From the Collapse of the Articles to the U.S. Constitution: Convention, Compromises, Ratification & Bill of Rights

Breakdown of Problems Under the Articles of Confederation (1781–1787)

• Hamilton / Publius’ summary (Federalist No. 15)
  • United States had reached “almost the last stage of national humiliation.”
  • Government “arrested all the wheels … ready to fall upon our heads.”
• Structural Weaknesses
  • No executive branch, no federal judiciary, unicameral Congress.
  • Inability to tax, regulate trade, or enforce laws.
  • Amendments required unanimous consent—paralyzed change.
  • States issued their own currencies, enacted protectionist tariffs, ignored each other’s court rulings, and quarreled over western lands.
• Consequences in the 1780s
  • Post-war depression (“basket-case” economy).
  • Interstate trade wars and boundary disputes.
  • Debtor/creditor showdowns (e.g.
    Shays’ Rebellion).
  • Foreign-policy impotence: Britain kept forts on U.S. soil; Spain closed the Mississippi.

Philosophical Turn: From Lockean Optimism to "Hobbesian" Realism

• Lockean / Jeffersonian vision
  • Minimal government safeguards natural rights; people generally do right if left free.
  • Revolution’s early rhetoric (“life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”) drew on this.
• Federalist shift
  • Human “passions … will not conform to reason and justice without constraint.”
  • Fear of anarchy outweighed fear of central power.
• Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) invoked
  • State of nature = “war of all against all,” life "$\text{solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short}$."
  • Better to surrender some liberty for security; not literal absolutism, but stronger union.

Why Union? Federalist Arguments

• Security & Liberty Paradox
  • Tiny sovereign states prone to foreign domination or internal tyranny (fear of European "swooping").
  • Liberty safer inside a large republic.
• Material Advantages
  • Abundant resources, rivers, ports, varied climates—scale could yield prosperity.
  • John Jay: common language, ancestry, Protestantism → cultural glue (over-optimistic but partly true).
• Need for Central Tools
  • Uniform currency, federal taxation, single foreign policy, western land policy, Native diplomacy.

Pre-Convention Experiments in Cooperation

• 1785 Mount Vernon Conference (VA & MD): Chesapeake navigation rights.
• 1786 Annapolis Convention (≠6 states): Called for broader meeting in 1787.
• Hamilton’s resolution: summons all 13 to Philadelphia to “revise” Articles—quickly became “replace.”

Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia (May–Sept 1787)

Participants & Ground Rules

• 55 delegates; RI absent.
• George Washington unanimously elected presiding officer.
• Voted to deliberate in secret; immediately exceeded mandate to "revise" and chose to draft a new frame.

Madison’s Homework

• Chests of books from Jefferson (history of confederacies: Greek, Swiss, German leagues).
• Motto: "History is the great oracle of truth." Wanted lessons on liberty vs tyranny in composite republics.

Major Plans Presented

• Virginia Plan (Madison/Randolph)
  • 3 branches; bicameral legislature.
  • Lower house elected by people, proportional to population.
  • Upper house chosen by lower house.
  • Congressional "negative" on state laws; federal officials paid from federal treasury.
  • Aim: curb state sovereignty.
• New Jersey Plan (Paterson)
  • Retained 1-house Congress with equal state votes.
  • Added executive committee & judiciary but protected small-state power.
• Hamilton Plan
  • Life-term president & senators, presidential appointment of governors, federal veto of state laws—too monarchic, rejected.

Core Debates & Compromises

• Representation
  • Lower House: agreed to popular apportionment (people’s house).
  • Upper House: small vs large states: equal vs proportional.
• Great (Connecticut) Compromise
  • Roger Sherman & Oliver Ellsworth:
    • House = proportional, initiates $\text{money bills}$.
    • Senate = 2 per state.
• Term Lengths
  • House: 1 year (NE tradition) vs 3 years (Madison). → Settled on 2.
  • Senate: 6 (compromise from proposed 7).
  • President: debated 7-yr single vs 4-yr renewable; settled on 4 with re-eligibility.
• Electoral Mechanisms
  • Fear of direct mass vote → Electoral College as filtering layer.
• Slavery Questions
  • Deep South demanded protection of import trade; VA/MD (surplus slaves) favored ban.
  • Compromise:
    • No federal ban on Atlantic slave trade until $1808$ (20 years).
    • Silent on word "slave" for moral optics.
    • $\text{Three-Fifths Compromise}$ = each enslaved person counts $\frac{3}{5}$ toward population for House & Electoral College—inflates southern power.
• Commerce
  • Simple majority for navigation laws; export taxes forbidden—placated South.

Signing (17 Sept 1787)

• 39 of 42 present signed; non-signers: George Mason, Edmund Randolph (VA), Elbridge Gerry (MA).
• Franklin’s parting speech: supports despite "faults," warns only corruption can make any form "end in despotism."

Ratification Strategy & Timeline

• Circumventing State Legislatures
  • Special popularly elected conventions → legitimacy rests on the people, not states; prevents later state nullification.
  • Activation after $9$ states (Article VII).
• Federalists vs Anti-Federalists
  • Federalists: urban creditors, many coastal merchants, some nationalistic planters (Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, Franklin).
  • Anti-Feds: mix of frontier farmers, state politicians, debt-relief advocates, some revolutionary radicals (P. Henry, S. Adams, Mercy Otis Warren), and certain large planters guarding local power.
• Key Anti-Federalist Objections
  • Consolidation endangers liberty.
  • Senate & President = proto-aristocracy / elective monarch.
  • No explicit Bill of Rights.
  • Taxing & army powers.
  • Federal courts could override state juries.
• Federalist Papers (85 essays, 1787–88)
  • Authors: Hamilton (≈51), Madison (≈29), Jay (5).
  • Targeted chiefly the New York debate.
• Ratification Roll-Call
  1. Delaware 7 Dec 1787
  2. Pennsylvania 12 Dec 1787
  3. New Jersey 18 Dec 1787
  4. Georgia 2 Jan 1788
  5. Connecticut 9 Jan 1788
  6. Massachusetts 6 Feb 1788 (conditional on future Bill of Rights)
  7. Maryland 26 Apr 1788
  8. South Carolina 23 May 1788
  9. New Hampshire 21 Jun 1788 → Constitution operational
  10. Virginia 25 Jun 1788
  11. New York 26 Jul 1788 (victory margin = 3 votes)
  12. North Carolina 21 Nov 1789
  13. Rhode Island 29 May 1790 (passes by 2 votes).
• Public Spectacle: NYC "Federal Ship Hamilton" float (27 ft × 10 ft; 13-gun salutes) symbolized momentum.

Launching the New Government (1789)

• Temporary capital: New York City.
• George Washington unanimously elected; sworn in 30 Apr 1789 on Federal Hall balcony.
• First Congress begins crafting executive departments, judiciary, revenue laws.

Birth of the Bill of Rights

• Political Context
  • VA Governor Patrick Henry gerrymandered Madison’s district to defeat him.
  • James Madison pledged during campaign against James Monroe to propose rights amendments → won $1{,}308$–$972$.
• Madison’s 8 June 1789 Speech
  • Amendments should "not injure the Constitution" but reconcile opponents; make it "safer from a tyranny of the majority."
• Process & Product
  • House sifted Madison’s draft of ≈17 items → Senate compressed to 12 → States ratified 10 (effective 15 Dec 1791).
  • Core protections:
    • 1st: speech, press, religion, assembly, petition.
    • 2nd: bear arms / militia.
    • 3rd: no quartering troops.
    • 4th–8th: procedural justice (search, due process, jury, cruel and unusual, etc.).
    • 9th: rights not enumerated still retained.
    • 10th: powers not delegated remain with states/people.
• Political Aim: integrate Anti-Federalists as loyal opposition; preserve revolutionary ideals while accepting stronger frame.

Ethical & Practical Legacies Discussed

• Slavery compromises sowed seeds of sectional power imbalance → decisive in House seats & several early presidencies.
• Constitution’s elastic clauses (Necessary & Proper, Commerce, Supremacy) designed to fix Articles’ paralysis, but provoked ongoing federal–state tension.
• Federalist / Anti-Federalist discourse birthed U.S. tradition of written public policy debate, shaping future party formation (Federalists vs Democratic-Republicans).
• Franklin & Madison warnings: success hinges on civic virtue; corruption could still transform republic into despotism.

Numerical & Miscellaneous Details to Remember

• $85$ Federalist essays; $13$ original states; $32$-gun frigate replica in NYC parade.
• Slave-trade moratorium set to expire $20$ years after ratification (i.e.
  $1808$).
• Three-Fifths formula: $\frac{3}{5}=0.6$.
• Convention attendance: $55$, signers $39$, dissenters $3$.

Forward Link

• New Constitution quickly spawns partisan politics (Hamiltonian vs Jeffersonian visions) → topic of next lecture.