Good read: . Constitutional Convention Posted by Morton on March 22, 2014 at 5:12am in Morton IX View Discussions . The men who participated at the Constitutional Convention May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia were sent there to represent their respective nations to address problems in governing the United States of America, following independence from Great Britain. Throughout the Convention, delegates would regularly come and go, with only 30 - 40 being present on a typical day. Rhode Island, fearing that the Convention would work to its disadvantage, boycotted the Convention and, when the Constitution was put to the states, initially refused to ratify it. Before the Constitution was drafted, the nearly 4 million inhabitants of the 13 newly independent states were governed under the Articles of Confederation. Each of these nations had the authority to govern themselves. Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States was not a country it was a union of 13 separate independent nations. The Articles of Confederation were closer to a treaty between sovereign states than they were to a national constitution. American legislatures had created state governments where the executive was beholden to the legislature. Benjamin Franklin represented the nation known as Pennsylvania while George Washington was unanimously elected president of the Convention, and represented a nation known as Virginia. Each of them respectively, were sovereign independent nations and they were united into a league of perpetual friendship. The purpose of this union was to form an alliance that would protect the individual nations against threat of invasion from European powers, as well as other pressing issues where the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for managing the various conflicts etc. that arose among the states. The power of the veto was given solely to the executive. Once the Convention began, the delegates first agreed on the principles of the Convention, then they agreed on Madisons Virginia Plan. After that they began to modify it. Charles Pinckney also introduced a plan, where the House would have one member for every 1,000 inhabitants, (not Residents), although this plan was never considered and its exact character has been lost to history. Alexander Hamilton also offered a plan of a strong centralized government after the Convention was well under way. It included an executive serving for life and the delegates felt it too closely resembled a monarchy. Most of the Original Conventions delegates along with Hamilton thought that states already protected individual rights, and that the Constitution did not authorize the national government to take away rights, so there was no need to include protections of rights. The Connecticut Compromise wasnt a plan but one of several compromises offered by the Connecticut delegation. It was key to the ultimate ratification of the constitution, although was included only after being modified by Benjamin Franklin in order to make it more appealing to larger states. After the Convention was well under way, the New Jersey Plan was introduced though never seriously considered. James Madison suggested that state governments should appoint commissioners to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situation and trade of said states; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interests and permanent harmony. The resulting Constitution created a new National government and the United States began the process of being converted from a union of independent nation states into a single unified country. Unfortunately, that would eventually lead to us being controlled by the bankers and the financial elite. The final nail in the coffin of despotic control was driven home by Abraham Lincoln who successfully laid the foundation for the Corporate Democracy that exists to this day. Contrary to what we have been taught in our “public” schools, he did not save the union; he destroyed it and created a government that would ultimately turn Sovereign Citizens into debt slaves on a federal plantation.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 15:57:44 +0000
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