FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE
CONSTITUTION IN THE AGE
OF FIGHTING SAIL
William R. Casto
Setting his examination of the Neutrality Crisis of 1793 against the fiery backdrop
of marauding French privateers, the French foreign minister’s diplomatic fiasco, and
pro-French rallies in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, William R. Casto brings
to life the first test of President George Washington’s administration to establish a
national foreign policy and to implement the separation-of-powers principles of the
U.S. Constitution.
Casto’s Foreign Affairs and the Constitution in the Age of Fighting Sail recounts the
efforts of the French revolutionary republic to obtain support from the United States
in its war with Great Britain. This situation forced Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
John Jay, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other founding fathers to wrestle
for the first time with many of the problems inherent in the Constitution’s allocation
of powers between states and nation and among the three branches of government.
Casto argues that the insights of the nation’s founders about the Constitution and
international affairs are as valuable and instructive today as they were in 1793.
Concentrating on the legal issues generated by the French maritime campaign—
especially those rooted in constitutional debate—Casto illumines the continuing contest between Hamilton and Jefferson, two men who personified the conflict over the
definition of neutrality rights. Casto offers close readings of Hamilton’s Pacificus and
Madison’s Helvidius papers and of the Supreme Court’s legendary refusal to advise the
president.
Bridging legal, political, and diplomatic history, Casto maps the rough processes
by which the founders moved from abstract theorizing to an implementation of the
Constitution in the context of specific and highly controversial international incidents. Assessing the contemporary significance of these events more than two centuries later, Casto suggests that the Neutrality Crisis also exposed inherent structural
problems in the Constitution about which the founders, particularly Hamilton,
offered a source of abiding wisdom.
Casto’s discussion of the role that South Carolina and, especially, the port city of
Charleston played in the Neutrality Crisis is particularly enlightening.
Method of payment:
_____ Check or money order: (payable to USC Press in United States dollars)
Credit Card: _____ Discover _____ Mastercard _____ Visa
Account number: _____________________________________ Exp. Date ________
Signature: ____________________________________________________________
Name (please print): ________________________________ Phone: ____________
Shipping Address: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
William R. Casto is the Alvin R. Allison Professor of Law at Texas Tech
University and is a nationally recognized authority on the legal history
of the founding era. His numerous
past publications include The Supreme
Court in the Early Republic: The Chief
Justiceships of John Jay and Oliver
Ellsworth, named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. His writings on
foreign affairs during the early days of
the republic have been adopted and
quoted by the Supreme Court of the
United States.
August 2006, 200 pages
Send me ______ copy/copies
(cl, 1-57003-629-2, $34.95 each) ______
SC residents add 6% sales tax ______
Shipping and Handling* ______
CODE AUTH
TOTAL ______
*add $5.00 for first book,
$1.00 for each additional book
718 Devine Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
800-768-2500 • Fax 800-868-0740 • www.sc.edu/uscpress