John Ellis argues in his speech “The Second Founding” that America
did not become the established nation that it was right after the
Declaration of Independence in 4th July 1776. He rather said
that it was the result of hard work and dedication of four men. These
four men known to be George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and
James Madison. Ellis also gives credit to men like Gouveuner Morris,
Thomas Jefferson and Robert Morris. Joseph Ellis further talks about the
Articles of Confederation, which was the first government set up by the
Continental Congress. This government was a failure which lead to the
country drowning under debt. And the government was unsuccessful and
weak as the sovereignty resided into the states rather than the national
government. He said that the unity among states were only good enough
to win the war with the British Empire but failed as whole system. Ellis
states that the quartet diagnosed the dysfunction under the Articles of
Confederation which manipulated the political process to calling of a
Constitutional convention with a purpose in Philadelphia. The Delegates
(55 men who attended the convention) agreed that the government needed
executive, legislative and judiciary branch. They went there along with
delegates from other states to revise the articles. During this process,
the American Constitution was created and so did the Bill of Rights as
an insurance policy.
Throughout the duration of his speech he concentrated on the years
1783 to 1789 to give a vivid description of incidence that leads to a
reform of convention. One of the most significant incident he mentions
is the Shay Rebellion where the farmers of Boston rose to close the
court and prevent from foreclosing their debt-encumbered farm. Ellis
goes to further details of the meeting in Philadelphia were the six
states attending wrote a charter of a new government with some
significant alterations, that leads to the formation of constitution at
we live under today. John Ellis wants the audience to know the backstory
of the American constitution. And he also wants us to know how the
history has influenced us by this date. Joseph Ellis is also aware that
most people misunderstood that the organized government existed back
when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
During our class discussion, we revised on Joseph Ellis’s speech and
we also watched a documentary “The Constitution” which gave us a clearer
understanding and explained the roles of each of the men. For instance
Hamilton writing 51 federal papers, the nature of James Madison and John
Jay being one of the finest negotiator in American History. The video
had lots of humor in it which made more interesting. We also read the
letters sent by George Washington to John Jay and John Jay to Thomas
Jefferson. The letters addressing to the problems that caused the
government to almost fall apart. After watching the video, we discussed
about the conflicts between competing interest that arose quickly in the
Philadelphia convention. The first concern was the size of the state
and its population. Larger states supported James Madison’s Virginia
Plan, which called for a two-house legislature with representation in
both proportional to state’s population. This further lead to the great
compromise and the 3/5 compromise. In our class discussions, we answer
to questions like why were the government failing and why was the
government made weak on purpose. We concluded that the confederation
congress recognized that states are essentially establishing tariffs
against each other.
Everything was pretty much to the point in the class discussion and
Joseph Ellis's lecture video. However I would like to know the roles of
Federal paper and more details about the great compromise that lead to
the success of American Constituion.
