A Senate of the States: July 14th, 1787
As of this Saturday in mid-July, the familiar enumeration of specific powers in Article I § 8 and prohibitions in Sections 9 & 10 didn’t exist. Delegates had agreed to… Read more »
As of this Saturday in mid-July, the familiar enumeration of specific powers in Article I § 8 and prohibitions in Sections 9 & 10 didn’t exist. Delegates had agreed to… Read more »
Up to now the convention’s great divide was between the large and small states. Today focus drifted toward the rift between north and south, non-slave vs. slave-holding states. The 3/5… Read more »
As John Locke related in his Two Treatises of Government, the legislative power is the essence of republicanism. Despite the lessons of the great Enlightenment philosophers and the Framers’ long… Read more »
Subtitle: Gouverneur Morris Warns of a Uniparty. The convention slogged on as the large/small state standoff continued over the question of representation in the senate. I will follow a different… Read more »
While we take for granted today that the Framers breezily agreed to a compound republic of the people and the states, the issue still was unresolved five weeks into the… Read more »
In fits and starts, often one step forward and two steps back, the convention slowly shaped the pieces to its constitutional jigsaw puzzle. Incredibly, as a few delegates seemingly wished… Read more »
Subtitle: Swamp-Creatures. Meeting in Convention, delegates once again considered the Fourth Resolution, which dealt with senatorial elections, term length, age qualification, salary, and eligibility to additional offices. The answers to… Read more »