A Blog Exploring American History and Politics
Reply to Wilson’s Speech: “Cincinnatus” [Arthur Lee] I New York Journal, November 1, 1787 Following are excerpts from the article, published in response to James Wilson’s speech: “Your first attempt is to apologize for so very obvious a defect as—the omission of a declaration of rights. This apology consists in a very ingenious discovery; that […]
MoreReply to Wilson’s Speech: “Centinel” [Samuel Bryan] II Freeman’s Journal (Philadelphia), October 24, 1787 Following are excerpts from Samuel Bryan’s article, published in response to James Wilson’s speech: “Friends, countrymen, and fellow-citizens, As long as the liberty of the press
MoreThomas Paine described the Constitution as “not a thing in name only; but in fact . . . . It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article; and which contains . . . every thing that relates to the complete organization of a civil government, and the […]
MoreThe political theory that emerged from the Revolution and the debates surrounding the Constitution was not “a matter of deliberation as it was a matter of necessity.” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 593.
MoreBenjamin Lincoln wrote a series of articles in the Boston Magazine and Independent Chronicle that would touch on many of the same subjects as John Adams in his Defence of the Constitution. See Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 576.
MoreDespite the optimism surrounding the Revolution, John Adams had taken a different tact.
MoreReply to Wilson’s Speech: “A Democratic Federalist” Pennsylvania Herald (Philadelphia), October 17, 1787 Following are excerpts from the article, published in response to James Wilson’s speech:
MoreThe Federalists, in overseeing the creation of the modern political system, culminating in the Constitution, had inadvertently changed not only the structure of government but also the trajectory of American politics.
MoreLooking to the state governments’ creation of their respective senates, as explained in The Birth of the Senate, the creation of the Senate in the Constitution was a given, when the Constitutional Convention began. See Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 553.
MoreBecause the Federalists outmaneuvered the Antifederalists in presenting the Constitution to the American people, the Antifederalists faced a predicament of what to do. As Richard Henry Lee stated, many who wished to change the federal structure of government realized that they had to accept “this or nothing.” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, […]
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