March 23, 1998 -- Lecture Notes
The Constitution, The Federalist Papers and Dispersing Discord
EARLY AC HOMEPAGE | LECTURE NOTES
Link back to an earlier lecture -- on Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening -- and ahead to one of Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
The interplay of ideas -- first religious, then political -- and spatial realities/the environment in which these ideas got tested
Jonathan Edwards -- 100 proof Puritanism (no Covenant equivocations; no resigned fatalism for the damned)
His ideas --
God's absolute sovereignty -- could play tricks if he wished; a non-covenanter
Humanity's merited damnation -- with the attendant psychological stress on earth
Life s/b attending to, seeking to discern, one's divine condition
During Great Awakening these ideas had a responsive audience -- but not sustainable
Perry Miller -- The GA -- where the wilderness takes over the task of defining America…
JE's banishment to Stockbridge -- 1751 -- His ideas out of favor with the powers that be in Northampton -- Connecticut River Gods -- land speculators/merchants…"smilers"
They giving themselves over to the extractive possibilities of the wilderness/nature -- religious ideas to be bent to accommodate these realities
Unitarianism
Anglicanism
Arminianism
Deism…
Not without intellectual substance, but a different substance than JE's unvarnished Calvinism; more accommodating to wordly success -- to a focus on temporal affairs…
BFranklin's religious views --- Ltr. To Ezra Stiles, in Baym
The Revolutionary Period
Fundamental shift in the content/vocabulary and the privileged participants in the principal public conversation
Far less about securing salvation in the next world ["What must I do to be saved?"]
Far more about securing liberty in this ["Give me liberty or give me death"]
Liberty -- the absence of political coercion/tyranny --
In 18thC -- did not require democracy -- it could be tryrannous
Among English, it did require a 'balanced' gov't -- balancing of class interests
The Crown -- the One
The House of Lords -- The Few
The House of Commons -- The Many
Could get out of balance through too much power gravitating to one at expense of other -- the result: tyranny
Colonists explaining English legislation in 1760s and 1770s as system out of balance
Parliamentary factions/cabals/leaders
Parliament -- want own parliaments
Crown advisers
Crown -- George III {D/I a pretty personal indictment] -- no more so than its foreunner…
Tom Paine -- Common Sense (Spring 1776) ; "the royal brute" ; bluntly anti-monarchical;
Called for a minimalist government made up entirely of a single legislative body -- lots of representatives/annually elected…
No executive/no judiciary/no constitution/no second legislative branch
A logical extension of one vein of
pre-revolutionary thinking -- milennarian
To us in America all things are more possible than
elsewhere…
Confederation Period -- and War -- 1776-1787 -- an extended seminar /practicum in government-making -- 13 years of forming/abandoning/reforming governments --
Not only The Articles of Confederation -- but the governments of the 13 sovereign states
18 separate constitutions?? Some states did it three times…
Some men made their names/careers doing so -- Thomas jefferson//James Madison
JohnAdams//
Alexander Hamilton// John Jay/ George Clinton
General direction of the conversation at the state level -- away from Tom Paine's simple democracies to mor complicated, counterweighted constructions
Included governors -- terms/electortae/powers???
Separate and independent judiciaries
Second legislative bodies -- How distinguished
By class?? Functions/terms/qualifications…
At the national level -- Articles of Confederation -- no executive/no judiciary
States sovereign -- could withdraw at will
Lacked powers sufficient to meet its responsibilities???
Trouble raising money/laying taxes -- to covered war debts abraod, to individual states, to individuals
Trouble asserting an international presence/ national integrity wanting
Trouble resolving western land claims among states
Trouble keeping large states from making commercial life difficult for samller states -- tariffs??
Trouble coming to assistance of states facing rebellious tax payers -- Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts [Fall 1786]
Federal/Constitutional/Philadelphia Convention -- May-- September 1787
Complainers in Congress and abroad -- some conventions joined to take up issues --
Mount Vernon [1785] /Annapolis [1786]-- another called for in Philadelphia -- spring 1787
Federal/Constitutional/Philadelphia Convention -- May-- September 1787
55 delegates -- several self-appointed -- self-supported
available/concerned/politically active // not particularly representative…
Wealthy white males -- in early 40s
Lots of college grads -- 31 2 KCers -- AH/Gmorris
Lots of people holding debt notes
Lots of lawyers and merchants
Leading delegations -- Va/Mass/Penn
RI boycotted it
NY delegation singularly ineffective -- Ahamilton a negative referent
2 of 3 delegates refused to sign -- and later opposed its adoption
NJ and Conn in there working the room -- William Paterson
Roger Sherman
Decisions made -- To have a federal government
To make good somehow on war debt -- no repudiation (left to Hamilton to structure)
To have representation in it reflect both population and statehood
To have two branches of legislature -- functionally divided
To have a separate federal jusiciary
To have a president (strong one, too)
Not to outlaw slavery
Not to have an established national church
Not to have a bill of rights (reversed to get reatification)
What the 39 signers produced -- a much more powerful national gov't than many anticipated or wanted -- Initial reaction negative (Tjefferson)
Public reaction crucial because document required state-by-state ratification -- 9 needed
Why nine? -- Supporters could count
RI out/NC likely against
NH/Conn/NJ/Delaware/Md OK
SC/Penn/Mass?
Va/NY???
Debates over the Constitution -- November 1787 to July 1788 -- (Va and NY)
The Federist papers -- some 85 #s -- published to influence the debates in Virginia and NY
#10 --