Just because the Constitutional Convention was illegal, doesn’t mean that it didn’t do any good. There were lots of problems that it helped fix. According to The National Constitution Center, “Here is a quick list of the problems that occurred, and how these issues led to our current Constitution.
1. The states didn’t act immediately. It took until February 1779 for 12 states to approve the document. Maryland held out until March 1781, after it settled a land argument with Virginia.
2. The central government was designed to be very, very weak. The Articles established “the United States of America” as a perpetual union formed to defend the states as a group, but it provided few central powers beyond that. But it didn’t have an executive official or judicial branch.
3. The Articles Congress only had one chamber and each state had one vote. This reinforced the power of the states to operate independently from the central government, even when that wasn’t in the nation’s best interests.
4. Congress needed 9 of 13 states to pass any laws. Requiring this high supermajority made it very difficult to pass any legislation that would affect all 13 states.
5. The document was practically impossible to amend. The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783.
6. The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations. The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency.
7. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies. Technically, that role fell to the central government, but the Confederation government didn’t have the physical ability to enforce that power, since it lacked domestic and international powers and standing.
8. States had their own money systems. There wasn’t a common currency in the Confederation era. The central government and the states each had separate money, which made trade between the states, and other countries, extremely difficult.
9. The Confederation government couldn’t help settle Revolutionary War-era debts. The central government and the states owed huge debts to European countries and investors. Without the power to tax, and with no power to make trade between the states and other countries viable, the United States was in an economic mess by 1787.
10. Shays’ rebellion – the final straw. A tax protest by western Massachusetts farmers in 1786 and 1787 showed the central government couldn’t put down an internal rebellion. It had to rely on a state militia sponsored by private Boston business people. With no money, the central government couldn’t act to protect the “perpetual union.””
I bet the last one caught your attention. Shays’ rebellion was the main thing that led to the Constitutional Convention. the protest lasted from 1786-1787. The cause was debt. At the end of At the end of the American Revolutionary War, there was a monetary debt crisis. Because the debts were so high, the government decided to do a little but of hyperinflation. Of course we all know that inflation is terrible for the economy, so hyperinflation must have been a huge problem. How dumb do you have to be to make inflation? Hyperinflation would destroy the economy today. Some people revolted against the hyperinflation, resulting in Shays’ rebellion.
George Washington also helped the Constitution to become legal. In 1754, the half0king lied to George Washington. This led to the Battle of Jumonville Glen. Years later in 1786, Henry Knox lied to George Washington about the current events. George Washington was extremely angry because people kept lying to him, so he decided to attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787. This was after he was repetitively saying that he would not attend. The president of the United States being at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 gave it legitimacy. This led to its ratification.
The Constitution is also a “living and breathing” document. This is a really bad thing. If a document is living and breathing, then it is able to be changed. You need permission from most of the states, but it can still be changed. This is bad because almost anything can be put into it. When someone wants a living and breathing document, then they are saying that they was the judges to have complete power to interpret the Constitution in such a way that it allows the federal government to do anything they want to do. If the government had this kind of power, then we would collapse as a nation. Not that we aren’t, it will just be quicker. A living and breathing document is a terrible thing to build our government on. It is unstable. Soon it will topple over and fall onto us.
Just because the Constitution is illegal, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have things that help us as a nation. According to the University of Baltimore, “First it creates a national government consisting of a legislative, an executive, and a judicial branch, with a system of checks and balances among the three branches. Second, it divides power between the federal government and the states. And third, it protects various individual liberties of American citizens.” So it gives us out rights, it divides up power to the different governments fairly, and it gives us a strong three part government. There are other thing that makes the United States a strong nation though. According to Study.com, “The United States is a world power and a superpower for many reasons. For one, the United States has the best-equipped and best-funded military on Earth. Unlike other countries, the U.S. can project its military power across the world through its large air force and navy.” So we have a very large military which helps.
Now so far, I’ve been through about half of this essay, but this next part will be the conclusion. This will have multiple parts including a review, conclusion, and how to discuss this with others. If you don’t understand what I’ve said so far, I’ll try to make it simpler in the review, but I make no promises.
Let’s start with the review.
According to U. S. Department of State (.gov), “The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation.” According to study.com, “What was the purpose of the Constitutional Convention? The original purpose was to amend the Articles of Confederation to form a stronger executive branch of government. This plan was replaced by the delegates’ determination to write a new document, the Constitution of the United States.” In 1878, a lot of delegates came from around America and went to Pennsylvania. From there, they went to Independence Hall. There was as much security as they could get to make sure that everyone could say what they wanted without fear of being heard by anyone not wanted there. Everyone there was sworn to secrecy. The goal was to improve the Articles of Confederation, or at least this is what the people who set it up told the delegates. From the beginning of the planning, Those that set this up were planning to completely change the Articles of Confederation. Nobody expected anything to change, but they were wrong. In the end though, it was completely changed. They named this new thing the US Constitution. Now this was illegal. All of the thirteen states had to agree to change anything, but only nine out of the thirteen agreed. They all ratified it, but that doesn’t mean that the US Constitution was legal. According to the Dictionary “sign or give formal consent to making it officially valid”. This means they would consider it, but in the end they didn’t agree.
Article 13: Declared that the Articles of Confederation were forever and could only be changed by the Congress of Confederation and if all the states agreed.
There were lots of thing that led to the Constitutional Convention. You can read about these things in an earlier section in this essay. One of the ones that I highlighted was Shay’s rebellion. This was a protest that lasted from 1786-1787. The cause of this protest was debt. At the end of the American Revolutionary War, there was a ton of debt. The government wanted to solve this problem with hyperinflation. Inflation by itself is bad, but hyperinflation is much worse. Some countries give up on their currency because of hyperinflation. Some people rebelled because of this hyperinflation, resulting in Shay’s rebellion.
The Constitution is a living and breathing document. This is very bad for our economy. A living and breathing document can be changed at anytime. Most of the states need to agree to it though. Anything can be put into it if other pieces of the government allows it. If it was changed today, nothing good would come out of it with our politicians.
Just because something is illegal, doesn’t mean that it’s immediately the worst thing on earth. There are good things that come out of the Constitution. According to the University of Baltimore, “First it creates a national government consisting of a legislative, an executive, and a judicial branch, with a system of checks and balances among the three branches. Second, it divides power between the federal government and the states. And third, it protects various individual liberties of American citizens.” So it gives us out rights, it divides up power to the different governments fairly, and it gives us a strong three part government. There are other thing that makes the United States a strong nation though. According to Study.com, “The United States is a world power and a superpower for many reasons. For one, the United States has the best-equipped and best-funded military on Earth. Unlike other countries, the U.S. can project its military power across the world through its large air force and navy.”
With that done, how do you discuss this topic with whomever you feel the need to discuss it with? Well first you could tell them to read this essay, but if they can’t, or won’t then you can start by telling them how the Constitutional Convention came to be. Tell them how it was rigged. tell them their original law.
Article 13: Declared that the Articles of Confederation were forever and could only be changed by the Congress of Confederation and if all the states agreed.
They broke this law so they could have laws that they wanted and what they believed would be good for America. Tell the the difference of ratifying something and actually making it legal. If you can convince then that the people who made the Constitutional Convention were breaking the law, it will be a lot easier to tell them the rest of this. Give your friend both sides of the argument. Why People think it’s legal and illegal. What kind of questions will they ask you?
What’s the difference between ratification and agreeing? According to the Dictionary ratify means “sign or give formal consent to.” Agreeing means to have the same opinion about something. When all of them ratified it, that meant that they would think about it, but only nine agreed. this means that they said yes to the changes.
Why was the Constitution made legal, even though not all of the states agreed to it? People are people. They lie all the time. If your surprised, then your dumb. Human beings will do almost anything to make it so they get what they want. They don’t care whether or not they should do something or not.
Should I obey the Constitution today? Yeah. I don’t know all the details to this, but I’m sure that you know how to look something up. But obey it anyway, until you know the consequences of disobedience.
Why would someone want to change the Articles of Confederation? Because people are people. They want what they want right then. But there were some things that led to it.
According to The National Constitution Center, “Here is a quick list of the problems that occurred, and how these issues led to our current Constitution.
1. The states didn’t act immediately. It took until February 1779 for 12 states to approve the document. Maryland held out until March 1781, after it settled a land argument with Virginia.
2. The central government was designed to be very, very weak. The Articles established “the United States of America” as a perpetual union formed to defend the states as a group, but it provided few central powers beyond that. But it didn’t have an executive official or judicial branch.
3. The Articles Congress only had one chamber and each state had one vote. This reinforced the power of the states to operate independently from the central government, even when that wasn’t in the nation’s best interests.
4. Congress needed 9 of 13 states to pass any laws. Requiring this high supermajority made it very difficult to pass any legislation that would affect all 13 states.
5. The document was practically impossible to amend. The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783.
6. The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations. The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency.
7. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies. Technically, that role fell to the central government, but the Confederation government didn’t have the physical ability to enforce that power, since it lacked domestic and international powers and standing.
8. States had their own money systems. There wasn’t a common currency in the Confederation era. The central government and the states each had separate money, which made trade between the states, and other countries, extremely difficult.
9. The Confederation government couldn’t help settle Revolutionary War-era debts. The central government and the states owed huge debts to European countries and investors. Without the power to tax, and with no power to make trade between the states and other countries viable, the United States was in an economic mess by 1787.
10. Shays’ rebellion – the final straw. A tax protest by western Massachusetts farmers in 1786 and 1787 showed the central government couldn’t put down an internal rebellion. It had to rely on a state militia sponsored by private Boston business people. With no money, the central government couldn’t act to protect the “perpetual union.””
I know that I already put these on this essay, but I decided to save you the time of scrolling back up.
What’s the conclusion of all of this? I’ve stated the facts, and they all point to the fact that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was an illegal coup d’etat. Out of thirteen states, all of them ratified it, but not all of them agreed to it. People will say that it is legal, because we’ve been following it for so long, but they are wrong. It is illegal. I’m not saying that you should ditch it and do what you want. You should follow it, but not to the extent that it makes you do something that you shouldn’t. I’ve stated multiple times that it does help even though it wasn’t fairly made. If not all of the states wanted it, then it shouldn’t have become established, but it was. This made it unfair and rigged for the states that didn’t want it.
In the end, The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was and is illegal.