Heather Carlquist Walser

I am a PhD candidate studying the intersection of United State politics, culture, and law in the 100 years following the Constitutional Convention. My project, “Amnesty’s Origins: Federal Power, Peace, and the Public Good in the Long Civil War Era,” explores the roots of the amnesty crisis which occurred at the conclusion of the American Civil War. I examine how Americans understood and used amnesty—or the pardon and oblivion of past acts granted by a government—to resolve conflict, negotiate the meaning of “public good,” and shape the development of the nation-state across the long-19th century.