David Brearley's Contributions

His theory required the direct election of as many representatives as possible; to him, an appointed President was as dangerous, or at least as onerous, as a monarch. He is considered responsible for our peculiar Electoral College.

During the 1780s, I spoke out against the idea of expanding the power of the national government, I was viewed as the leader of the anti-federalists. In 1787, I was elected, along with John Lansing, Jr. and Alexander Hamilton to represent New York at the Philadelphia convention, the goal of this convention being to revise the Articles of Confederation. Both I and Lansing soon left the convention as we felt the real purpose of the convention was to produce a new form of government, not to revise the articles of confederation. Soon after this I wrote a letter to Governor Clinton, the governor of New York. In this letter I gave explicit reasons for my departure from the convention and informed him of my strong opposition to the constitution. I am most famous for writing many essays, under the pseudonym of Brutus, in which I argued federalist ideologies; I began each of my essays opposing these views by addressing these essays to the citizens of New

The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action, written by John P. Roche, addressed the difficulty that the Founding Fathers had in constructing the U.S. Constitution because of the high level of stress they received and the limited amount of time that they had to carry out the formation of this document while keeping the best interest of the country as a priority. John P. Roche starts of by commenting on why the creation of the Constitution was so effective and how the Articles of Confederation benefitted the ratification of the new U.S. Government. As it turns out, the delegates elected to attend Pennsylvania were mainly people who had served in Congress and had experience in the weakness of the Articles in granting too little power to the national government. In addition, the delegates were appointed by the state legislatures, not by the people, as justified by the Articles of Confederation.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 went over several systems that were proposed for electing a new president which included but were not limited to by the governors of the states, by the state legislators, and by direct popular vote. The issue was soon referred to the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters, where the plan for the current electoral college was devised. The electoral college issued each state a number of electors equal to the sum of the

A meeting, called the Continental Congress, took place where representatives from each state would discuss how they could improve it. Hamilton was one of the three representatives from New York, but he was the only Federalist of the three, which means he was the only one that was in favor of a strong national government. Eventually, the Continental Congress agreed on the Constitution. It would take more work than that though. After the Constitution was agreed upon by the Continental Congress, it had to get ratified by each state, and New York would be one of the hardest to get the Constitution ratified in. Hamilton, knowing that it was going to be hard, took a stand alongside James Madison and John Jay, and the wrote a series of essay entitled The Federalist, defended the new U.S. Constitution. The three of them combined wrote a total of eighty five essays, of which Hamilton himself wrote fifty one. The essays convinced the people of New York City of how important it would be, but upstate farmers were holding out. It wasn’t until New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution and thus make it law, that New York realized that holding out wouldn’t benefit them and accepted the new Constitution, on the condition that there would be a list of amendments that we now call The Bill of

In the book “A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution” by Carol Berkin she explains the constitution from start to finish from how it all began, to the debates inside the convention and finally the end product. Berkin takes the reader and puts him directly in the middle of the convention of 1786; throughout the book you can feel the excitement, the frustration, the tensions between delegates and the overall commitment to making a new government work for all.

The thoughts of James Madison who is known as the Father of the Constitution helped shape the U.S. Constitution to what it is today although he intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. They ended up creating a new constitution. Alexander Hamilton’s role was significant especially the understanding of the text, specifically in “necessary and proper” clause. The Connecticut Compromise had mostly affected the amount of representation from each of the state, and then created the government system that we know as of

The constitutional convention and the constitution was the start to revolutionizing the way our country would run. In this historic moment there were 55 delegates that put their mark and opinions into the creation of the Constitution of the United States. Although all 55 delegates had a part in the creation some had more of an influence in creating the main frame work of the constitution. One of the most prominent men in the creation was James Wilson, a strong advocate of democracy. Other than James Madison, Wilson’s ideas were greatly acknowledged by the other delegates. He was a strong supporter for the independence of the colonies from British rule and was one of the delegates who did not want to just amend the Articles of Confederation, but make a whole new constitution focusing on other greater principles.

In June of 1776, a committee consisting of John Dickinson and was appointed to draft a constitution. Meanwhile, fighting against the perceived tyrannical government under the British continued. As a result, a lot of the decisions made while drafting the articles were an attempt to avoid the mistakes and problem of that government. There was strong opposition (from who?) to a powerful, centralized, and distant government. Concerns also arose from the conservative majority of the committee about the wisdom of a republic, especially one so geographically large and diverse. How could a government so far removed from its people remain attentive to the people it was attempting to represent?

While he agreed that “the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the [president],” he made clear the importance of “afford[ing] as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder.” This would require the will of the people to be tempered by “an intermediate body of electors.” Not only would this be a compromise between the competing ideas in the Constitutional Convention, it would prevent any one group from having undue discretion when it came to electing the most powerful person in government. Of these competing ideas, two are prominently reflected in the Electoral College. The first is democracy, an idea largely advanced by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America. Democracy, loosely defined as the direct representation of people in government, seems the most logical way to conduct an election. The second is federalism. Understanding how this could become problematic, the founders decided to include states in the election process. According to Federalist 68, this would allow “the people of each State [to] choose a number of persons as electors…who shall assemble…and vote for some fit person as President.” This balance of individual and state discretion would soon be codified in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution.

One of the first debates over the institution of the National Executive was whether the Executive should “consist of a single person” as motioned by James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and seconded by Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina. The idea of a single Executive met with strong opposition due to conjuring images of their former oppression under British rule. Due to the fact that all delegates were old enough to remember, many of them to have fought against, the rule by Britain, it was easy for them to compare what they were trying to create to what they already knew and in some cases detested. To defend against the Executive morphing into a monarchy there was a suggestion of a three person Executive branch that was put forward by Randolph who felt the people would not properly support a signal Executive. The idea of a three person branch would give a representative from the Northern, Middle, and Southern States. Pierce Butler of South Carolina, having seen firsthand in Holland the issues caused by “plurality,” strongly objected. As happened many times during the convention the motion was postponed. James Madison made the suggestion that the powers of the president devised before there be a decision of single or plural Executive stating, “definition of their extent would assist the judgment in determining how far they might safely entrusted to a single officer.”

When the Articles of Confederation failed, our new country needed a new system of government. Why not leave it up to the Committee of Detail? John Rutledge, Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Gorham, Oliver Ellsworth, and James Wilson were responsible for the first draft of our nation’s constitution. The Committee of Style included William Samuel Johnson, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, and Rufus King. These men were responsible for revising the first draft into what now sits behind glass in Washington D.C.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered several methods of electing the President, Including allowing the members of congress, state Governors, state legislatures, and by direct election by the people (Staff, 2010). Because there was so many plans and thoughts on the process, a committee was formed which devised the Electoral College system. This plan received widespread approval by the delegates and was put in the final document.

There are numerous possible conclusions as to what the Constitution may have looked like had James Madison gotten his way at the debates in the Federal Convention. Initially, Madison’s vision of government lined up with the Virginia Plan presented by Edmund Randolph to the Federal Convention on May 29th, 1787. This plan stressed the interest of a stronger national government, with representation in the legislative branch based on the apportionment of people, instead of states, and subjected state laws to a veto by the national government. Despite the early plan of government, it is more realistic to assert that Madison’s vision for government was pliable, and that his vision evolved through the convention to appear as it did on September 17, 1787. Considering Madison’s comments in both the Federal Convention along with his subsequent authorship of certain Federalist Papers, under the pseudonym Publius, it is clear that through the deliberative process of debate during the convention that James Madison’s vision for a national government was almost wholly reconciled to the final draft. James Madison achieved the majority of his desires for a new constitution, mainly protection against the encroachment by states on federal power, limiting the power of those in government by creating separate distinct functions for each branch of government and finally by securing rights of individuals structurally by extending the republic.

Currently, immigration is the hot topic in the United States, and it turns out it has always been that way. Much like Trump is trying to do with the Syrian refugees, a man by the name Breckinridge Long tried to ban refugees from eastern Europe who were trying to escape the Nazis. Long, who has no real reason for doing so, tried to the best of his ability to prevent Jews from entering America. Because of his personal beliefs, he didn’t do what was best for the overall welfare of the people who need help the most. Because of indifference, paranoia, and a desire for power, Long barred hundreds of thousands of immigrants from entering the U.S., using both underhanded tactics and people’s fear against themselves to achieve his goal of keeping eastern European’s out of the country.