Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) by Kevin R. C. Gutzman Read Free Book Online

however, was the omission of a bill of
rights. Mason was the chief author of Virginia's state constitution of
1776-the first American constitution and, more significant, the first
written constitution adopted by the people's representatives in the history of the world. As chairman of the committee that drafted that constitution, Mason had also played the leading role in drafting the 1776
Virginia Declaration of Rights, which-in the manner of the English Glorious Revolution of 1688-set traditional rights of Englishmen in stone
before the new republican constitution based on them was adopted.
Mason, a self-described "man of 1688," insisted that basic rights had to
be protected first.
    When he raised the issue of a bill of rights in Philadelphia, however,
Mason was rebuffed. A bill of rights was unnecessary, his fellow delegates
insisted. This new government would have only the powers the Constitution gave it. As the Constitution was not going to give Congress power
to infringe on the freedoms of speech, the press, or petition, the right to
keep and bear arms, or any of the other English-descended rights Amer icans had always taken for granted, it would have no such power. There
was no need, then, to provide against it.

    Mason was not persuaded. As Madison wrote, he left Philadelphia in
a very ill humor.
Federalists battle Republicans over the Bill of Rights
    Advocates of ratification took the name "Federalists," while their
opponents-particularly in Virginia-called themselves "Republicans."
Federalists called Republicans "Anti-Federalists," however, and historians, never slow to take sides, have been nearly unanimous in calling
Republican opponents of ratification "Anti-Federalists."
    The chief issue in dispute in the ratification campaign was whether
the proposed constitution would be consistent with the state-centered
constitutionalism that the Patriots had fought for during the Revolution.
Federalists insisted it would, while Republicans feared it would not.

    Framers vs. Ratifiers
    We hear a lot about the "framers" of the Constitution. But who were they? The framers were the
people who wrote the Constitution; what they did had no legal effect at all. The ratifiers, on the
other hand, were the people who put the Constitution into effect; it was their act that made it
binding, and their understanding that is significant. Just as today we don't care what some congressman's legal counsel thought when writing a legal provision, but look instead at the congressman's own understanding of and intent regarding it, so when it comes to the Constitution, what
matters is not what the draftsmen thought they were doing, but what the people with legal
power to put it into effect thought they were doing.

    What a
Patriot Said

    "Is the relinquishment
of the trial by jury and
the liberty of the press necessary for your
liberty? Will the abandonment of your
most sacred rights tend to the security of
your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all
earthly blessings-give us that precious
jewel, and you may take every thing else! ...
Guard with jealous attention the public
liberty. Suspect every one who approaches
that jewel."
    Patrick Henry, speech to the
Virginia Convention, Richmond,
Virginia, June 5,1788
    The most influential argument in favor of
ratification was made by Pennsylvania's
James Wilson in a speech at the Pennsylvania
State House on October 6, 1787. Wilson, a
prominent Philadelphia Convention delegate
and future Supreme Court justice, had been a
nationalist at the Convention, but his version
of the Constitution on that October day was
thoroughly federal (or, in the language of the
day, "foederal").
    Wilson said opponents of the proposed
constitution were not doing it justice, reminding the delegates that an important distinction
needed to be made between state governments and the federal government. The people had invested their state representatives
with "every right and authority"