The Shaping of American Liberalism The Debates over
Ratification, Nullification, and Slavery Focusing on three
critical debates in American history—the debate between Anti-
Federalists and Federalists over the ratification of the
Constitution; the debate between the national republicans and
the states-rights republicans over the nullification of the
tariff; and the Lincoln-Douglas debates over slavery and
pluralist democracy—Ericson shows that republicanism, rather
than being opposed to liberalism, is in fact an offshoot of it.
His descriptions of republicanism and pluralism represent the
poles of an evolving tradition of liberal ideas in America: the
former championing the claims of the public sphere, general
welfare, and civic virtue; the latter protecting the rights of
the individual to liberty, property, and privacy. Republicanism
and pluralism are therefore more properly understood as two sets
of competing ideas that evolved from common roots. Ericson
concludes that although republican themes persist in A