The Economic and Intellectual Influences in The Debate over Ratification of the U.S. Constitution Rick Riley PSC 499 Fall 2009.
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The Economic and Intellectual Influences in The Debate over Ratification of the U.S.
Constitution
Rick RileyPSC 499
Fall 2009
Economic Interests
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc3.8.jpg
The Competing Schools of Thought on Constitutional History
Economic Model• Charles A. Beard,
Jackson T. Main• Progressive/Liberal• Constitution was
designed to benefit Founders economically
• Anti-Federalists and Federalists divided along class lines
Intellectual Model• Forrest McDonald• Conservative• Constitution had
ideological roots• Anti-Federalists had
localist tendencies• Federalists were
Nationalists
McDonald V.S. Beard State by State
http://amhist.ist.unomaha.edu/module_files/fx12_states_fight_over_ratification_of_the_constitution.jpg
Early Ratification States
• New Jersey, Delaware, Georgia
• All ratified unanimously• Beard: farming interest not
given enough time to organize, security holders dominated.
• McDonald: large number of farmer delegates
• Small number of personality interests
State Farmer Delegates
Security Holding Delegates
Delaware 77% 6 members
Georgia 50% 1 Member
New Jersey
64% 34%
Southern Opposition States
• Virginia and North Carolina
• Large number of farmers• Holders of Confiscated British
wealth in Virginia• Public security holders support
Constitution• Debtors divided in North
Carolinahttp://www.gutenberg.org/files/22461/22461-h/images/i5.jpg
Agrarian Dominated States
• Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire
• Beard: personality groups dominated conventions• McDonald: over half of Delegates were farmers in all
states• Majority of debtors vote for ratification
Personality States
• Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
• Eastern Regions: strong Federalist cities• Western Regions: majority Anti-Federalist• Few members of realty interest, yet, strong opposition
http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerce/coins/coinpics/usa-early.html
Massachusetts Coins
Jackson T. Main’s Class Model
• Federalists were in high leadership positions
• Anti-Federalists in lower class
• Disproven in many states
McDonald’s Economic Groups
• Beard’s economic interests too rigid
• Economic interest were complex
• Four primary interest groups
-farmers, manufacturers, merchants, professionals
• Numerous subgroups
Farmers
• Subsistence
-permanent group
-potentially commercial
-all from isolated areas
• Commercial
-Slave holding: divided, depending on situation
-non-slave holding:
mainly Anti-Federalists
http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mclark/HumCore/CoreF2005/WebCoreF05/F05CrevLec.html
Manufacturers
• Service Industries-Tied to customer’s interests
• Stable producers-Nothing at stake
• Capitalists-Heavily Federalist for economic
reasons
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prsjr/occupations/occup-idx.htm
Mercantile Interests
• retail• foreign trade agents
• shipping merchants• non-shipping
merchants
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/streets.html
Return of The Experiment, By L.F. Tantillo, Depicts Albany, NY in 1787
Professionals
• Physicians -Not affected
• Lawyers -Constitution elevates them
-some with political careers
• Public Office Holders -Support based on stability of situation
Intellectual Influences
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Images/federalist.jpg
McDonald’s Two forms of Republicanism
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Patrick Henry
http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibition.org/gallery/images/pic_gouverneur_morris.jpg
Gouverneur Morris
Puritanistic Republicanism
• Influenced by ancient republics and Great Awakening
• Prominent in New England• Private behavior important to
public virtue• Community before the
Individual• Virtues: Industry, Frugality,
Work Ethic• Prominent Founders: John
Adams (Federalist, MA.), Richard Henry Lee (Anti-Federalist, VA)
http://www.reclaimamericaforchrist.org/john%20adams.JPG
John Adams
Agrarian Republicanism
• Influences: 17th and18th Century theorists and The Anglo Saxon Myth.
• Prominent in the South
• Property ownership and right to bear arms.
• Rights of the individual over community
• Vigilance and jealousy of power
• Prominent Founders: John Taylor of Caroline (VA, Anti-Federalist), Patrick Henry (Va, Anti-Federalist)
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=t000086
John Taylor of Caroline
Views of History
http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/ahamilton.jpg
http://www.historycentral.com/bio/nn/WytheGeorge.jpg
Alexander HamiltonRobert Yates
Views of History
• Federalists• “new science of politics”
• Hamilton, “Federalist No.9,”
• “The science of politics, like most other sciences, has received great improvement.”
• Anti-Federalists• Historical patterns of human
nature.
• Robert Yates, “Brutus”
• “It is a truth confirmed by the unerring ages that every man, and every body of men, invested with power, are ever deposed to increase it, and to acquire superiority over every thing that stands in their way.”
Interpretations of Montesquieu
Baron de Montesquieu http://csmh.pbworks.com/f/Baron%20de%20Montesquieu.jpg
Interpretations of Montesquieu
• Federalists• Ruling elite
• Madison, “Federalist No. 51”
• Protection from insurrection
• Hamilton, “Federalist No.9”
• Anti-Federalists• “Moderate governments” and
states rights
• George Clinton, “Cato’s Letter III”
http://www.mackinac.org/media/images/2005/povertyjames.jpghttp://www.liberty-page.com/defenders/revolution/georgeclinton.jpg
Madison Clinton
Level of Contact with Outside World
• Federalists lived in areas were contact with outside world was common
• Anti-Federalists tended to be from isolated areas• This divide consistent in most cases• Exceptions
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ratification/federalpillars.html
Conclusion
Conclusion
• Multiple and diverse influences
• Economic models of Beard, Main discredited by fact, but not in all cases
• Diversity of influences
Bibliography• Beard, Charles A. 1960. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America. New
York. MacMillan • Epstein, David, F. 1984. The Political Theory of the Federalist. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press• Frohen, Bruce. 1999. The Anti-Federalists: Selected Writings and Speeches. Washington, D.C.:Regnery
Publishing.• Main, Jackson Turner. 1961 The Anti-Federalist Critics of the Constitution, 1781-1789. ChapelHill, N.C.:
University of North Carolina Press • McDonald, Forrest. 1979. E Pluribus Unum, The Formation of the American Republic 1776-1790. Indianapolis:
Liberty Press • McDonald, Forrest, 1992. We The People, the Economic Origins of the Constitution. New Brunswick, N.J.:
Transaction Publishers • McDonald, Forrest, 1985. Novus Ordo Seclorum, the Intellectual Origins of the Constituion. Lawrence, K.S.:
University Press of Kansas • Rakove, Jack, N. 1997. Original Meanings, Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution. New York: A.A.
Knopf.
•White, Morton, 1987. Philosophy, the Federalist, and the Constitution. New York.: Oxford University Press.
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