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Monday, May 2, 2016

Independence Historical Park at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Creating the Constitution

Between the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, the American Revolution swept through the colonies pitting friends and families against each other. In truth, it was a civil war. We will explore the battles of the War for Independence in future postings, while today we will stay with the Independence Hall and explore the creation of our democracy.

As the war progressed, most people realized that the Articles of Confederation did not work. No state honored all of their federal taxes since there were no penalties. At times, Georgia and New Jersey refused to pay anything. Consequently, the Confederation government lacked the money to pay even the interest on its foreign debt. By 1786, the United States defaulted on its debts from the war as they came due. Changes had to happen.


Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention convened on May 14, 1787 when delegates returned to Independence Hall in Philadelphia to correct the Articles. By mid-June, the delegates switched from revising the existing Articles to creating a totally new type of government. Many issues might have derailed an agreement among the diverse and divisive states:  how much power to give the federal government; how to elect representatives to Congress and how many should come from each state; who could vote; when to hold elections; and how to change the constitution and thus the government? Delegates debated all of these issues and more through the summer of 1787 in the State House.

In seeking a better government, Americans turned again to the Enlightenment philosophies of the Englishman John Locke, the Frenchman Montesquieu, and other Europeans. Conceding that humans were corruptible and lusted after power, these philosophers did not count on the goodwill of humans to temper our excesses. As Virginian James Madison observed: “if humans were angels, no government would be necessary.”  Despite creating a democracy to give the public power over government, our country’s founders did not truly trust people.
James Madison, delegate from Virginia (Courtesy http://www.biography.com/)
To counter human nature, the delegates turned to Montesquieu who championed the separation of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches to protect individual freedoms. Only power checking power could preserve the hard won liberty. Such borrowings from enlightenment thought found fertile ground in the deliberations to revise the Articles of Confederation.


Virginia versus New Jersey

The convention debated two models of democracy —the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan, written mainly by James Madison, favored empowering the states with the larger populations. It proposed a federal government with three branches to insure checks and balances to prevent abuses of power. The legislative branch had two houses—one elected by popular vote for three year terms and the other selected by state legislatures for seven year terms. Representation was based on population – larger states had more elected officials in both chambers.     

The New Jersey Plan, also known as the Small State Plan, challenged the Virginia Plan when William Paterson presented it to the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787.  To counter the disproportionate power that the more populated states would garner under the Virginia Plan, this alternative called for a unicameral body with one vote for each state like under the Articles of Confederation. In a compromise cobbled together by the Connecticut contingent, aspects of the New Jersey Plan were incorporated into the final draft. This created a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives apportioned by population and a Senate which granted equal votes to each state, big or small.

After debate and compromise carried out over the summer, the Constitutional Convention adopted the new Constitution on September 17, 1787 and sent it out from Independence Hall to the states for approval. Ratified by conventions in eleven States, the Constitution went into effect on March 4, 1789. As the supreme law of the land, the Constitution formed a model for representative government that launched a democratic revolution around the world over the next two centuries.
The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution
The Constitution created three units of the federal government—an elected bicameral legislature, an elected president in charge of the executive branch, and an appointed judicial system. All three have duties to ensure a separation of powers to safeguard against abuses. For sharing power between the federal government and the states, national laws take precedence, but funding flows to the states. Finally, the Constitution describes how to ratify it and how to amend it.

The Constitution paradoxically empowers and protects citizens from the entrenched interests of the economically and politically powerful while at the same shielding those elite interests from power of the people. Checks and balances do minimize the abuse of power by our leaders as well as the same by the many. Our founding fathers did not fully trust the American people, both the wealthy as well as the rest of us to do the right thing.
"Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United  States" by Howard Chander Christy

Democracy as a blood sport

From the beginning, political combat between opposing forces has shaped our society. That is the history that drives us and our culture. Some of our citizens embrace  personal liberties so much that they want little or no regulation on individual and corporate activities. This group feels threatened by government. Others support government in regulating the excesses of the powerful. Who does the most to protect our freedoms—people in business or people in government? As part of the government that regulates and protects, the NPS serves on the front lines of this basic battle of what to save and what to use in our land.

This plays out in interesting ways. Story of AZ who thought he owned the Grand Canyon.
The Constitution provided the framework for the success of our republic. It held many firsts as historian Joseph Ellis states:  it established the first modern nation sized republic; it created the first wholly secular nation; and it created a government with overlapping agencies where multiple states and their divergent interests worked together. Despite the strengths of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers avoided several areas which belied the phrase that all men are created equal. For a nation created on equality, slavery existed and in the coming century, grew in some states and territories. Native Americans did not receive equal protection and in fact, lost land and rights. Women did not win the right to vote until the 20th century. While the Constitution serves as a model for democratic governance around the world, it also held some almost fatal flaws as well. 


Sacred Space at Independence Hall.

The colonial men and women had fought a long and difficult war to free themselves from King George and the Parliament. Some of the plans and justifying documents came from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. As the war ended and the new country struggled to create a government acceptable to the all of the states, the hall once again hosted the intense debates and the drafting of the new republic. The resultant Constitution of the United States has for more than two centuries served as a model for democratic governments around the world.

From May 1775 to 1783, Independence Hall served as the principal meeting place for the Second Continental Congress and from 1790 to 1800 was the temporary capital of the new country. The newly formed Congress and recently elected President Washington conducted their business next door in the Congress Hall as the nation’s permanent capital was built south of Philadelphia on the Potomac River.

At first, Independence Hall and the surrounding buildings that had played such a vital role in the Revolution and forming of the Republic did not attract much public attention. In the 1820s, one room in the State House was designated as Independence Hall and the surrounding block as Independence Square. A first floor museum opened in 1876, and the second floor restored in 1897. On June 28, 1948, the U.S. Congress authorized the Independence National Historical Park which was then formally established on July 4, 1956. Independence Hall became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on October 23, 1979. The area around Independence Hall is sacred ground for democracy.

Millions of people from around the world have converged on Philadelphia, have tramped over the grassy mall, lined up to view the Liberty Bell, toured Independence Hall and the Portrait Gallery, and visited the other sites of this National Historical Park. They all come to look for America.
People lined up to view the Liberty Bell (Photo by Hunner)

Independence National Historical Park
143 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 965-2305

http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm