Law and Politics.

Beginning around midcentury, a fundamental transformation in legal thinking responded to growing charges that the judicial process was merely a disguised, undemocratic form of political decision making. This criticism of American law had gained strength for several reasons. Jacksonian Democrats identified the law as a bastion of elitism that stood in the way of government by the people. The shift from appointment to election as the dominant method for choosing state judges reflected the belief that voters could adequately understand legal issues and should be able to control the bench. After 1846 every new state provided for election of at least part of the judiciary; the supreme courts of Michigan and Pennsylvania became elective bodies in 1850. Moreover, the long period of economic stagnation following the Panic of 1837 led to widespread dissatisfaction with the strategies used to foster development, including...