What did the Framers say?

Constitutional Moment of the Day

Article VII
Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

G°. Washington Presidt and deputy from Virginia

Delaware Geo: ReadGunning Bedford jun John Dickinson Richard Bassett Jaco: Broom
Maryland James McHenry Dan of St Thos. Jenifer Danl. Carroll
Virginia John Blair James Madison Jr.
North Carolina Wm. Blount Richd. Dobbs Spaight Hu Williamson
South Carolina J. Rutledge Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Charles Pinckney Pierce Butler
Georgia William Few Abr Baldwin
New Hampshire John Langdon Nicholas Gilman
Massachusetts Nathaniel Gorham Rufus King
Connecticut Wm. Saml. Johnson Roger Sherman
New York Alexander Hamilton
New Jersey Wil: Livingston David Brearley Wm. Paterson Jona: Dayton
Pennsylvania B Franklin Thomas Mifflin Robt. Morris Geo. Clymer Thos. FitzSimons Jared Ingersoll James Wilson Gouv Morris

These are some of the most important and least remembered names in American history. There are probably but a handful that you recognize. Most have been swallowed up by the passing years. In all, 70 men were appointed from every state, except Rhode Island, as delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Of the 70 men appointed, 55 actually attended the Convention (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Patrick Henry were unable to attend) but only 39 signed the document. Almost all had taken part in the Revolution, 29 of them fighting in the Continental Army. Eight signed the Declaration of Independence eleven years earlier, and two (Roger Sherman and Robert Morris) affixed their names to the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. They were lawyers and businessmen, farmers and ministers, scientists and physicians. Some, like Franklin, were self-taught and received very little formal education, while others graduated from college and a few held advanced degrees.

Take a moment to read their names. They deserve it. These are the Framers of the Constitution. These are among your Founding Fathers.


Quote of the Day

“The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.”
- James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States, Circa 1790

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Justice William Johnson, June 12, 1823


A Reasoned and Unemotional Case Against the Constitutionality of the Health Care Reform Law

Last time, I outlined why I feel that the health care reform law recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama is unconstitutional based on, oddly enough, what the Constitution actually says and doesn’t say. But, what was the original intent of the authors of the Constitution?

What the Framers said:

Maybe I have misinterpreted the Framers’ intent. Maybe after months of intensive debate during that long hot summer of 1787 over every word and sometimes even punctuation mark of this historic document, the Founders did not make it clear that they intended the federal government to take care of people from cradle to grave. Maybe they actually envisioned a large, domineering beast of a central government with its tentacles in almost every area of the people’s lives. Well, then, let’s look at what they said at the time.

“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
- James Madison, "The Father of the Constitution"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
- Thomas Jefferson

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 19, 1787

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Ludlow, September 6, 1824

“Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners . . . industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.”
- Benjamin Franklin, letter to Collinson, May 9, 1753

“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
-Benjamin Franklin, November 1766

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.”
- Thomas Jefferson, February 15, 1791

“A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.”
- James Madison, Essay on Property, March 29, 1792

Clearly, the Framers’ intention was for responsibility of promoting the general welfare of the people to fall squarely with the people and/or the States. They designed into the Constitution specific boundaries on the powers of Congress and the Executive branch that were not to be crossed.

It’s not too late.



Next time . . . What the courts have said.