Life, Liberty and Property

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As August fades into September, General Washington is feeling pretty upbeat about how things are going. At least one delegate believes that they will be done “in three weeks time.” Others aren’t so ready to finish things without getting their say. Every attempt to resolve the matter of the Presidency is met with an objection and a move to delay.

Soon enough, the Committee on Postponed Parts will have their hands full trying to resolve everything that has been postponed.

In the meanwhile, the Convention seems to, for the first time, consider why a new form of Government is needed, beyond the Randolph outline of so many weeks ago. The principles that underlie the nation are Life, Liberty, and Property. There is a general realization that a stronger central government is the best guarantee of those. watching what is happening in Rhode Island has convinced them that left to themselves, the States will not provide those protections.

With that in mind, the Delegates take up the Judiciary and the power of the States over commerce, money, and contracts. They believe that the federal Governments control of these items, among others, will provide the best guarantee of Life, Liberty, and Property.

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The Steamship Perseverance

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Today, we debate and discuss the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which may, depending on how you read it, give the President the authority to make war, while Congress has not declared a war. Oddly enough, the delegates had exactly the same debate, which is why the Constitution gives Congress the power to DECLARE war and the expected the President to MAKE war… as long as the people approved…

Needing a bit of a break, most of the Delegates headed down to the shore of the Delaware River to take a ride on a steamship. Yes… a steamship. Twenty years before anybody ever heard of Robert Fulton. Is it possible that little adventure helped them to empower Congress to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts?”

Roughly a hundred years after the convention, Otto von Bismark will develop his political maxim of the “realpolitik.” He could have learned it from Rutledge, who, in response to Luther Martin’s call to accept the immorality of slavery, reminds the Convention that IF there is to be a Union, it WILL be with slavery. And if there is a Union WITH slavery, non-slave States… will make a whole lot of money…

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The Committee on Everything

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Getting started on Rutledge’s’ draft of the Constitution, some members noticed that there are some very odd things contained in the document. Rufus King of Massachusetts can keep quiet no longer. He has agreed to things so far because he believes that a strong central government must emerge from the Convention. But what he sees on paper now, is a nation divided by avarice and slavery. Either what Rutledge has written must change or the three-fifths must be eliminated. He won’t say the word, but the room senses he means abolition.

Gouverneur Morris has no such limits. He will rail once more, passionately and deeply about the evils and morality of slavery.

The Convention listens, then gets down to work. Realizing that the entire room is unwieldy and that the best and fastest work gets done in committee, they form several such groups, including, the committee on all the stuff we forgot or are too busy to work on…

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