Volume 1, Issue 1: The Vices of US Politics

Welcome to Conventional Wisdom!

Two-hundred thirty-one years ago today the Constitutional Convention was set to begin, but nobody showed up. It wasn't until May 25 that a quorum of seven states was secured. Darned 18th century travel. Because of that, there's not much news to share today, so we'll use this time to get some introductory material out of the way. Below you'll find James Madison's small note on the happenings of today, some background information about just why there was a Constitutional Convention in the first place, and a summary of a piece by James Madison from April (of 1787) on the same topic.  James Madison was very eager for everything to begin and came well prepared and well read. If you have any books, articles, comments, ideas, primary source materials, or anything at all that you think would help your fellow readers become (almost) as well read as Madison, please email me at logan@conventionalnewsletter.com. If it's good enough I might just share it in the next issue! The next official Convention update won't be until May 25, but I may send a little more info about a few of the delegates before then, so we can get to know all the men (and they were all men) who were present. James Madison's Notes For Monday, May 14 [May 14] was the day fixed for the meeting of the Deputies in Convention, for revising the federal system of government. On that day a small number only had assembled. Seven States were not convened...  Some Context Why did the convention even take place? The US Revolutionary War had ended four years earlier in September of 1783, and the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union had been holding the states together since 1781 and informally guiding the Second Continental Congress through the war since 1777. But by 1787 members of Congress were beginning to realize that the Articles of Confederation were too weak to function in the long run. Under the Articles, the nation functioned less like a single nation and more like 13 loosely connected nations. The Articles could only be amended by a unanimous vote of the states, giving every state the power to veto any change. Additionally, the Articles gave the weak federal government no taxing power; it was wholly dependent on the states for money, and had no power to force non-paying states to pay, creating a perpetually underfunded federal government.  Disputes began erupting between the states with no clear means of settlement. Maryland and Virginia fought over possession of the Potomac River*, and many states grew angry at Rhode Island's decision to impose taxes on all traffic passing through it on the post road. The year before the Convention, Shays’ Rebellion began. What had started as a political conflict between Boston merchants and rural farmers over tax debts had exploded into an open rebellion led by former Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays. Shays ran a small farm, had tax debts, and had never received payment for his service in the Continental Army. The rebellion took months for Massachusetts to put down, and it began talk that a federal army would be able to put down such insurrections more effectively.  In September 1786, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Convention was set to begin today, May 14, 1787. *The Virginia/Maryland border dispute had its roots way back in the 1600s when two different Kings of England granted separate but conflicting land grants to Cecilius Calvert and Thomas Colepeper. Amazingly, the dispute was finally settled after three centuries by the US Supreme Court in 1910. You can read the whole tale on Wikipedia here.  Madison's Vices of the US Political System  Published in April 1787 [Editor's Note: Madison's full article is quite lengthy, so below I have included only a list of his twelve main grievances with the Articles of Confederation. The whole article is worth reading (you can do so here), and the editorial note at the top of that linked page gives some more interesting background on the Articles, the Constitution, and Madison's nerdiness, if you've got the time to read it.] 1. Failure of the States to comply with the Constitutional requisitions 2. Encroachments by the States on the federal authority 3. Violations of the law of nations and of treaties 4. Trespasses of the States on the rights of each other 5. Want of concert in matters where common interest requires it 6. Want of Guaranty [sic] to the States of their Constitutions & laws against internal violence 7. Want of sanction to the laws, and of coercion in the Government of the Confederacy 8. Want of ratification by the people of the articles of Confederation 9. Multiplicity of laws in the several States 10. Mutability of the laws of the States 11. Injustice of the laws of States 12. Impotence of the laws of the States