The Economic and Intellectual Influences in The Debate over Ratification of the U.S.

Constitution

Rick RileyPSC 499

Fall 2009

Economic Interests

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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

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McDonald’s Two forms of Republicanism

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Patrick Henry

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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

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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.