The Founders and the Constitution

This series of essays focuses on those American Founders who exercised the most influence on the original Constitution as amended by the Bill of Rights. Each essay thumbnails the life and contributions of at least one individual. The essays also will tell you more about "the supreme Law of the Land."

Before proceeding with the series, some terminology may be helpful. When the series uses the word "framers," it means the 55 men who drafted ("framed") the Constitution. They were the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia from May 25, 1787, to Sept. 17, 1787.

The word "ratifiers" means the 1,648 delegates at the 13-state ratifying conventions meeting from December 1787 (Delaware) to May 1790 (Rhode Island). The term "Founders" includes the framers, the most significant ratifiers, and major opinion leaders in the public debate over the Constitution....

When the Constitution was written, the dominant way of reading legal documents was neither "expansive" nor "narrow." It was a middle ground known as "fair construction."...

The Constitution, especially as amended by the Bill of Rights, wasn't the product of any one faction, conservative or otherwise. It was the product of negotiation among people of different views - with moderates working to bring all parties together. The result was a coalition spanning most, although not all, of the American political spectrum....

On the "far right" were the unreconstructed Tories. These were Americans who had been loyal to the Crown during the Revolution, and who never accepted the war's outcome....

Next from the "right" were the high nationalists. Unlike the Tories, they welcomed American Independence. But they admired the British political system and would have preferred to partially replicate it in America....

Next on the spectrum were the moderate nationalists....

The final terms of the Constitution reflect many of the centrists' positions because they played a pivotal role in negotiating the final bargain....

Just to the "left" of the centrists were the "conditional federalists." I coined that term for them because they (1) favored the federalism of the Constitution but (2) only on condition that the document be amended....

Anchoring the "far left" were the firm antifederalists. Some wanted to retain the Articles of Confederation, with a modest increase in congressional power. Others didn't think a 13-state union was viable in the long run and favored dividing the country. The most notable firm antifederalist was Patrick Henry of Virginia....

... John Adams of Massachusetts didn't attend the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He was America's ambassador to England when the convention met,...

Abigail Smith Adams was devoted and loyal, and during John's long absences, she proved to be a competent manager of family affairs. She was also intellectually brilliant....

Adams's chief contribution to "Step 1" in writing the U.S. Constitution - identifying goals and principles - was the first volume of his three-volume set, "A Defence [sic] of the Constitutions of the United States," published in early 1787....

In his "Defence," Adams emphasized four basic constitutional principles: First, just laws are enacted by the consent of the governed or by their chosen agents. Second, for a people to be free, the rule of law must prevail. Third, the best government mixes democratic, aristocratic, and monarchical features. Finally, the best mixed government consists of a bicameral legislature (with distinct aristocratic and democratic houses), an independent chief executive, and an independent judiciary....

In 1776, Adams wrote a short pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on Government." The ideas in that pamphlet helped guide the framers during Step 2 of constitution-making (developing a general outline of government)....

... in 1789 Adams was elected vice president of the United States, serving two terms under the presidency of George Washington....

... Madison favored a "national" rather than a federal government, with Congress enjoying absolute power to veto state laws. He wanted the president to serve for life or be elected by Congress for a single long term. He proposed that the Senate be able to make treaties without the intervention of the president and that the Senate appoint judges. Although a slave holder, Madison favored immediate abolition of the slave trade and the gradual abolition of slavery itself.

None of these ideas made it into the final draft...

Still, Madison was the most important single individual in the document's creation. He was also one of the few (George Washington, John Dickinson, Roger Sherman, Edmund Randolph, and probably Alexander Hamilton) about whom we can say, "Without him, we might not have a Constitution."...

... John Dickinson was one of those Founders about whom it could be said, "Without him, we probably would not have a Constitution."...

His education featured the typical heavy dose of Greco-Roman classics, and he retained a love for the classics all his life. As was true of Madison, John Adams, and Ben Franklin, he was not only a man of action, but also deeply intellectual... Dickinson came from Quaker stock and, although he was not formally observant, in accordance with Quaker views he liberated all his slaves...

"A good man," the youthful lawmaker contended, "ought to serve his country, even though she resents his services."...

Only three weeks into the convention, Dickinson prepared an outline for a proposed Constitution. The outline built on Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan, but included many additional features the delegates eventually adopted: enumerated powers, selection of Senators by the state legislatures, a minimum age of 30 for Senators, rotating elections, restrictions on the states issuing money, guarantees of trial by jury and habeas corpus, and the embryo of what became the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18)... Naturally, the plan also included some ideas not ultimately adopted, such as an executive branch headed by three persons instead of one...

One of Dickinson's most important constitutional contributions was his role in developing the concept later known as "dual sovereignty," by which the central government would have sovereignty as to enumerated (listed) subjects and the states would be sovereign as to all other matters...

... The convention was called to order on May 25, 1787. Four days later, Randolph rose and delivered a speech outlining the defects in the Articles of Confederation and offering a series of reforms. We know these proposals as the "Virginia Plan." They became the primary basis for the convention's discussions for the next eight weeks....

Randolph participated vigorously, and usually successfully, in the convention deliberations - sometimes, but not always, in alliance with Madison....

One of Randolph's greater moments was when he teamed up with John Dickinson of Delaware to ensure that only the directly elected House of Representatives - not the indirectly elected Senate - could propose new taxes...

If not for Edmund Randolph, America's most populous and most influential state would have rejected the Constitution. George Washington would have been ineligible for the presidency. The Union would have been smothered in its cradle.

... Wilson's impact at the Constitutional Convention, while significant, is overrated. But his contribution during the ratification debates (1787-1790) was exceptional...

During 1767 and 1768, Dickinson published his famous "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," which laid out the colonies' case against Great Britain...

... In 1780, South Carolina was hammered by an overwhelming British invasion. The legislature granted Rutledge dictatorial powers, earning him the nickname "Dictator John." He coordinated guerrilla war against the British until hostilities ended the following year.

After his term as governor was over, he served again in the state legislature, and next as chief judge of South Carolina's court of chancery - the tribunal that administered the Anglo-American body of law called "equity." He was in that position when chosen for the Constitutional Convention...

One indication of the respect his colleagues had for him is that they elected him again and again to serve on committees formed to broker compromises or resolve deadlocks...

... an astonishing number of Rutledge's ideas ended up in the final Constitution. Following are some of the positions he advocated successfully....

... Hamilton was a genius - aside from Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the greatest genius among all the prodigious intellects of the Founders.

In 1786, he was elected to the state legislature, and within a few months his fellow lawmakers had appointed him to be a commissioner (delegate) at the Annapolis Convention. In September of that year, the conclave in Annapolis recommended that the states meet in Philadelphia the following May. This meeting became known as the Constitutional Convention...

Hamilton's greater contributions came at the ratification stage. He recruited John Jay and James Madison to compose a series of newspaper op-eds designed to convince New Yorkers to elect pro-Constitution delegates to the state-ratifying convention. Hamilton wrote 51 of the 85 essays and assisted Madison with a few others. They were re-published in a collection known as "The Federalist."...

Historian Forrest McDonald itemized some of George Washington's constitutional contributions in American National Biography Online:

"His role in working out the details of the Constitution was minimal, but Washington was important to the success of the convention withal. His very attendance, together with Benjamin Franklin's, ensured the convention respectability and public trust ... His presence in the president's chair ensured decorous and tempered behavior by the other delegates, several of whom had outsized egos and short tempers.

"Perhaps most important, Washington made it possible to create an executive branch - without which no national government could have been viable - despite the general fear of executive power that had prevailed in America since 1776. Finally, Washington's signature on the Constitution, in the opinion of many observers, made the difference between ratification by the requisite number of states and refusal to ratify."...

Washington further aided the Constitution's ratification by extensive correspondence throughout the public debates (Sept. 17, 1787, to May 29, 1790)...

Self-control enabled Washington to rise to an 18th-century ideal: fitting into one's pre-selected "character" - that is, his brand or public image...

The truth is that most of the constitution-makers envisioned the presidency as precisely the kind of office Washington made it, and the Constitution encapsulated that vision... Washington influenced the Constitution's operation far more as president than as a framer...

... Gouverneur Morris was a “high nationalist,” holding positions similar to those of Alexander Hamilton, although somewhat less extreme. In Morris’s view, the central government should enjoy almost unlimited power over the states...

Morris believed the lower house should be elected by the people, but that an aristocracy—either of birth or merit—was inevitable, and should be represented by the Senate... As the proceedings wore on, Morris became more protective of the states: He opposed a congressional veto over state laws and advocated equal representation in the Senate...

On Aug. 8, 1787, he launched a furious attack on slavery on the floor of the convention...

He stayed in France for a decade, circulating at the highest levels of society....

Through his eloquence, Morris converted a mere legal instrument into one of the most memorable documents in the history of the world.

... His central fear was of a federal government that was too aristocratic—in which control was concentrated in a cabal consisting of the president and a small Senate. He wanted the federal government to be more democratic.

Accordingly, he proposed enlarging the House of Representatives, depriving Congress of power to manipulate its own elections, checking the president with an executive council, imposing term limits on some officers, and banning the Senate from initiating financial appropriations.

And most importantly, he sought a bill of rights to protect individual liberties and the reserved authority of the states...

His subsequent opposition—and especially his support for a bill of rights—laid the groundwork for the gentlemen’s agreement by which the Constitution ultimately came into effect...

Franklin... was U.S. postmaster-general for a time, and for 25 years was a diplomat in Europe (1757–1762; 1764–1775; 1776–1785). At various points during his stay in Europe, he represented the governments of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and the United States...

One way Franklin contributed to the framing of the Constitution was by composing documents that helped pave the way for the Constitution... Franklin had served as postmaster general for the colonies. After Independence, he became the postmaster general for the Continental Congress...

As was true of Washington, Franklin’s presence tended to keep the [Constitutional Convention] delegates on their best behavior. ..

Although the Connecticut delegates (discussed in the next installment in this series) were largely responsible for the “Great Compromise,” it actually was Franklin who headed the committee that proposed the compromise and moved its adoption. This was the bargain whereby (1) the House of Representatives was to be allocated (mostly) by population, (2) each state was to have two senators, but (3) only the House could initiate revenue bills...

The end of the Constitutional Convention and the expiration of his term as state president the following year represented the close of Franklin’s political career...

... Early Connecticut was known as “the land of steady habits.” The nickname reflected the state’s culture. The people of Connecticut tended to be religious, sober, hardworking, self-controlled, and moderate. William Samuel Johnson, Oliver Ellsworth, and Roger Sherman were excellent representatives of that culture...

A careful review of the convention records reveals that the three Connecticut delegates worked in a coordinated fashion. The three evidently caucused regularly. Johnson’s personality and standing were such that he probably presided at those caucuses. But on the convention floor, Sherman most commonly spoke for the group, although Ellsworth and Johnson contributed frequently as well.

The Connecticut delegates’ most important common goals were to create a system that featured (1) a competent central government, (2) limited to specified powers, with (3) the states retaining jurisdiction on all other subjects and able to defend themselves against the central government...