Timeline of the Ratification of the Constitution – An Old Whig Essays

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Ratification of the Constitution

Timeline of the Ratification of the Constitution – An Old Whig Essays

1787

October 1787

Oct 12, 1787: An Old Whig I (Pennsylvania)

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Oct 17, 1787: An Old Whig II (Pennsylvania)

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Oct 20, 1787: An Old Whig III (Pennsylvania)

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Oct 27, 1787: An Old Whig IV (Pennsylvania)

An Old Whig, a prominent Pennsylvania Antifederalist, contends that the Constitution contains the potentiality to produce a consolidated government ruling over one large territory. But “all political writers agree, that a Republican government can exist only in a narrow territory.” In contrast to the proposed Constitution, he advocates that “a Confederacy of Republics must be the establishment in America.” Given the tendency in the Constitution to destroy liberty, he turns to the case for a bill of rights. “Before we establish government, whose acts will be THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND, and whose power will extend to almost every case without exception, we ought carefully to guard ourselves by a BILL OF RIGHTS, against the invasion of those liberties which it is essential for us to retain, which it is of no use to government to strip us of; but which in the course of human events have been too often insulted with all the wantonness of an idle barbarity.”

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November 1787

Nov 1, 1787: An Old Whig V (Pennsylvania)

An Old Whig offers two arguments against the adoption of the Constitution in its present state. First, he argues that the people should never “surrender up” to government the “LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.” If we look at the Constitution, he continues, “not a word has been mentioned in any part of it; but we are left in this important article, as well as many others, entirely to the mercy of future rulers.” And how will these wicked future rulers invade our essential rights of “liberty of conscience, of freedom of speech and of writing and publishing their thoughts on public matters, of trial by jury, of holding themselves, their houses and papers free from seizure and search upon general suspicion and general warrants?” How will the people be “secured in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property without depending on the will and pleasure of their rulers?” The future rulers will rely on the “unlimited power of taxation,” and the presence of “a standing army.” Second, he warns that the Presidency “is in reality to be a KING.” Are we ready “to receive a king?”

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Nov 24, 1787: An Old Whig VI (Pennsylvania)

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Nov 28, 1787: An Old Whig VII (Pennsylvania)

The Old Whig reiterates a central Antifederalist objection to the proposed Constitution: the delegates to the Constitutional Convention did not have the authority to scrap the Articles of Confederation, nor do they have the authority to deny the people of the states the right to alter or abolish the plan submitted to them. Accordingly, Old Whig suggests that another Continental Convention, collecting the opinions of the people is in order.

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