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Articles of Confederation

May I speak for just a moment of a tiny little moment in American history? – that proved to be a monumental moment of courage that changed all our lives – indeed the world.

May 1787, The United States were free, but barely so. They were in crisis. Driven by pride and greed, the States of the union fought amongst themselves, and refused to cooperate. They were a laughingstock abroad. In debt and virtually paralyzed, the treaties of the United States were ignored; our ships pirated and seized. There were those abroad just waiting for the Great American Republic to implode, and then they would gloatingly step in and monarchy would once more bear sway. Even within our own boarders, there were those who yearned for the return of King and Parliament.

Hence, a Convention was called in Philadelphia in May of 1787, for the ostensible purpose of revising America’s constitution of the day, called the Articles of Confederation.

The problem was largely this: You see, today we say, “The United States is…” but then in 1787, the phrase was, “The United States are…” We were at that time a very loose confederation of independent states bound by a league of friendship called the “Articles of Confederation,” and that league of friendship was coming apart.

So, some 74 delegates were appointed to attend this grand convention.” Their instructions were to revise the Articles of Confederation, which was as it were to say, ‘tweak the system;’ solve the problems. But, on the face of it, it could not work. The system and organization created by the Articles of Confederation were flawed on the face and could not address the exigencies of the day. And there were some among the delegates wise enough to see it.

Then, Tuesday May 29, 1787: Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia took the floor of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and “opened the main business” of the convention. He enumerated the problems of America that had brought them there and then “preceded to the remedy, the basis of which,” he said, “must be the republican principle.”

Then Governor Randolph presented the Virginia Plan for a new system of government. The first resolution said that the Articles of Confederation ought to be “corrected and enlarged.” However, so bold and revolutionary were the resolutions that followed that the delegates quickly realized they were not revising the Articles of Confederation, they were abolishing them altogether!

Now, notwithstanding the will of the people, and the people’s aversion to strong central government, notwithstanding the instructions given back home by their leaders, and notwithstanding the uncertainty of uncharted waters, “it was resolved…that a national government ought to be established consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary.” And then, praise be to God, the resolution carried. The way was opened for a new constitution. And then the convention went on without a blink.

They would form a totally new system of government unheard of in the world in that day, but one that would grow to become over time America’s “greatest export.”

Now, I have thought of that moment in Philadelphia. What if the delegates had been more concerned with what people thought of them than of the future of their nation? What if they were too timid to try something new, to think ‘outside the box?’ What if they cared more about their personal wealth than just principles? What if they had been too cowardly to try? How much different, my friends, would our lives have been? – no constitution, and no United States of America!