This work explores the ideological tension in the design of civil society presented through the intellectual, legal, and cultural struggles over disestablishment. Legal disestablishment, which took place in three phases of constitution-drafting, constituted merely a declaration of intent of republican liberals to marginalize the church and religion in America. The more basic struggle occurred as the church was removed from positions of civic responsibility and public institutions took over education, poor relief, and community record-keeping. Just as importantly, Christian doctrine ceased to be the basis of national morality and public virtue, as contract law imposed a new code of values derived from liberal ideals. In the early 1800s, various providentialist groups launched a counter-movement to reorient American culture toward evangelical Christian beliefs. The ideological battles over the values of the new nation were waged in statehouses, churches, and in the press. However, the most openly contentious conflicts took place on college campuses. Numerous Republican legislatures assumed control over previously church-operated schools. When New Hampshire attempted to convert Dartmouth College to a secular state institution, the trustees resisted by filing suit which eventually reached the Supreme Court.; In using contract law principles to decide the Dartmouth case, the Court reasserted the primacy of liberal contract law theory. It also avoided a resolution of the substantive issues concerning values and beliefs which underlay the dispute. As a result, the debate was perpetuated, albeit in a new institutional framework of public and private spheres.
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