Constitutional Convention: A New Opportunity

from Crisis

Session 6

Table of Contents

I. America’s New Crises before 1787

1. Failure of the Confederation

2. Debts crisis & economic depression

3. Military revolt (the Newburgh Conspiracy)

4. Shay’s rebellion

5. Foreign threats

Table of ContentsII. Opportunity: The Constitutional

Convention1. Interest conflicts

2. The legislature

3. The Executive

4. The Judiciary

III. Comparison (China’s one-person rule vs. American term-limit presidency)

IV. Conclusion

I-1. The Confederation: A Failure of National Government

Confederation: A product of the war to gain its indepence.Power belongs to the parts rather than to the

whole. A league of friendship rather than a nation, because "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.”

To avoid a too powerful leader like British Crown, there was no executive officer as the national leader.

ContinueNo power to tax its citizens.Expenditures by the United States of

America will be paid by funds raised by state legislatures, and apportioned to the states based on the real property values.

But no an authority to enforce it.

Any amendment to the Articles needs to be unanimously approved by all the 13 states.

I-2. Economic Difficulties

• Huge debt • Economic depression from 1784-1785

• Domestic market shrank due to loss of 20% population, and state tariffs blocked free trade

• Market abroad was blocked by Britain• Home industry was no match to English

cheap products

ContinueFinancial difficulties:

To support the war, the Congress issued the continental currency:

By the end of 1778, Continentals retained from 1/5 to 1/7 of their face value. By 1780, the bills were worth 1/40th of face value. Later the paper money had the expression “not worth a continental”

I-3. Military Revolt in 1783Newburgh Conspiracy in 1783http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/UHY1kDirTx4-libertys-kids-38-man-who.aspx

Washington would not use the army to threaten the civil government: a course, which he believed, would violate the principles of republicanism for which they had all been fighting.

His message was that they should oppose anyone "who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood."

The outcome: a peaceful solution - a life pension of half pay became a five years full pay.

I- 4. Shay’s RebellionShay’s rebellion in 1787A soldier in the Continental Army:• Battle of Lexington• Battle of Bunker Hill • Battle of Saratoga

The political struggles were primarily between "the class with, and [the] class without, property." James Madison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=3ImIEcsTEVo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=23vQjYzyx9Q

I-5. Foreign Threat

• Threat from Great Britain• trade blockage and • its army in Detroit & NY

• North Africa pirates threat• Disputes with Spain

because of Florida and the Mississippi River

II. Opportunity:The Constitutional Convention

• Two key factors:• Shay’s rebellion led to this convention directly

• The first debt crisis another reason: “After independence from Britain in 1783, America’s states refused to repay their Revolutionary War debts,” writes Mark Roe. “The country … could not solve its financial problems, and eventually those problems – largely recurring defaults – catalyzed the 1787 Philadelphia convention to create a new United States.”

Continue• “not a “respectable country.” - George Washington

• "You talk, my good sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachusetts. I know not where that influence is to be found, or, if attainable, that it would be a proper remedy for the disorders. Influence is not government. Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties, and properties will be secured, or let us know the worst at once."

- George Washington

The movie (Yale course)

Discussion

Is the Constitutional convention the only choice at that time?

What would happen to the US if no this constitutional convention?

Continue

Result: The representatives from 12 states created a new constitution instead from merely amending the Articles of Confederation.

II-1. Conflicts at the Convention

1. Conservative vs. democratic camps

2. Federalists/nationalists vs. anti-feralists

3. Large vs. small states

4. North commercial vs. south agricultural interests

5. Free states vs. slave states

6. ……

II-2. Powers of the Congress

The sole power to coin and print money

Levy and collect taxes

Regulate interstate commerce

Declare war upon the President’s request

Raise and support an army and a navy

Establish lower federal courts

Make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers

Bi-cameral Legislature

The Virginia Plan

The New Jersey Plan

The Connecticut Plan

Hamilton Version (British plan)

Continue

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the states & proportionally based on population Slaves: Three/fifth clause & 20 years slave trade

extension.

Continue

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State,(chosen by the Legislature thereof) (The preceding words in parentheses superseded by 17th Amendment, section 1.) for six Years;

Heritage, compromise, creation & rational

ContinueHeritage from British tradition: one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners.

Compromise (big and small states): for bicameralism in which the upper house would have states represented equally, and the lower house would have them represented by population.

Continue

Rational (checks): "The Senate was created to be a stabilizing force, selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more deliberate—a sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the 'fickleness and passion' that could absorb the House. “The use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch.”Madison

III-3. The Executive Branch-the President

The delegates also agreed with Madison that the executive function had to be independent of the legislature. In their aversion to kingly power, American legislatures had created state governments where the executive was beholden to the legislature, and by the late 1780s this was widely seen as being a source of paralysis.The Executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

III-4. The Judicial Branch

A separate judiciary as part of a national government

The U.S. Supreme Court adjudicates “cases and controversies”—matters pertaining to the federal government, disputes between states, and interpretation of the United States Constitution, and, in general, can declare legislation or executive action made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions.

The guardian of the Constitution and the individual liberties of the American people.

Creation and rational

II-6. A Government of “Checks and Balances”

“Checks & balances” of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

while the Congress (legislative) has the power to create law, the executive (President) can veto any legislation -- an act which, in turn, can be overridden by Congress.

The President nominates judges to the nation's highest judiciary authority (The Supreme Court), but those nominees must be approved by the Congress.

The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as "unconstitutional" any law passed by the Congress

Each branch has its powers specifically described, and each would be tied into the other two in such ways as to prevent any one branch from taking over supreme power.

III. Comparison

George Washington’s example

Emperor/lifelong ruler in the Republic of China & People’s Republic of ChinaYuan ShikaiChiang Kai-shek Mao

ConclusionThe paralysis of the Confederation made the US into a critical crisis from 1783-1787

The constitutional convention seek a solution to solve the challenges.

The birth of Constitution created an opportunity for this new nationThe thirteen states became a unified nationA powerful and also a checks & balanced federal

government was establishedA solid political foundation led to a powerful country

in the future

Comparison

The Mayflower Compact

The Constitution

Ben Franklin’s Comment

He said he often looked at the painting, "without being able to tell, whether it was rising or setting. But now at length, I have the happiness to know it is a rising, and not a setting sun."

Questions?

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