For a More Perfect Union
David L. Kelly
24 August 2010
Liberty: our nation’s founders believed that a form of government accountable to the people, leaving the people fundamentally in control of their own destinies, best protected human liberty. September 17th is the 223rd anniversary of the signing of the U. S. Constitution. Much has been written about the Constitution and many have praised our form of government as well as despised it, but regardless of all that has happened to our government over the years, the Constitution is still in force and the supreme law of our nation. Many of you may have your concerns and opinions about the Constitution and how it is interpreted today or how it has been usurped and what the future may hold during these interesting times in which we live. Today’s issues with our government are not much different than during the early days of our republic during the writing and ratification of the Constitution.
The Articles of Confederation, the guiding light which held the compact of States together as a nation did protect the citizens and allowed freedom and liberty to take hold throughout the land. But after several years of war and then peace, many of the States representatives, including George Washington, felt that the Articles of Confederation needed to be altered and strengthened, giving more power to a national government. Washington called the then present structure of the national government “a shadow without the substance.”
In 1785, representatives from Virginia and Maryland met at Washington’s Mount Vernon to discuss interstate trade. They requested a meeting of states to discuss commerce and trade in hopes of improving such. Five states met in Annapolis in 1786 regarding commerce. This meeting seemed to go nowhere. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton used the failed meeting of states to call for a general convention of all of the states “to render the constitution of government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.” Several states began to choose delegates when the Congress acquiesced and declared that the “sole and express purpose” of the general convention was to revise the Articles of Confederation.
On 25 May 1787 the Convention began and delegates met to form a more perfect union. Every state was represented except for Rhode Island which was fearful of a stronger national government. Of the fifty-six men who had signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, only six attended this federal convention in Philadelphia. The delegates met formally in what is now called Independence Hall, deciding early on to hold secret proceedings to encourage honest and open discussions.
Madison and Hamilton had decided from their experiences in Annapolis and from numerous problems of having a weak central government under the Articles of Confederation that they would push to scrap the present government and seek to form a completely new government. Nearly the whole first part of summer was spent discussing various plans such as the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, and Hamilton’s plan. Slavery and the issue of representation in the lower house of government seemed to be huge sticking points. Many felt the convention was doomed to fail.
Then on July 12th Oliver Ellsworth proposed basing representation for the lower house on the number of free persons and three-fifths of “all other persons,” a euphemism for slaves. Once this was agreed upon through lengthy debates Ellsworth’s great compromise allowed the Convention’s Committee of Detail to draft the first version of the Constitution while the rest of the delegates took a well deserved 10-day vacation.
On August 6th the Committee of Detail submitted the first draft to the convention delegates. Over the next several weeks the draft was debated over piece by piece, revised, and then agreed upon. A final draft was ordered to be written up on September 15th, followed by the delegates signing this final draft on September 17th.
Most of what we now know about what took place during the convention was recorded by James Madison in his extensive notes. It was not until 1840, a little more than three years after Madison’s death, that these notes were published and made public, for Madison had kept to the pledge of secrecy. Fifty-three years had passed by before American citizens had their first opportunity to review the behind-the-scenes activities of the formation of the new American government.
Of the sixty-two delegates appointed to the Convention, fifty-five showed up. At the Convention, no more than eleven states were ever represented at one time. Of the fifty-five members of the Convention only thirty-nine signed the final draft.
John Lansing and Robert Yates, delegates from New York, left six weeks into the convention, disillusioned with the ongoing process and opposing any document that would consolidate the united States into one government. Patrick Henry refused to attend the convention and democratic patriots such as George Mason, Luther Martin, John Francis Mercer, and Elbridge Gerry participated in the convention but refused to sign the new constitution because it lacked a Bill of Rights and provided inadequate representation of the people.
The framers of the Constitution feared opposition to ratification and inserted the provision that it would go into effect when ratified by only nine states. Many prominent Americans throughout the states made it clear that they would only ratify the Constitution on the grounds that the first act of the new government would be to write a number of Amendments to the Constitution providing for essential civil liberties. Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Minister to France at the time, wrote James Madison that he was concerned about “the omission of a bill of rights...providing clearly...for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, and restriction against monopolies.”
The Constitution was officially ratified by the required number of states on 21 June 21 1788. Rhode Island was the last to ratify the Constitution on 29 May 1790. The Bill Of Rights was ratified and came into effect on 15 December 1791. Thus ended at least six years of civil discourse to create the foundation of this new nation.
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He leads the Liberty on the Rocks—Colorado Springs Chapter, delivering “Tavern Style Politics in the Tradition of our Founding Fathers.” (www.libertyontherocks.org) David is also the co-founder of For What is Right (www.forwhatisright.org) which will be bringing Constitutional education opportunities in the near future to all, young and old.
