The One With Aldacron

When the Second Continental Congress first met on May 10, 1775, no one at the time could have predicted what would come of it. Two of the most important documents in American history were produced from that meeting of the minds — the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. The former is, of course, very well known. The latter not so much, which is unfortunate considering that it was the first Constitution of the United States of America.

Some people call the Second Continental Congress the first United States government. From May 10, 1775 until the Articles of Confederation were officially ratified by enough states on March 1, 1781, it essentially was the national government. The Articles established a new government, one in which the states were quite autonomous, with a few restrictions on how they must behave as members of the Confederation. The central government had some power, but overall it was very limited, even weak. It wasn’t long before many cracks started showing. Commerce wars erupted between the states, with some states collecting heavy customs duties on goods brought in from other states. The United States Congress, which represented the central government (there was no chief executive), was powerless to stop such practices. While they could wage war, make peace, and treat with foreign powers, they had no ability to levy taxes to fund any of these endeavors. Worse, threats to property rights and signs of true democracy were beginning to surface.

Most American leaders of the time were very much republicans (meaning, they believed in the ideals of the form of government known as a republic, not that they were members of the Republican political party — which didn’t even exist at the time). They held strong beliefs regarding property rights and the prevention of government tyranny. Some of the state legislatures were passing laws which protected debtors, something that was viewed as a big threat to property rights. Popular assemblies began to independently form in several states to oversee the deliberations of the legislatures and even influence the passage of bills (in a republic, deliberations of the legislature are intended to be shielded from public opinion). The state of Pennsylvania even went so far as to rewrite their Constitution to change the voting requirements (before, only property owners could vote, while the change only required a small tax be paid for eligibility), restructure their state legislature into a single house, and to open the deliberations of the legislature to the public. They even required that the legislature take no vote without first getting public opinion.

The rewritten Constitution of Pennsylvania sounded very democratic. At the time, that probably scared more American leaders than any of the other problems that were cropping up. Benjamin Rush, one of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, said the Pennsylvania Constitution was “too much upon the democratic order.” James Madison would later explain in the Federalist Papers (#10) why a republic is more preferable to a democracy. In his view, too much democracy (i.e. too much influence by the people on government matters) could lead to a majority tyranny, and tyranny of any sort was to be avoided. Many other leaders shared their views.

When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the prices of agricultural products collapsed. Farmers suddenly found themselves struggling. Many state governments reached out a helping in hand in different ways (hence the new state laws that protected debtors and had some people worrying about the future of property rights). But the state of Massachusetts did not help their farmers. Instead, they taxed them heavily in order to repay state debts to the wealthy citizens who financed the war. In 1786, the farmers rebelled under the leadership of a former Continental Army officer named Daniel Shay. The rebellion was effectively put to an end by the Boston militia, but the events surrounding it brought to light the untenable situation of the young government. George Washington famously said,

If government cannot check these disorders, what security has a man?

Long dissatisfied with the direction things had taken, American leaders were finally motivated to correct the problems. The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia in 1787 with the aim of creating a new government that could remedy the problems of the current one (actually, they were instructed by Congress to repair the Articles of Confederation, but the desire to create an entirely new government was common amongst the delegates). While there was some common ground to start from, there were many differing views on how to get to the end result. Things almost came to a premature collapse when it came to the issue of Congressional representation — smaller states wanted an equal number of representatives per state, whereas the larger states wanted a number of representatives proportioned according to population. Ultimately, the Great Compromise was reached, forming a bicameral Congress with one house of each form.

What many Americans today probably don’t remember (or may never have known) is that the Constitution provided for Senators to be selected by the state legislatures, not by direct popular vote. This was changed in 1913 with the 17th amendment, but it’s a key point — it’s one of several roadblocks the framers placed in the Constitution to prevent the formation of a democracy. The bicameral legislature, the unelected judiciary, the electoral college, express limits on government power and the system of checks and balances were all intended to work together to prevent the majority of public opinion from dictating government policy. Benjamin Franklin said,

We have been guarding against an evil that old states are most liable to, excess of power in the rulers, but our present danger seems to be a defect of obedience in the subjects.

There’s a lot we take for granted today that the Constitution didn’t explicitly address. Except for a couple of essential liberties (such as habeas corpus and property rights) the original Constitution did little to protect freedoms from the government. When it came time for the states to ratify the document, this became a sticking point. In order for the ratification to succeed, the Federalists (those who supported the form of federal government outlined in the Constitution) had to promise to create a Bill of Rights. They did, the Constitution was ratified, and the First Congress hammered out the first 10 amendments (the Bill of Rights) in 1789. This can be seen as the first step in making America more democratic.

Since that time, more has been done to move America closer to democracy. We apply the rights of the Constitution today to a wider range of people than it originally was. We have amended it to expand minority rights and to change the way we elect Senators. Public opinion plays a much larger role in government than it once did (though, as our current president has demonstrated, we still have a long way to go in that direction). The framers almost certainly would not recognize the government we have today. And now, as a direct result of the 2000 presidential election, there’s movement underway to change the way we select our president.

It is unlikely that the United States will ever become a true democracy. There’s too much geography and too much diversity for that to happen. In fact, I hope it never happens. I agree with the view that James Madison expressed 200 years ago, that a true democracy will eventually lead to a majority tyranny. The Bush administration is as near to a tyranny as I ever want to see in America. Can you imagine a government where citizens high on Christianity have the majority opinion? What a disaster that would be. But I don’t think democracy in degrees is a bad thing and opening up the presidency to popular vote would empower the people in a way they have never known. It would be nice to know that the vote of a democrat in a deeply red state would actually have meaning (and vice versa of course).

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