The Making of the Constitution: Ideological and Political Background

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The Making of the ConstitutionIdeological and
Political Background

• Teaching American History
• Year II, Lecture 1

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Whig Ideology Government is a Necessary Evil

• Radical Whigs power is by nature aggressive,
  corrosive, and corrupting
• Lockean individualism or liberalism people are
  naturally self-interested, society is factious,
  and government is a necessary evil to protect
  natural rights

3
Whig Ideology and the Perils of Republicanism

• Republican government is not possible on a large
  scale because
• Elected representatives must represent small
  numbers of people to keep them in touch and
  accountable
• The more distant the seat of government, the more
  insular and remote it becomes, and the more
  difficult it is for the governed to control
• The larger the nation, the more factions and
  parties you have, which tear government apart
• Parties are bad because they represent interest
  groups and sections, are not concerned about the
  good of the whole
• The republican ideal the virtuous,
  disinterested, public-spirited statesman who
  governs in the interest of the whole and is
  beholden to no party

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Government is Force

• Government is not reason, it is not eloquence
  it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous
  servant and a fearful master never for a moment
  should it be left to irresponsible action.
• George Washington

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The Framers Frame of Reference Models of
Government

• The British Constitution
• All classes represented in three branches (king,
  lords, and commons)
• Mixture of three classic types of government
  (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy), checking and
  balancing one another
• Colonial or provincial governments mirrored this
  British model
• No estates or fixed classes in America, but
  mixed government still the norm
• Governor appointed by crown, council appointed by
  governor, assembly elected by freeholders
• System functioned nicely until 1760s, when it
  began to break down

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The Framers Frame of Reference The
Revolutionary Experience

• Colonial governments were compromised by the
  Townshend duties and finally collapsed after the
  Coercive Acts
• Led American Whigs to distrust powerful governors
  and seek a new model of government that placed
  most power in the hands of the elected assembly
• Given their assumptions and experiences, American
  Whigs sought to keep national government weak and
  power concentrated in the states

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First Experiment The Confederation, 1777-1789

• Articles of Confederation (1777, ratified 1781)
• Loose confederation of states, weak central
  government
• Government structure
• Powers and limits
• Most power rested with states

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Achievements of the Confederation

• Victory over British
• Laws concerning territories
• Land Ordinance of 1785
• Northwest Ordinance of 1787

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Functional Problems of the Confederation

• The states were not cooperating
• Revenue shortfalls after the war
• Robert Morris, the revenue of 1783, and the
  Newburgh Conspiracy
• States refusing to enforce Treaty of Paris
• Payment of pre-war debts to British creditors
• Return of confiscated property to Loyalists
• Nationalists critical of Confederation
• Advocates for strong national economy
• Advocates for strong military
• Critics of democracy in general
• Politicians pander to the wishes of the people,
  pass irresponsible laws
• The people are not really fit to govern

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John Adams on Voting Qualifications

• The Same Reasoning, which will induce you to
  admit all Men, who have no Property, to vote . .
  . will prove that you ought to admit Women and
  Children. It will tend to confound and destroy
  all Distinctions, and prostrate all Ranks, to one
  common Levell.
• --- John Adams, 1776

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Pretext for a New Constitution Securing Property

• The Annapolis Convention (1786)
• Shays Rebellion (1786-7)
• Postwar economic crisis
• Debt, foreclosures, imprisonment of debtors
• Solution one print more money
• Solution two revolt/Shays Rebellion

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Toward a New Constitution

• What astonishing changes a few years are capable
  of producing. I am told that even respectable
  characters speak of a monarchical form of
  government without horror. What a triumph for
  the advocates of despotism to find that we are
  incapable of governing ourselves, and that
  systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are
  merely ideal and fallacious! Would to God that
  wise measures may be taken in time to avert the
  consequences we have but too much reason to
  apprehend.
• -- George Washington, 1786