SHOULD THE STATES HAVE RATIFIED THE CONSTITUTION



AP US History Worksheet #16

SHOULD THE STATES HAVE RATIFIED THE CONSTITUTION?

Federalists

“The principal purposes to be answered by union are these -- the common defense of the members; the preservation of the public peace as well against internal convulsions as external attacks; the regulation of commerce with other nations and between the States; the superintendence of our intercourse, political and commercial, with foreign countries. The authorities essential to the common defense are these: to raise armies; to build and equip fleets; to prescribe rules for the government of both; to direct their operations; to provide for their support. These powers ought to exist without limitation, because it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them.” --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 23, December 1787

“I have lived in a part of the country where I have learned the worth of good government by the lack of it. There was a black cloud of rebellion [Shays’ Rebellion] that rose in the east last winter and spread over the west…. It brought on a state of anarchy and that led to tyranny. I say, it brought anarchy. People that used to live peaceably, and were before good neighbors, got distracted, and took up arms against the government…. Our distress was so great that we should have been glad to snatch at anything that looked like a government…. Now when I saw this Constitution, I found it was a cure for these disorders. It was just such a thing as we wanted.”--Jonathan Smith, Massachusetts Farmer

“The power under the Constitution will always be with the people…. whenever it is exercised contrary to their interests, or not according to their wishes, their Servants can, and undoubtedly will be, recalled.”--George Washington, November 1787

“From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best…. Much of the strength and efficiency of any government, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of that government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered.”--Benjamin Franklin, 1787

"… I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction, driven from my intimate opportunity of observing and appreciating the views of the Convention, collectively and individually, that there never was an assembly of men charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them, than were the members of the Federal Convention of 1787."-- James Madison

Anti Federalists

“It cannot be denied with truth, that this new constitution is, in its first principles, most highly and dangerously, oligarchic.”--Richard Henry Lee, 1787

“These lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men, that talk so finely, and gloss over matters so smoothly, to make us poor illiterate people swallow down the pill, expect to get into Congress themselves...and then they will swallow up all us little folks, like the great Leviathan.”--Amos Singletary, 1788

“My principal objections to the plan are that there is no adequate provision for a representation of the people—that they have no security for the right of election—that some of the powers of the Legislature are ambiguous and others are indefinite and dangerous—that the Executive is blended with and will have an undue influence over the Legislature—that the judicial department will be oppressive—that treaties of the highest importance may be formed by the President with the advice of two thirds of a quorum of the Senate—and that the system is without the security of a bill of rights. These are objections which are not local but apply equally to all the States.” --Elbridge Gerry, 1787

“I will now tell you what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly and without the aid of sophism for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the laws of nations. The second feature I dislike, and greatly dislike, is that abandonment in every instance of the necessity of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of the President. He is then an officer for life.... If once elected, and at a second or third election outvoted by one or two votes, he will pretend false votes, foul play hold possession of the reins of government, be supported by the states voting for him, especially if they are the central ones.... An incapacity to be elected a second term would have been the only effectual preventative. The power of removing him every fourth year by the vote of the people is a power which will not be exercised.... “--Thomas Jefferson, December 1787

“I mean that clause which gives the first hint of the general government laying direct taxes. The assumption of this power of laying direct taxes does, of itself, entirely change the confederation of the states into one consolidated government…. This power is calculated to annihilate totally the state governments…. The subject of taxation differs in three fourths, nay, I might say with truth, in four fifths of the states…. Why, then, should we give up this dangerous power of individual taxation?”

--George Mason, Anti Federalist 35, June 1788

“In this Constitution, sir, we have departed widely from the principles and political faith of ’76, when the spirit of liberty ran high and danger put a curb on ambition. Here we find no security for the rights of individuals, no security for the existence of your state government; there is not bill of rights, no proper restriction of power…” --Thomas Treadwell, New York Convention, 1788

“I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen; but, sir, give me leave to demand, What right had they to say, We, the people? My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask, Who authorized them to speak the language of, We, the people, instead of, We, the states? States are the characteristics and the soul of a confederation. If the states be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great, consolidated, national government, of the people of all the states.… That they exceeded their power is perfectly clear…. I wish to hear the real, actual, existing danger, which should lead us to take those steps, so dangerous in my conception…. It is as radical, if in this transition our rights and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the States be relinquished: And cannot we plainly see, that this is actually the case?”

--Patrick Henry, June 1788

THE FIRST POLITICAL PARTIES: FEDRALISTS & ANTI-FEDERALISTS (Democratic Republicans)

1) Who should govern?

Hamilton: “All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born; the other, the mass of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God...it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second.” (1787)

“One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest then they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest.” (1787)

Jefferson: “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers...alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.” (1787)

“I have such reliance on the good sense of the body of the people and the honesty of their leaders that I am not afraid of their letting things go wrong to any length in any cause.” (1787)

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” (1789)

2) States’ Rights v. Strong Central Government

Hamilton: “A firm union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the states, as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection.” (1787)

“I acknowledge the most serious apprehensions that the government of the United States will not be able to maintain itself against their (the states’) influence. I see that influence already penetrating in to the national councils and preventing their direction.” (1792)

Jefferson: “I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.” (1787)

“Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants, at such a distance and from under the eye of the constituents, must...be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens.” (1800)

“The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best- that the states are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations.” (1800)

3) What type of economy is best for America?

Hamilton: “The expediency of encouraging manufactures in the United States...appears at this time to be pretty generally admitted. The embarrassments which have obstructed the progress of our external trade, have led to serious reflections on the necessity of enlarging the sphere of our domestic commerce.”

“There is...a peculiar aptitude for mechanic improvements... [and this is] a forcible reason for giving opportunities to the exercise of that...talent, by the propagation of manufactures.”

Jefferson: “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if he ever had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.... While we have land to labor then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a workbench...for the general operations of manufacture, let our workshops remain in Europe.”

4) Should force have been used at the Whiskey Rebellion?

Hamilton: “Let us see then what is this question. It is plainly this: Shall the majority govern or be governed? Shall the nation rule or be ruled? Shall there be government or no government? The four western counties of Pennsylvania undertake to rejudge and reverse your decrees. You have said, “The Congress shall have power to lay excises (taxes).” They say, “The Congress shall not have this power”... they say... “The sovereignty shall not reside with you, but with us.” (1794)

“Whenever the government appears in arms, it ought to appear like a Hercules, and inspire respect by the display of strength.” (1799)

Jefferson: “The excise tax is an infernal (hellish) one...I expected to have seen justification of arming one part of the society against another: of declaring a civil war the moment before the meeting of that body (Congress) which has the sole right of declaring war.” (1794)

“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.... It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.” (1787)

5) Should the French Revolution be supported?

Hamilton: “None can deny that the cause of France has been stained by the excesses and extravagances (such as the Reign of Terror).” (1794)

Jefferson: “The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood?” (1793)

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