There is no question that knowing the history of that vehicle improved the quality of our lives. Had we remained ignorant, we might have been duped by the seller. By the same token, it is beneficial for people to know about the history of our Constitution. The Constitution has faced many challenges over the years, and even today there are those who question its validity. No American should accept our Constitution blindly. Instead, we should examine its background and its track record to see where it comes from and whether it holds up. Unlike a used car, the Constitution has proved its reliability repeatedly—and the ideas that oppose it have been proved to be lemons.
Tremendous effort went into the forging of the Constitution, and it is important that we understand why the founders worked so hard to create it. As we learn about their motivations and fears, we will better understand how they meant for us to apply the laws they left us. And the more we learn about the characters and backgrounds of the founders, the better we will understand what kinds of leaders we need to uphold our Constitution and protect the union it created.
THE EARLY COLONIES
The earliest settlers in America wanted to establish governments that provided rights to individuals. Most of them were fleeing monarchies and had strong ideas about how to achieve a free society with freedom of religion. To this end, all of the colonies that populated the eastern seaboard created charters and compacts, and eventually thirteen colonies were established, creating the basis of the future United States of America. Each of these colonies became a state with its own governing body, but they quickly realized that there was a natural interdependence that would enhance their overall strength—a strength they would need if they were to throw off oppression.
Colonial life was difficult and was characterized by disease, injury, and financial hardship. Many people died early deaths, and those who lived worked tirelessly for the sake of their children. When the British Crown began to demand a larger share of the profits earned by American labor, the colonists began to grow resentful. Various skirmishes eventually erupted into a full-fledged revolution as the Americans attempted to break the bonds of servitude. The prospects of victory for the amateur revolutionary forces under the leadership of General George Washington were bleak, considering that they were opposed by the most powerful and professional military force on the planet. Nevertheless, their faith, fortitude, and willingness to perish for their beliefs propelled them to an unlikely victory.
The willingness of the colonies to work together contributed to their surprising success. Although the early associations among the colonies had sometimes been fractious, the colonies did attempt to unite as an official entity, drafting the Articles of Confederation in 1777. The Articles proposed a perpetual union among Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They instituted a Congress composed of representatives from each state, but because each state wanted to maintain its autonomy, the Articles did not give Congress much power over the new nation. Whether it would have any power at all was a real question—the Articles weren’t ratified until 1781, though even before ratification they did provide some framework for the assembling states.
Once ratified, the Articles created a central government that could negotiate treaties and organize national defense. The new government was also supposed to help settle disputes between individual states. Unfortunately, though, the union formed by the Articles was not strong enough.
The new states were fiercely independent, rightly valuing their differences. The needs of each state were different, and the benefit of having a variety of state governments was great. It was this advantage, along with many others, that made the states want to maintain independence from one another. However, early Americans quickly realized that their unity under the Articles was inadequate. They would need a more perfect union.
Because the Articles were written in reaction to Great Britain’s overbearing rule, the document focused more on freedom than on finding a way to preserve unity. The Congress that was established by the Articles had legal authority but no way of raising money to fund its actions. Congress’s unsecured bills of credit issued for war expenses spiraled to such a low value that they inspired the popular colloquialism “not worth a Continental.”1 Each state had its own currency (Rhode Island printed a huge sum of money that “by law had to be accepted on the same terms as gold”),2 and some states still wanted to formulate their own foreign policies and international agreements. Congress, meanwhile, could not maintain the peace domestically or internationally, again due to lack of funding.
Accordingly, the states’ representatives met to decide what to do, and the Continental Congress resolved on February 21, 1787:
It is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been appointed by the several States be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.3
To this end, the states summoned their finest thinkers and leaders, praying that the next convention would provide a solution.
Although the convention was scheduled for the second Monday in May, a quorum of delegates wasn’t present until May 25, due to traveling delays caused by heavy spring rains. The group was sequestered in a room for the months of deliberation, and neither the public nor the host city’s considerable press corps—nearly a dozen newspapers in all—were permitted to witness the proceedings. The process was labored, and it seemed impossible to obtain agreement on anything.
Twelve of the thirteen states appointed delegates to attend the Constitutional Convention (Rhode Island refused to participate). Of the seventy-four delegates, nineteen declined their appointments. Also missing in action were two notables: Thomas Jefferson, who at the time of the convention was in Paris serving as minister to France; and John Adams, who was minister to Great Britain. That left fifty-five delegates in attendance at the Constitutional Convention, although only thirty-nine of them signed the Constitution.
The delegates represented a generational cross-section of post–Revolutionary War America, with an average age of forty-two. Jonathan Dayton was the youngest at twenty-six while the senior statesman was Benjamin Franklin, who had turned eighty-one that January.4 Most of the delegates were educated; more than half were college graduates. Their experience in politics was notable: Eight had signed the Declaration of Independence, forty-one had served in the Continental Congress, and fifteen had worked on drafting state constitutions. Their diversity of backgrounds and occupations is notable, as is their unity on certain themes.
MEN OF OPEN MINDS
While all of the men were patriots, they held a variety of conflicting opinions, and some had even been on the wrong side of the revolution at one point. This shows that they were not ideologues—people who cannot see reason. Instead, these men5 changed their hearts and minds when they came to understand the benefits of American liberty.
William Samuel Johnson, a fifty-nine-year-old lawyer from Connecticut, had an especially interesting story. A colonial diplomat to Great Britain prior to the war, he generally supported America’s ventures toward independence. Yet because his foreign network was so vast, he diligently sought peaceful solutions between the two countries whenever national tempers flared.
Gouverneur Morris grew up surrounded by Loyalists but eventually joined the Whigs and was elected to the revolutionary Provincial Congress of New York (1775–77). He worked with future first chief justice John Jay and fellow lawyer Robert Livingston to draft the original constitution of New York State. He was also one of the shining stars of the youngest generation in the Continental Congress. Well before his thirtieth birthday, he had already signed the historic Articles of Confederation and influenced the framing of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. At the Constitutional Convention, Morris made a name for himself with his persuasive and frequent spe
eches, assuming the podium a record 173 times. He is believed to have written both the preamble and the final draft of the Constitution.
Other delegates, such as George Read of Delaware and John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, had opposed the Declaration of Independence. Dickinson earned the nickname “Penman of the Revolution” for publishing political pieces that spurred his fellow citizens to action against oppressive British policies, yet as a steadfast advocate of peace, his convictions prevented him from signing his country’s founding document. Still, recognizing the needs of their nation, these men overcame their doubts in order to help preserve America’s freedom. This ability to put aside personal preferences and compromise is seldom seen today.
RICH MEN, POOR MEN
The framers came from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Alexander Hamilton of New York was the illegitimate son of a single mother and grew up relying on charity. Pierce Butler, on the other hand, was born to a baron who was also a member of the British parliament. Despite their differences in wealth, the framers were careful to avoid anything resembling class warfare, keeping any idea of wealth redistribution out of the Constitution.
Many of the framers were familiar with the deleterious effects of class warfare, which was prominent throughout Europe. They hoped that a more egalitarian atmosphere would characterize American culture. They envisioned a country where people would rise and fall based on their abilities and contribution rather than their pedigree. To that end, they put aside their socioeconomic differences and worked together.
MEN OF GOD
Though their beliefs varied, the framers were mostly united in their religious devotion. Delaware delegate Richard Bassett not only was active in the Methodist church but also eagerly played host to numerous religious meetings at his estate in Maryland. Abraham Baldwin of Georgia had been a chaplain in the Continental Army. Many of the framers subscribed to a political theory that viewed all human rights as being derived from God. Therefore, even though the Constitution never mentions God, it was steeped in a Christian understanding of politics.
EDUCATED MEN
Education was also important to the signers, and a glimpse of the lives of a few reveals why. Abraham Baldwin was one of a dozen children born to a blacksmith who had willingly assumed enormous debt in order to put his children through school. When the senior Baldwin died in 1787, Abraham not only paid off the family debts still owed but also, at his own expense, ensured that his siblings could continue their schooling.
George Mason of Virginia was raised by his uncle, who owned one of the largest personal libraries in the colonies. Mason’s extensive reading apparently helped to hone his writing skills—among his most notable works were an American defense of the Stamp Act and Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, a document that greatly influenced the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
Roger Sherman was a self-educated lawyer and Connecticut businessman who was heavily involved in the convention sessions, and Georgia’s William Few was also self-educated. Because they had worked so hard for their educations, these founders valued knowledge and probably expected that future generations of Americans would too.
BUSINESSMEN
The delegates were also diverse in occupation. Though most of them were lawyers, not all were. Jacob Broom, a thirty-five-year-old merchant from Delaware, had studied surveying but had no legal experience to speak of. William L. Pierce of Georgia was a struggling business owner whose primary contribution to history was his notes detailing the business of the convention sessions and his “character sketches” of the men who attended.
Many capitalism-minded delegates used their businesses to serve their country. John Langdon owned a mercantile, but during the war he built armed ships for American use. Due to lack of state-approved funding, Langdon paid for himself and delegate Nicholas Gilman to attend the Constitutional Convention on behalf of New Hampshire. Though they came late to the proceedings, Langdon’s speeches and committee involvement proved invaluable.
An orphaned George Clymer of Pennsylvania was taken in and educated by a rich uncle in the mercantile trade. The lad was an eager learner who worked his way up to partner, inherited the business upon his uncle’s death, and later negotiated a successful merger with the Meredith firm. Clymer’s patriotic activism was influenced by the impact of British sanctions on trade with American businesses. He ultimately assumed the role of continental treasurer and in effect financed the war effort with his own funds. After representing Pennsylvania at the Second Continental Congress (1780–82), Clymer was a state legislator from 1784 to 1788.
Robert Morris, born near Liverpool, England, never set foot on American soil until he was a teenager. Though his father exported tobacco from their home in Maryland, Robert joined a prosperous shipping/banking company owned by father and son Thomas and Charles Willing. At age twenty Morris was named a partner in the firm, and he remained with the company into his sixties. During his three years with the First Continental Congress and beyond, he proved to be the right man at the right time in the political realm.
From 1781 to 1784 Morris undertook the position of superintendent of finance. To get the new government on sound economic footing, Morris imposed drastic spending cuts on all fronts and demanded financial accountability at the federal and state levels. He sacrificed personally when the nation needed it too, funding military purchases out of his own pocket and assuming government debt in his own name. Perhaps most notably, Morris secured a pivotal loan from the French in his first year as superintendent. This money simultaneously funded both General Washington’s forces at the Battle of Yorktown (a turning point that finally persuaded Great Britain to begin serious negotiations with America for its independence) and America’s first federally incorporated bank (assisted by some of Morris’s own investment). His business acumen, along with that of his convention colleagues, was critical to the fledgling country’s economic success.
SOLDIERS
Many of the delegates had served in the Revolutionary War, including Thomas Mifflin. Mifflin was born into a Quaker family in Philadelphia and graduated from the city’s college (now the University of Pennsylvania) in 1760 at age sixteen. He succeeded in several business ventures, but his heart was with the colonial cause. In spite of his religious upbringing, Mifflin not only mustered troops but also led them beginning in 1775—and was promptly expelled from his church. His service as a personal assistant, or aide-de-camp, to George Washington springboarded him to appointment as the first quartermaster general of the Continental Army, an executive position behind the lines overseeing the commanders in the field and the supply of the war effort, among other duties. Being a man of action, he wasn’t particularly fulfilled in this role. He did engage in battles in New York and New Jersey, however, and before he resigned he earned the rank of major general. He also served for a time as president of the Second Continental Congress.
DOCTORS
Not only were there businessmen and soldiers among the delegates, but there were also several doctors. Five doctors had signed the Declaration of Independence, and as highly educated individuals they were deeply involved in local and national affairs during the early days of our nation.
There are many today who think that doctors should stick to medicine and cannot possibly know anything about any other area of life. The opposite is true: Most doctors are deeply invested in areas of knowledge besides medicine. In fact, today’s medical schools actively seek out students who are not confined to traditional premed majors like the biological sciences. History and philosophy majors as well as a variety of others are welcomed with open arms and are taught, like everyone else, to make decisions based on evidence rather than on ideology.
When we undertake policy making in this nation, we can benefit only when we are willing to hear the voices of a variety of citizens from different professions, including medicine. When doctors began to retreat from the public square to their operating rooms, labora
tories, and clinics, leaving the social welfare of their patients in the hands of bureaucrats, health care began to transform from a social obligation to a business. Clearly patients will be the beneficiaries when those making the important policy decisions are also those who are concerned and knowledgeable about their health and well-being.
James McHenry of Maryland was one of the physicians at the convention. The Irish-born McHenry was educated in Dublin but set off for America on his own at age eighteen and was joined by his family the following year. While the family started a Baltimore-based business, McHenry studied under physician Benjamin Rush and then signed on as a military surgeon until he was captured as a prisoner of war at Fort Washington. As soon as he could return to service (1778), he joined George Washington at Valley Forge and subsequently served the Marquis de Lafayette until elected to the Maryland Senate, where he represented his constituents from 1781 to 1786 and again from 1791 to 1796.
Hugh Williamson of North Carolina studied for the ministry and worked as a college professor before choosing his long-term line of work. A member of the first graduating class of the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) in 1757, he would cross the ocean a few years later, having decided to pursue a medical degree. After returning to Philadelphia to set up practice, Williamson soon wearied of medicine but became known for his studies in astronomy, which included penning “An Essay on Comets” in 1771 and tracking the movements of Mercury and Venus.
A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties Page 2
