Anomalistic History

Did Our Founding Fathers

The Constitution has been augmented with 27 amendments:
including perhaps, its most relevant component, the Bill of Rights

The prevailing U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the United States of America, is a model for global government. It’s the oldest governing document in use in the world today. It took the work of many great minds and stands as a paragon of cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise.

However, did the underwriters of The Constitution really get it right the first time?

Following the Revolutionary War and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4^th 1776, the colonists needed a unifying governing system. The thirteen colonial states were technically thirteen independent countries. With the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, the "United States of America" legally came into existence as a union. The Articles proposed in 1777 served as the de facto system of government used by the Congress until it became de jure by final ratification on March 1, 1781. At that point Congress became the Congress of the Confederation, whereupon they appointed John Hanson of Maryland the country’s first president. The Articles set the laws for governing the United States and, therefore, served as America’s transitory constitution.

Although serving a crucial role in the attainment of nationhood for the thirteen states, it eventually became clear the Articles lacked the necessary provisions to effectively administer an electoral government. The Articles were subsequently replaced by a completely revamped U.S. Constitution in 1789.

A Federal Convention convened in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, to revise the Articles of Confederation. By September 17^th a totally rewritten U.S. organizational structure had emerged. A committee directed by Gouverneur Morris finalized the document and it was officially executed on September of 1787. Congress sent printed copies of the newly wrought political document to individual state legislatures for ratification and by June 21, 1788, a required nine states had apprehensively approved the new Constitution, finally forming, what many considered, “a more perfect Union.”

Even though the constitutional document was confirmed, not all the delegates were pleased with the results; some even left before the conventions concluding signatory ceremony, and three of those remaining refused to sign the document. Of the 39 who did sign, probably no one was completely satisfied.

Conventioneer views were imaginably summed up by Benjamin Franklin, who stated: "There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. ... I doubt to whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. ... It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies..."

Apart from the dissatisfaction aired by the delegates, a number of the individual state legislative bodies were acutely disappointed, chiefly resulting from the failure of the founders to encompass adequate stipulations for the protection of the rights of the people. When the original concept of the Constitution went before the states for ratification, it readily became apparent that America’s foundational framer’s omission of some type of rights stipulation had been a strategic error.

This awkward exclusion of a personal liberties rider was a result of a plurality of convention delegates not deeming them obligatory. Their intent was to create a limited federal government. Apparently they didn’t discern their constituency’s querulous call for stipulations certifying citizen’s liberties and privileges. Maybe they just hadn’t considered the possibilities of future maverick legislators’ engaging in such improprieties as the enforcement of embracing a single religion, censoring the press, or prosecuting someone at a secret trial.

It took two years and the beseeching of numerous leading Americans, (including some of the founding fathers) before Congress finally responded by submitting amendments to the Constitution providing for fundamental civil liberties. They were officially (citizen rights had been passionately debated for decades) proposed on September 25, 1789. Of the original 42 rights suggested, 15 were cut by the House of Representatives. They were further cut to 12 by the Senate and finally only 10 were approved by the states. On December 15^th 1791, these 10 rights became the first 10 amendments to the Constitution and eventually became known as The U.S. Bill of Rights.

These crucial amendments provided for such indispensable civic prerogatives as freedom of religion, speech, press and the right to assemble, the right to bear arms, right of consent to house soldiers, no unreasonable searches or seizures, no self incrimination, due process trail by jury, no excessive bail or cruel and unusual punishment. All are vital to the social welfare of every citizen.

Aside from the oversight of not incorporating an essential civil liberties measure in the Constitution, the founding father also failed to acknowledge such consequential improprieties as the inhumanity of slavery, women's suffrage and people being denied the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Native Americans were entirely outside the existing system, depicted as aliens in their own land.

However, when putting the afore-mentioned criticisms in their proper perspective, by considering the era in which these events occurred, the architects of our Constitution are generally vindicated of most of the censures herein. Our Founding Fathers were an exceptional group of men that just happen to have existed in a time when slavery, treating women subserviently and the oppression of the American Indian was commonplace. Any serious aspiration by prominent lawgivers to affect true equality among sexes, races, or social rank in the Eighteen Century was probably, for the most part, contemplated surreptitiously. Their neglect, however, to initially incorp

orate a proviso for civil liberties was altogether another matter. It had always been a hotly debated issue but the convention delegates who opposed embracing federally mandated citizen’s rights outnumbered those who supported the concept. As a consequence, the motion to include such a bill in the original document was rejected.

Rights had always been a pivotal concern since America’s inception. Many of the New World’s settlers left their ancestral home to form new colonies in a strange land because their rights were threatened. Ultimately, the colonists declared independence from the motherland in that they perceived England as subverting their civil liberties in colonial America.

Although it was common for the early pioneers to build on their English heritage, many of the colonies fashioned laws that far exceeded the scope of the contemporary British Bill of Rights. For example, Rhode Island, established in 1636 was the first American colony to recognize freedom of conscience. In 1641 Massachusetts Bay enacted the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, the first detailed protection of rights in America. Maryland was founded as a haven for Catholics, but its citizens extended the right of religious toleration in 1649 to other Christians as well.

In June 1776 Virginia adopted a state constitution, prefaced by a declaration of rights including many that would later appear in the U.S. Bill of Rights. The Virginia Declaration of Rights served as a model for eight of the 12 other states that adopted new constitutions during the revolutionary period.

While most new state legislative bodies protected individual rights, the Articles of Confederation, America’s first constitution, did not. Likewise, as cited earlier, the Articles also lacked the prerequisites to effectively operate a republic form of government, hence creating a diversity of governing problems. These untenable circumstances led to the Constitutional Convention and the drafting of a newly reconstituted governmental system; however, it too was absent a codicil protecting civil liberties. The repercussion was a resistance of its acceptance by various state legislatures.

During the Constitutional Convention the general sentiment among the framers was that since each state had its own constitution, each with its own bill of rights, a federal bill replicating state laws was unnecessary. There were certain rights, however, that the majority of the framers felt were so important they were included in the original Constitution: the prohibition against the suspension of habeas corpus, and the prohibition of bills of attainder and ex post facto laws.

Nevertheless, there were also those who felt that these few provisions didn’t go nearly far enough, George Mason in particular (He was the principle architect of the Virginia Declaration of Rights). Following the final draft of the U.S. constitutional document, Mason moved that the entire Constitution be prefaced with a bill of rights, the placement to signify the importance of the rights. He implied that the Virginia Declaration could be used as a model, and the details could be worked out in just a few hours. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts so moved and Mason seconded, but thereafter support for the proposal was negligible.

The convention was nearing adjournment and the delegates had been working laboriously on the Constitution for months on end. They were tired and ready to return home. In addition, few felt confident that something as involved as the rights issue could be worked out in just a few hours. Above all, the prevailing feeling was, adding a bill of rights could open up discussions that could bring the convention to a stand-still; perhaps cancel what they’d already achieved. For example, how could they add a provision that all men are born equal and free with the specter of slavery looming over the nation? Mason and Gerry’s proposal was unanimously rejected, impelling both to ultimately refuse to sign the final version of the Constitution.

In due time however, George Mason and Elbridge Gerry proved triumphant. As the completed Constitution went out among the states for debate and ratification, the issue of its being devoid a bill of rights was a major point of contention. The rights controversy was so significant, some of the states submitted proposed articles of amendment along with their ratification. It proved to be such an obstacle that a federal rights bill was proposed even before the last two states endorsed the Constitution.

In December 1791 the Bill of Rights became part of the U.S. Constitution and even though the civil liberties addendum has always been the most widely debated section of the nation’s charter, it’s largely considered its most important constituent.

A Voice of Dissent: George Mason

George Mason (1725-1792) was yet another of our founding fathers whose eminence seems to have diminished (outside of his native Virginia) with the passage of history. His intellect was regarded as one of the finest in the Colonies. Thomas Jefferson considered him "the wisest man of his generation." He was a plantation owner and neighbor of George Washington, though he was not initially well-known outside his native Virginia because of his reluctance to become involved in politics.

The Bill of Rights received considerable attention during its 200th anniversary celebration in 1991, whereas only diminutive recognition was ever bestowed Mason, the driving force behind its adoption. Mason was the innovator of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which had been referred to as "the first Bill of Rights to merit the name."

After Mason’s failed attempt to have the original federal constitutional document prefaced with a bill of rights, he fought inexorably against its ratification in that he felt it was inadequate without a proviso to protect the liberties and freedoms supposedly natural to man.

As one of the more passionate of the leaders of the early Anti-Federalists movement (which also included Elbridge Gerry, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams and George Clinton), Mason’s tenacity and efficacy were inimitable in the advancement of our first 10 Constitutional Amendments.

Mason along with James Madison has been considered by some as co-fathers of “The Bill of Rights”. Madison, (fourth President of the United States (1809-1817) who, as an appointed Senator subsequent the Constitutional Convention, was obliged to introduce the initial series of constitutional amendments to Congress, though, it’s been reported he eventually executed a complete reversal of his original opposition to the rights issue, ultimately hounding his colleagues relentlessly to accept them.

Summary

The first ten Amendments to the Constitution were and still are of supreme importance to the political and legal development of America. They serve to accommodate its citizenry in three decisive ways. First, they declare the important ideal that we the people have rights with which no government may interfere. Placing such directives into the Constitution makes it harder for tyrants to restrict human rights. Second, they provide the basis for actually securing the rights. In 1789 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison "In the arguments in favor of a declaration of rights, one which has great weight with me [is] the legal check which it puts into the hands of the judiciary" (against improprieties by the legislative or the executive branch). Third, the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment, helps maintain a democratic government by barring criminal prosecutions against those who criticize the government and those who hold unpopular beliefs.

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Amendments to the Constitution subsequent to the Bill of Rights cover many subjects. The majority of the seventeen later amendments stem from continued efforts to expand individual civil or political liberties, while a few are concerned with modifying the basic governmental structure drafted in Philadelphia in 1787. The Constitution has been amended a total of 27 times, although only 26 of the amendments are currently used because the twenty-first amendment (repealing prohibition) supersedes the eighteenth.

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The informational sources for this article were excerpts and opinions from scores of Internet Web Sites as well as citations from biographies and television documentaries. This article in whole should be construed as the opinion of its author; however, in all probability it’s shared at least in part by others. It goes without question that some of the details outlined above will conflict with the understanding of a number of people. During the research and composition of this commentary, every effort was made to be as factual and objective as possible, but that doesn’t provide conclusive assurance that the facts are correct. In the event that someone might wish to share his or her comments or add additional input as to accuracy of this topic, please feel free to respond through the "comment” link at the end of this article or e-mail Denman Collins (historiography101 AT yahoo .com).

“All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing the obtaining of happiness and safety.”
---------------------James Mason

”A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
--------------------Thomas Jefferson