within the formal governmental structure. These concepts are expanded upon through a consideration of the origins of the constitutional government in the Greek city-states, the federal territories and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the contract clause within the constitution, and the general precepts behind imperial policy beyond the Appalachians. Interest groups and the conflicts they bring to law are investigated within the context of moral and political legitimacy. This discussion begins by examining the conflicts that existed as contracts for the sale of western land became largely dependent upon credit and financiers from the east. This is linked to the reasoning behind national control of public domains and navigable bodies of water. The last conflict investigated centers around the right to cession and the sectional tensions that existed in 1861.
