How The Convention Of 1787 Drafted The Constitution Of The United States
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You will remember from your study of American history that when the early colonists came to this country they settled along the Atlantic coast in many separate and distinct groups. Not all had come from the same country. Most of them were English, but there were also smaller settlements of Dutch, French, Germans, and Swedes. It was not many years until the English had taken control of all the land from Maine to Georgia, but even then not all the English were alike. There were Puritans and Cavaliers, Scotch and Irish, Scotch-Irish and Quakers. They differed in their ideas of government, religion, and education.
These colonists had come for many purposes. Some had come to make their fortune. Others because of trouble at home. Most had come to be free, to worship God in the way they chose, to form their own government, to make their own laws, to govern themselves; and in the early days, they had met with success.
But as time went on, as more people came, as ships were built, and trade and commerce increased, the government of England became more and more tyrannical. The English people may not have favored this, but they did not direct the acts of their king and his officers. Taxes were placed on the colonists without their consent. They were forced to accept laws not of their own choosing. The king refused them the right to select their own judges. They could not trade where they pleased. If you will read the [pg 067] Declaration of Independence you will see how their liberties were restricted.41
All this time the various colonies were as separate as so many distinct countries. They did not know each other. There was little travel from one to another. They were quite different. But they were alike in the fact that each wanted liberty, and that each was subject to oppression from the English king.
So from time to time we find them sending delegates to some common meeting place to discuss a plan of action. In 1754 a group met at Albany to suggest a plan of union. In 1765 England passed the Stamp Act which put a tax upon certain articles such as books, newspapers, and playing cards. A person could not sell one of these articles without pasting upon it one of these stamps, the money from which went to England as a tax. It was much like our war tax upon tooth paste, shaving soap, and playing cards. The difference was this. The colonists had never given the right to make this tax. It had been imposed upon them by England; and further, if a person were accused of selling a book or newspaper without this stamp, he could be severely punished.42 This enraged the colonists, and in New York in the following year, there met a group of delegates from nearly all the colonies to discuss ways and means of meeting this.
Again in 1774, conditions having become worse, delegates from twelve colonies met at Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress to consider the grievances against Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress following it carried on the first years of the Revolutionary War. It drafted and adopted the Declaration of Independence. It raised and provided for the armies, and brought the States together.
But it needed a kind of constitution. So in 1777 the Articles of Confederation were drawn up and adopted by Congress and by 1781 all the States had finally adopted [pg 068] them. But they were inadequate. Each of the thirteen States wanted all the power in its own hands.43
You cannot blame them. Picture to yourself these little settlements down on the Atlantic Coast. All together they did not have as many people as there are in the State of New Jersey to-day. They and their fathers had left their homes and traveled thousands of miles over stormy seas to find liberty. They themselves had fought a long war against England to make themselves free. They did not wish to give up these powers.44
But the wiser people in the different States saw that to form a more perfect union it was necessary to grant the central government more powers, and to fix forever certain rights which every American citizen should enjoy throughout the years to come. So the people selected men as their representatives and authorized them to meet with the representatives from other States at Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up a plan of government which would be strong enough to hold the country together and govern it effectively.
Now who were these men? They were men who were selected by their neighbors to represent them, just as men are elected to-day to represent us in the legislature of our State or in Congress. To be sure, in those days not all men were allowed the right to vote. In some States a man had to have a certain amount of money before he could vote. In others men of certain religious faiths were not allowed to vote. But the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were men who were fairly representative of all the people. When we consider the work that they did, that they wrote our Constitution, that they were able to do this at the time they did, we must feel that a wise Providence guided their selection and inspired them in their wonderful work.
There in Independence Hall in Philadelphia were Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, James Madison and [pg 069] Edmund Randolph, Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris. Almost all the prominent men of the time took part.45
They took the best that they knew of the experience of the human race in government, especially the experience of England and America, and from this they drew up the Constitution of the United States, the foundation of the government under which we live.46
When they had finished their work—that part of the Constitution which precedes the amendments—they submitted it to the States. They were very careful to see to it that the people themselves should approve of this. So instead of having the usual legislature of each State vote upon it, they provided that the people of each State should elect delegates for a special convention, the sole purpose of which was to decide whether or not they would like to live under a government like this.47 These conventions, elected by the people for this special purpose, met and one after another, often after a bitter struggle, ratified the Constitution. The chief objection was that the rights of all Americans were not clearly stated.
So at the first meeting of Congress, the first ten amendments—our American Bill of Rights—were adopted and in 1791 they were ratified by the States. Since then the Constitution has been rarely amended. In 1798 and in 1804 the eleventh and twelfth amendments regarding the courts and the election of the President were adopted. After the Civil War three amendments were adopted regarding the problem of the negro citizen. Since then we have added changes regarding the income tax, the election of United States Senators, and prohibition. The last amendment, dealing with the extension of the vote to women, was ratified by Tennessee as the thirty-sixth State on August 18, 1920.
To-day then, our government is founded upon the Constitution made shortly after the Revolutionary War. It represents [pg 070] the aims and ambitions of the fathers of our country. They came to this land to be free. They suffered persecution. They threw off the yoke of the oppressor. They established a government of the people, by the people, for the people. The people selected the men who drew it up. They selected the men who amended it. Our task is to understand what it means, to obey it, and protect it.
The lofty purpose of the fathers of the republic in establishing this, the first real government by the people, is expressed in these thrilling words:
“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.”
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ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS
1. Why did the early settlers come to America?
2. From what countries did they come? Which countries were most important?
3. Why did they become dissatisfied with English rule here?
4. Why did they wish to unite? Name some of the earlier attempts at union.
5. When was the Stamp Act passed? What was it supposed to do? Why did the colonists object?
6. Why were the Articles of Confederation not satisfactory?
7. What was the meeting in Philadelphia in 1787? How were the representatives at this meeting chosen? How did they try to see that the representatives at this meeting actually represented the people?
8. How was the Constitution ratified by the people? In what way did they try to make it the actual will of the people?
9. When was our Bill of Rights passed?
10. What amendments have been added to the Constitution since 1791?
ADVANCED QUESTIONS
A. How did the makers of the Constitution guard against the abuses cited in the Declaration of Independence?
B. How were the defects in the Articles of Confederation guarded against and remedied?
C. What experience had the makers of the Constitution had which enabled them to prepare so successful a document?
D. Would you say that Gladstone's statement, “It is the greatest work ever struck off at any one time by the mind and purpose of man” was literally true?
E. How did the allusions to other countries made during the convention show the advantage of America's being a “melting pot”?
F. What people were allowed to vote at the time of the adoption of the Constitution?
G. What were the chief objections urged against ratification of the Constitution?
H. Write a paper on the following:
Why the People Needed a Constitution
The Main Points Included
A Comparison of the Work Done Then and the Outline Made in Answers to Questions J Chapter Two
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
James Madison
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