Page 9 - BBC History - September 2017

Future US president General George Washington
puts his argument for a strong central government
to the Constitutional Convention in this 1856
painting by Junius Brutus Stearns

17 September 1787
The US

Constitution

is signed

Thirty-nine men put pen
to paper in Philadelphia

our years after the end of its war
Fwith Great Britain, the new
American republic was not a very happy
place. Not only had the newly indepen-
dent Thirteen Colonies run up enor-
mous debts to pay for the war, but an
agricultural depression had seen one
rebellion erupt already.
For many veterans of the conflict,
including General George Washington,
the lesson was obvious: only a strong sign the new Constitution. commitment to a common cause.
central government could prevent the Of the 39 men who signed that day, Not everybody approved of the new
republic from collapsing into anarchy. almost all had seen action during the United States Constitution. Some
In May 1787 a constitutional convention struggle against Britain, and many had delegates, who hated the thought of
met in Philadelphia to discuss the basis been commanders in the rebel army. centralised federal authority, saw it as a
for the new government. Weeks of fierce At 81, Franklin was the oldest; by betrayal of liberty, while New York’s
argument followed, but by September contrast, 26-year-old Jonathan Dayton Alexander Hamilton, who wanted a much
they had a draft. was young enough to have been his stronger government led by a president
On 17 September, they were ready. grandson. Theirs was really only a elected for life, even called it a “frail and
Gathering in the Assembly Room of symbolic gesture, since the document still worthless fabric”. Most of them saw it as a
Independence Hall, the delegates listened needed to be ratified by the states. But practical expedient that would not last
to a patriotic address by Benjamin symbols matter: there could hardly have very long. Few imagined that it would
Franklin before taking it in turns to been a more powerful sign of their endure for more than 200 years.

COMMENT / Dr Adam IP Smith
“The point of the Constitution was to limit the untrammelled power of the populace”

It is striking that the US continues crats. Its preamble locates sovereignty in secured additional representation in
to be governed essentially by the the people, but it does not follow that the Congress and the electoral college for
institutional arrangements created in Founders wanted the sovereigns to slave states, as well as a guarantee that
Philadelphia in 1787. actually govern. The point of the Consti- the federal government would take
The Constitution has structured tution was to limit the untrammelled responsibility for ensuring the
American political life in a profound way, power of the populace, which is why they return of fugitive slaves.
making every substantive question invented an electoral college to decide
(whether about health care, gun control, the presidency, and why they acceded to
or almost anything else) a constitutional a bill of rights which ensured property Adam IP Smith is senior
question. Consequently, the courts have rights would be protected by the courts lecturer in American history
at UCL. His new book is
become powerful, determinative political whatever the legislature may want. The Stormy Present:
actors in a way that the Founders Initially, property rights included the Conservatism and the
probably did not fully anticipate. right to own and trade in humans: Problem of Slavery in
The Constitution was framed by men southern delegates would have rejected Northern Politics,
ALAMY who were Republicans but not Demo- the new constitutional plan had they not 1846–1865

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BBC History Magazine