The Independent Guide to the Constitution: Original Intentions, Modern Inventions cuts through the partisan noise and helps readers reclaim the original, time-tested principles of liberty that America’s Framers worked so hard to protect. The Constitution is one of the most studied—and most willfully misunderstood—documents in American life. Now more than ever, Americans need an objective , thorough , and clear-headed analysis of what our Founders meant when they wrote it … and perhaps even more importantly, what they didn’t mean. How should we confront the distortions layered onto the Constitution over generations—distortions that continue to shape, and misshape , American life today? Enter William J. Watkins, Jr. Drawing on a lifetime of experience in the law—as prosecutor, defense attorney, and constitutional scholar—Watkins offers a bold, independent examination of the most important legal document in modern history. His book provides a meticulous, clause-by-clause analysis of America’s founding charter, revealing both the Framers’ original intentions and the modern interpretations that have reshaped constitutional governance—not always for the better. Clear and rigorous, he explores how the Constitution was designed to secure liberty and limit power —and how its meaning continues to spark debate today. Expertly researched, fascinating, and urgent as ever, this book is indispensable for laymen and scholars alike to understand the Constitution. "The 'original intentions' of the people who ratified the U.S. Constitution were largely unlike the 'modern inventions' under which we now live. With The Independent Guide to the Constitution, William J. Watkins Jr. makes all clear." -- Kevin R. C. Gutzman, J.D., Ph.D. , professor of history, Western Connecticut State University "William Watkins has, for many years, been the most daring and insightful proponent of 'Jeffersonian originalism,' the interpretation put forward by our earliest critics of a federal government run amok. As Watkins explains, he follows the teaching of that great Jeffersonian, John Randolph of Roanoke, leader of the 'Old Republicans' in the House of Representatives, who characterized this Jeffersonian 'strick construction' view as 'the plain, common-sense construction of the Constitution.' This elegant volume is an owners’ handbook to the Constitution, and is one of the most powerful attacks on the 'living Constitutionalism' view on both the left and right which has led us into the constitutional morass in which we are currently enmeshed. Simply stated, this is a great and important effort at recovering the genius of the Constitution’s Framers and, really, of republican government itself." -- Stephen B. Presser , Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History Emeritus, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law; author, Recapturing the Constitution: Race, Religion, and Abortion Reconsidered "William Watkins's study of the American Constitution is both well written and impressively erudite. It is full of memorable comments on the original articles and later amendments to our founding document. Some of the author's comments are provocative or informative enough to justify purchasing the entire volume, particularly his explanation for why (a presumably Democratic) Congress is constitutionally unqualified to grant the District statehood. Watkins's arguments here are carefully constructed and forcefully expressed, even if they will have no effect on those partisan fanatics to whom they are addressed." -- Paul Gottfried , editor in chief, Chronicles "William J. Watkins’s The Independent Guide to the Constitution should be required reading for every American college student, lawyer, and judge. Written in the tradition of the great nineteenth-century jurists, Watkins’s treatise provides a graceful, lucid, clause-by clause reading of the U.S. Constitution. The great virtue of this book is that it remains true to the Founders' original vision as written and ratified, while also showing how the Constitution has been distorted over time. Let us hope that Watkins’s 'strict construction originalism' will become the dominant mode of constitutional interpretation in the twenty-first century. Everything depends upon it! This is a fantastic book, and I highly recommend it." -- C. Bradley Thompson, Ph.D. , professor of political science, Clemson University; executive director, Snow Institute for the Study of Capitalism "In times of constitutional tension and crisis, citizens must equip themselves to understand the true purpose and character of the American Constitution. No better guide exists than the accessible and lively The Independent Guide to the Constitution to help us sort through the confusion. This volume, with its timely and vital surveys and interpretations of each article and amendment of the American Constitution, is essential reading! Watkins, a respected lawyer and scholar of the evolution of the early republic an