Consider: What do you think was the biggest motivation/ influence on the Framers?

Homework: For Thursday Read Woll, “Federalist 47,48 and 51” (41-45), and “Federalist 39”

(66-71) Chapter 1, 2 and 3 Quiz for next Tuesday

Views of the Constitutional Convention and Motives of

the Framers

Democratic, Economic or Political?Chapter 2: Wilson

Major Debates/Topics at the Convention Opening: VA Plan

How did this set the tone for the convention? How might the “council of revision” reflect an implicit call for the power of

judicial review of legislative acts? The Response: The NJ Plan

How was more in line with the original goal of the convention? The NY Plan? Hamilton’s “2 cents”…

Madison's notes: "It will be objected probably, that [an Executive for life] will be an elective Monarch, and will give birth to the tumults which characterize that form of Gov[ernmen]t. He w[oul]d reply that Monarch is an indefinite term. It marks not either the degree or duration of power. If the Executive Magistrate wd. be a monarch for life--the other prop[ose]d by the Report . . . wd. be a Monarch for seven years."

The Great Compromise (and the 3/5ths)?◦ How did these contribute to a “spirit of accommodation?”

The Executive: major arguments? The Judiciary: the ugly stepchild? Questions unanswered? Why?

Slavery, judicial review, Bill of Rights

The Structure of the Constitution

7 Articles, longest is the first (legislative)Article I, II and III: Institutions of the

National GovernmentArticle IV: Relations Among the StatesArticle V: Amendment ProcessArticle VI: Supremacy ClauseArticle VII: Ratification Process

The Ratification DebateDocument sent to states for ratification in fall of ‘87;

◦ Why call for ratifying conventions instead of using state legislatures?

Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists◦ Who were they?◦ Why was one group more successful than the other?

The Federalist Papers◦ Originally drafted to influence ratification debate in NY◦ Authors:(Publius) Madison (26), Hamilton (51), John Jay (5)◦ Have become THE SOURCE of information about the

Constitution, the minds of the Framers and arguments about every nook and cranny of the Constitution

Ratification in doubt without Bill of Rights; Federalists agree to propose in 1st Congress

The Bill of RightsThe First 10 amendments to the ConstitutionAdded in 1791, under the Constitutional process for

amending (2/3rds of Congress, 3/4ths of state legislatures)Madison originally drafted and submitted 12

amendments to Congress; only 10 were proposed by Congress to the states◦ One of the “lost” amendments became #27

*Interestingly, Madison was originally against the idea of a Bill of Rights for the national Constitution.

Motives of the Framers: Comparing Three PerspectivesEconomic Interests – Republican Values – Political Pragmatism –

What are the differences between these three perspectives?

What evidence has been offered to support or refute their arguments?

“A Reform Caucus In Action” “The Constitution, then, was not an apotheosis of

‘constitutionalism’, a triumph of architectonic genius; it was a patch-work sewn together under the pressure of both time and events by a group of extremely talented democratic politicians.”

“Yet, while the shades of Locke and Montesquieu may have been hovering in the background, and the delegates may have been unconscious instruments of a transcendent telos, the careful observer of the day-to-day work of the convention finds no overarching principles. The ‘separation of powers’ to him seems to be a by-product of suspicion, and ‘federalism’ he views as a pis aller (final recourse/last resort), as the farthest point the delegates thought they could go in the destruction of state power without themselves inviting repudiation.