This study of exemplary writings from the debates over the ratification of the 1787 Constitution deals with the American constitutional founders'' understandings of citizenship and civic virtue. Discussion of these debates is set in an analytical and historical context, addressing the rationales for and the nature of civic allegiance in liberal political regimes. Sinopoli analyzes the development of a distinctly liberal political psychology from its origins in John Locke, Adam Smith, and David Hume through the American founding and traces its implications for the current American polity.