Signature view · time is the argument

The timeline

Each idea is a thread in its own lane, laid out left to right in time. Appearances are beads — above the line where a passage advances the idea, below where it pushes against it; codification into law is a terminus. The quartering thread lights at 1765, is grieved in 1776, answered the same year by Hutchinson, and reaches law in 1791 — you can read the twenty-six-year lag between the complaint and its remedy straight off the axis.

asserts / defends / enacts (above the line) grieves / rebuts (below the line) echoes / limits / interprets (on the line) codifies into law (terminus) contested
1765 — the dense core — 1801InheritanceConsequences162816891765177617871791180118191833quartering163 yrs to lawthe law of the land163 yrs to lawstanding armiesthe right to bear armstrial by juryfree electionsconsent of the governedpetition for redress102 yrs to lawnatural rightslimited governmentthe supremacy of Parliamenttaxation without consentmilitiareligious libertyjudicial independence86 yrs to lawconsolidationimplied powers32 yrs to lawjudicial review15 yrs to lawseparation of powersa bill of rightsthe extended republicfreedom of the press4 yrs to lawthe writ of habeas corpusthe prohibition of slaverythe commerce power37 yrs to lawenergy in the executivefactionsstate sovereign immunity2 yrs to law
Click a bead to read the passage, its relation, and any contest.

Beads ringed in amber are contested links — the apparatus shows the disagreement rather than hiding it. Click a bead for the relation, the gloss, and the verdict of the adversarial review. Selecting a bead also draws the thread's typed relations to the other lanes it argues with — cross-decade and contested ties first.