Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) Read Online Free PDF

delegation. (Nationalist Alexander Hamilton received an appointment, but
his friend and political ally John Jay missed out.)

    Portrait of a Patriot

    Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), a native of Nevis, was among the most significant figures in American constitutional history. His monarchist musings in
the Philadelphia Convention (in which he represented New York) did not have
much effect on the shape of the Constitution. In support of ratification, he organized the series of
newspaper essays that ultimately came to be known as The Federalist, which formed the nub of the
Federalist case in New York, writing more than half the essays. In time, the series would form the
backbone of nationalist interpretation of the Constitution. As secretary of the treasury under Washington, Hamilton enunciated the clearest argument ever made for a liberal (loose) construction of
the Constitution. He was killed by a political enemy, Vice President Aaron Burr, in an 1804 duel.'

    In Virginia, which agreed to send a delegation to help propose amendments, Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry-long the dominant voices
in the all-powerful General Assembly-stayed home. Lee confided that
he did not think the convention likely to do
work he approved; Henry, more prone to
offer up a memorable line, later said he
"smelt a rat."
    Why? There was a little history behind it.
Congress had been receptive, in
1785-1786, when John Jay assured it that he
could negotiate an agreement with Spain that
would grant the states valuable trade concessions in the Caribbean. All he needed to offer
in return, he said, was an American commitment to forgo use of the Mississippi River (which then belonged to Spain)
for twenty-five years. Under the Articles of Confederation, nine states
needed to agree to any treaty, but Congress authorized Jay to negotiate the
agreement anyway, despite the objections of the five southern states.
    According to James Madison, this move by Congress converted Patrick
Henry from "the Champion of the federal cause" to a lukewarm advocate
at best. If Mississippi navigation rights were actually surrendered, Madison said, Henry would become an outright opponent.
    The year 1787 also saw the Confederation Congress adopt its most significant legislative initiative, the Northwest Ordinance. In that law, Congress provided that states could be carved out of Virginia's former
trans-Ohio River territory (what we now call the Midwest). Among other things, it said in Section 13 that once they had been organized, the new
states would be admitted to the Union on an equal footing with the original states. The federal principle-the principle of state equality-would
guide their incorporation into the United States.

    Legal Latinisms
    Senate: from the Latin senatus, the great
national council of the Roman people.
The federal government and most of the
states have legislative bodies so named!

A vision of national government: The Virginia Plan
    James Madison spent several months researching the history of confederations before the Philadelphia Convention met. He found much to
encourage his desire for a stronger federation. He decided, in fact, to push
for the abandonment of America's federal experiment.
    Madison, a veteran of many legislative battles in Virginia and in Congress, encouraged his fellow Virginia delegates-Governor Edmund Randolph, George Washington, and George Mason among them-to arrive in
Philadelphia several days early. If the Old Dominion presented its plan
at the beginning of the convention, he thought, that blueprint would
guide the convention's deliberations.
    Thus, when the Philadelphia Convention opened, its first acts were to
install George Washington as president of the convention, to vote to close
the doors so that the public would not know what was being discussed,
and to take up the constitutional proposals on which the Virginians had
agreed. Those provisions came to be called the Virginia Plan.
    The Virginia