Independence Convention Analysis

Introduction

In the Summer of 1787, Philadelphia received fifty-five delegates representing twelve states of the newest country in the world. War heroes, lawyers, businessmen and philosophers met at the Philadelphia State House, now known as Independence Hall, to form the country’s “assembly of demigods”. Their mission was to create a new Constitution, thus redesigning the entire government system that the nation had known for the past decade. Beginning at the end of May, the founding fathers began hammering out the details of what was to become the law of the land. Behind closed doors with extreme secrecy, they worked to shape a new course for the United States of America. The real intentions of the founders motives now comes …show more content…
One historian wrote, “In terms of experience and professional training, the 55 delegates represented a cross-section of the most capable men in the country.” (Taylor). Two were college presidents, three were college professors, four had studied law in England, thirty-one were members of the legal profession, several of them being judges, twenty-eight had served in Congress, and most of the rest had served in state legislatures. Even more was that nineteen had served in the army, seventeen as officers, and four on Washington 's staff (Taylor). We can see from this that the delegates to the Convention were extremely well educated for the time and knew more than the average …show more content…
The government could ask for taxes, but the states weren’t punished for not paying them. It had the power to declare war, but couldn’t require the states to fulfill quotas for any army. What made things worse was that in order to pass a legislation, all 13 states must agree on the motion. One state could stop a law from passing. Over time, the inability to collect taxes pushed the government into debt. The states, having no common currency, instituted their own to pay off their debts and settle disputes amongst other states. The chaos caused by the Articles even lead to an armed conflict known as Shays’ Rebellion today. Delegate from Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry stated in convention, “‘The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not lack virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.’” (Gerry qtd. in Madison, 18) This statement was made referencing the rebellion. To begin the deliberation of what the intentions of the delegates were, Mr. Gerry seems to make his clear from this statement that the people were too patriotic in exercising their freedoms and it ended up in a battle. The question can be asked of this, were the delegates looking to take power from the people and give it to the