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Procedural Illegalities Flowed
From A Spirit Of Elitism Among
Convention Delegates
The Constitutional Convention was dominated by a spirit of elitism, characteristic of the Enlightenment, rather than biblical Christianity.
This spirit fostered an attitude among the delegates that they were above the law and could dispense with procedural legalities.
Some such as Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams sensed the elitism and refused to attend for that very reason. A few others left the Convention in disgust, convinced that it was up to no good.
The philosophical bent may be examined from several perspectives emerging from a variety of connections. For example, 35 of the 55 delegates were lawyers, the epitome of societal elitism. Nineteen were freemasons -- including Washington and Madison – a group suspected of conspiratorial intentions.
Twenty-eight were Episcopalians. This of course is not damning evidence of anything, but Episcopalian government is top-down, with a tendency to elitism.
In addition, many of the delegates had been classically trained under the influence of the Enlightenment. The men of the Enlightenment looked past the Christian “dark ages” or Medieval era, back to the elitism of pagan Greece and Rome. Virtually all of them adopted classical pseudonyms in the debates rather than Biblical names. Classical humanism emphasizes the sovereignty of man rather than God.
Objections
Patrick Henry fought the Constitution
vehemently and delegate William Paterson of New Jersey had advanced similar objections during the first three weeks of the Convention. "If the confederacy was radically wrong," he argued, "let us return to our states, and obtain larger powers, not assume them of ourselves....If the subsisting confederation is so radically defective as not to admit of amendment, let us say so and report its insufficiency, and wait for enlarged powers." Paterson's plan to correct the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation was rejected by the Convention after about three weeks.
Further, by calling for independent ratifying conventions in each state the Constitutional Convention was making an end run around local governmental bodies. In so doing they sidestepped the strong resistance they knew existed in many of the duly constituted state legislatures. The ratification procedure was explicitly illegal because the Articles of Confederation clearly specified that any changes must be approved by Congress and every state legislature (Article XIII).
The delegates had been given writs which authorized their assembly "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations..." Article XIII of the Articles forbade that "any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the united states, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every state" (emphasis added). Article VII of the Constitution ignored Congress, declaring that approval of nine state conventions would abolish the Articles: "The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution...."
The states as states were thus completely bypassed in an appeal to "the people"; the state legislatures were excluded from the confirmation process. Were the state legislatures happy about this? Hardly. The procedure specified called for the state legislatures to name the times and places of their corresponding ratifying conventions.
Edmund Morgan recounts an instance where 19 anti-Federalists in the Philadelphia legislature deserted the capitol before the vote. This prevented further business for lack of a quorum. Two of them were located by the Sergeant-of-Arms and carried forcibly by a mob back to the state house to complete the quorum.
In effect, the procedure chosen amounted to a bloodless coup against the existing order, as some of the anti-Federalist tracts argued. All of the proceedings were shrouded in secrecy by an oath of silence and elitism. The veil of secrecy was not pierced until after the death of the last delegate (Madison) when their notes were finally made public. Looking back from the perspective of 200 years, Edmund Morgan notes,
It [ratification] was obtained by the narrowest of margins and by methods that cannot be defended. The prospect was not calculated to please local politicians, and as the convention had anticipated, they were among the loudest objectors to the new plan. Again and again they warned that its adoption would be the death knell not only of the state governments but of the popular liberties which the constitutions of those governments protected.
Return from Elitism to America Betrayed 1787
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