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America’s First Constitutions and Declarations of Rights
people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine
right.’’ It may therefore be doubted, he added when addressing the
New York Ratifying Convention in 1788, whether they ‘‘possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government.’’
Certainly the antidemocratic sentiments expressed by many of the
Founding Fathers strike the modern student of government as unenlightened. Perhaps they were. It must be remembered, however, that
they were sailing on uncharted seas. They were not familiar with universal suffrage and mass democracy. Nor were many of their countrymen
prepared for the duties that accompany political liberty. Besides, there
was an abundance of historical evidence indicating that democracies tend
toward mediocrity and tyranny of the majority. Cautiously but deliberately they nevertheless inched their way toward a more broadly based democracy, and with each passing decade their faith in the people grew
stronger. There were many factors which propelled the nation in this direction, but none more important, as we shall see, than the establishment
of a democratic republic under the Constitution of 1787.
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were written almost simultaneously with
the Declaration of Independence. When Richard Henry Lee of Virginia
introduced his resolution on June 7, 1776, proposing a formal dissolution
of the colonial relationship with England, there was an accompanying
resolution calling upon Congress to draft a constitution for the ‘‘united
colonies.’’ A committee was formed for this purpose under the chairmanship of John Dickinson, and on July 12 it reported a plan for a new
government. The Dickinson draft was later revised in favor of strengthening the power of the States, however, and the Articles of Confederation
were not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Two days
later they were submitted to the State legislatures for ratification, and
every State except Maryland ratified within the next two years.
Maryland’s refusal to join the confederation stemmed not from any
objection to the Articles themselves, but from a concern about the status
of trans-Allegheny land in the West. Virginia, New York, Massachusetts,
and Connecticut all claimed western lands under their old charters, and