We the People, Consent of the Governed

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” This section of the Declaration of Independence is amazingly accurate and displays our founding fathers understanding of human nature. Most of our founding fathers where highly educated in history, empires and governments. They spent considerable time discerning possible dangers to a free society by observing the faults and calamities befallen on the previous civilizations.
The founding fathers said we are more willing to suffer the evils we are accustomed to, than to right ourselves by abolishing those evils of the government. We have been raised and conditioned to accept the transgressions on our liberties by our government; as being normal and acceptable. But they go on to say that after a long train of abuses; after our government by its own design has collapsed into absolute cruel or oppressive power (despotism); that it is our duty to start over again. “Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger and England hath given her warning to depart. O! Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”, 1776.
What does the Constitution guarantee? What is its purpose? What protections does it declare? Over the upcoming weeks we will start answering those questions by first dissecting our Bill of Rights and then diving deeper into the discussions our founders had during the creation of our one of a kind Constitution. September 13, 1788 the Articles of Confederation Congress certified that enough states ratified the Constitution but a Bill of Rights was not yet created nor was it part of the new Constitution. A Bill of Rights was considered essential during the compromises of the Constitutional Convention. Many anti-federalist thought the new Constitution had some very broad clauses that would open avenues for the government to usurp liberties from the people. They wanted guarantees that secured personal liberties deemed essential to a free society. The whole concept of the Constitution was enumeration and if it wasn’t enumerated to the federal powers it belonged to the states or the people there of. “A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.” Thomas Jefferson.
March 4, 1789 the 1st United States Congress meets for the first time under the new Constitution and James Madison’s fight for the Bill of Rights begins. Ironically during the Constitutional Convention James Madison was against the Bill of Rights but there was a push for a second Constitutional Convention. Madison feared all the compromises that made the first Constitution possible would be lost. He had also been in consultation and influenced heavily by Thomas Jefferson. Madison not only would be considered the father of the Constitution but without him there would be no Bill of Rights. Join me next week for the beginning of our journey of the first Ten Amendments to our Constitution, we call the Bill of Rights.