Constitutional Supremacy Still A Good Idea

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once observed that, “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.” In 1787, as the American nation’s founders gathered in Philadelphia in order to create a more perfect union, both history and philosophy influenced the resolve to write the new Constitution.

 

Americans left Europe, in part, to distance themselves from a history of warfare among the various European states. Following independence from Britain and the 1783 peace, however, growing sectional concerns helped fuel a feeling of disunity. As historian David Hendrickson correctly noted in his book on the founding of America, “…the corporate identity of the individual states would be far less secure under disunion than under the proposed constitution…”

 

The Absence of a Strong Central Government

 

The new American government under the Articles of Confederation, conceived during the years of war, was impotent against the looming national crisis involving debt, commerce, and national integrity; no European power took the Americans seriously.

 

Growing sectional concerns, notably between the commercially-minded Northeast and the agriculturally-geared South, threatened to disunify, enabling European states to manipulate Americans against each other. George Washington warned his colleagues about “relaxing the powers of union” which would expose the new country to the, “…sport of European politics…”

 

Independence also meant an end to the British mercantile system in regard to key American enterprises such as tobacco, rice, indigo, and naval stores in the South and lumber in the North. As soon as the war ended, European goods flooded the American market, hurting attempts to expand American industries. Agricultural prices also fell, hurting American farmers and contributing to the levels of popular discontent associated with events such as Shays’ Rebellion in 1786.

 

Unity, after 1783, was based on a loose confederation. The American Congress lacked any direct power to levy taxes. The individual states printed their own money and acted as sovereign states, thus contributing to the overall weakness of the confederation. Any moves toward greater centralization of power were equated with tyranny and the loss of liberty. As writer Robert Harvey noted, “…the new nation was a ragbag of competing authorities.”

 

Another source of friction involved the westward movement. Land claims regarding these territories frequently overlapped, pitting one state against another. The Articles of Confederation lacked an organized formula addressing territorial assumptions.

 

The need for a Constitution and Centralized Power

 

The Constitution gave power to the people, but not too much power. Through a series of compromises, the weaknesses that had left the nation vulnerable after 1783 were remedied: a bicameral legislature, a chief executive, a judiciary, and an enumeration of the rights of individual states. The Constitution was inspired both by history and philosophy.

 

Ratification, however, did not end the debate over personal liberties and sectional concerns. Additionally, European powers continued to threaten and manipulate the new nation. The realities of Paris mobs, with the outbreak of the 1789 French Revolution, hardened conservatives in Britain – men like Edmund Burke who referenced the mobs as “swinish multitudes.”

 

The Constitution helped unify the individual states but it would take a civil war to reign in the friction over the extent of state sovereignty. This debate has continued in American history, especially when federal centralization was perceived as interfering with individual liberties and threatening the powers of individual states.

 

References:

 

Colin B. Goodykoontz, “The Founding Fathers and Clio,” The Vital Past: Writings on the Uses of History, Stephen Vaughn, editor (The University of Georgia Press, 1985)

Robert Harvey, “A Few Bloody Noses”: The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution (The Overlook Press, 2002)

David C. Hendrickson, Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding (University Press of Kansas, 2003)

Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000, Volume III (Hyperion, 2002)