Description

Revising the Articles: Courage to Try Something New

May I speak of a tiny little moment in American history that proved to be a monumental moment of courage that changed all our lives?

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

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

The problem was largely this. You see, today we say, “The United States is…” but then it was “The United States are…” We were a very loose confederation of independent states bound by a league of friendship that was quickly unraveling.

Some 74 delegates were appointed to attend this “Grand Convention.” Their instructions and ostensible purpose was to revise the Articles of Confederation—to tweak the system as it were, to solve the problems of the day. But it could not work. The system and organization were flawed on the face and could not address the exigencies of the day, and there were some wise enough to see it.

Tuesday May 29, 1787 Governor Edmund Randolph 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.”

He then 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. Notwithstanding, the will of the people and their aversion to a strong central government, notwithstanding the instructions given by their leaders back home 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 the resolution carried.

And the business of the Convention went on without a blink. They would form a totally new system of government unheard of in the day, but one that would grow to become America’s “greatest export.”

I have thought of that moment. What if they had been more concerned with what people thought of them than of the plight of their nation? What if they were too timid to think outside the box? What if they cared more of their personal wealth than just principles? What if they had been cowards to the cause? How much different would our lives have been.