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| The Signing of the Constitution |
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| Slavery in America |
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| America circa 1790s |
After the battles of the Revolution had been fought, after the struggle of creating a government was lessening, and after the Constitution was written, there were still many unanswered questions and challenges ahead for the new nation. The nation had succeeded thus far in establishing a good system of government with mostly fair rights for men (white property male landowners, that is), and a new vision of equality that inspired oppressed peoples around the world to revolt as well. Leaders such as Alexander Hamilton, who created an excellent program for the Treasury, and Benjamin Franklin, who made too many contributions to America to name, instilled ideals about equality of opportunity that left an indelible mark on our nation and the world. However, many issues were still unresolved. Foremost, there lay the great pending question of what to do about slavery.
During the process of writing the Constitution, dissension arose about whether slaves 'counted' as people or not when deciding taxes. The result was the grossly unjust "Great Compromise", which declared that slaves counted as 3/5 of a person. The more anti-slavery Founding Fathers compromised even further with their Southern opponents and stated that the government could not stop the slave trade for twenty years forward. And in fact, in the Constitution, the word "slavery" was omitted, as if the writers were indeed ashamed of the wrongness of it. Slavery was a topic that would have rather been avoided because the practice of it contradicted the ideas of equality that were spoken of so strongly by leaders who in fact had slaves of their own. Although the compromise saved the Southern states from seceding from the nation, would it have been a better decision to abolish slavery in the first place? As we know, much controversy ensued and Abraham Lincoln faced these consequences during his presidency as he struggled to heal a divided nation.
Another unanswered question regarded the rights and placement of the indigenous people of America. The Constitution did not address their citizenship or any rights with clarity. The ordinances especially created encounters with Indians and displaced the more peaceful relationship that had been in place before. More unfairness and persecution followed for the tribes. Numerous tribes were driven from their homelands on the Trail of Tears, along with many other unfair acts inflicted upon them by the U.S. Government.
And yet another challenge for the new nation was the problem of national stability and staying true to the ideals of the Constitution. For instance, John Adam's signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts
created a huge controversy as the Acts not only made immigration difficult and furthered discrimination against people who were akin to the enemy, such as French Roman Catholics, but also made it illegal to write anything that denounced the government or reflected 'treasonous' sentiments. These Acts were declared to be unconstitutional by Adams' vice president Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans using the Tenth Amendment. The disagreement between the Republicans and Federalists over this matter divided the nation. Matters such as these made the Republicans fear that America was becoming reminiscent of Britain, which was exactly what they had tried to avoid. Britain had created advantages for people of better birth, economic or social, and these protesters demanded that opportunity should be equal and thus no ethnic group should have more value than another. Challenging it was for the government to strike a balance between the ideals of the Federalists and the Republicans.
So, as the new nation struggled to face these challenges, which challenge do you think was the greatest or the most valid? What do you think should have been done beforehand so that these challenges would not have such a taxing cost on the American people? (i.e. what do you believe could have been done to prevent the conflicts of the future?) What strategies would you suggest to the leaders of America as they moved forwards towards these challenges?
I would like to focus on slavery in particular.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of preventing this problem from rising, unfortunately it was inevitable. However, I believe that the Great Compromise was like a Band- Aid; it covered the problem but did not actually heal the wound. Simple debates should have been conducted. If the Founding Fathers had confronted slavery from the beginning, perhaps the Civil War would have been avoided. This does not mean that slavery would have instantly been abolished. Of course not! It would be a step in the right direction, though.
I agree with Danielle about the inevitability of these problems, it is the same with issues today, there is no way to avoid some of them. I think that the founding fathers lost sight of what they had started fight for, especially in the case of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were ridiculously unconstitutional. However, I cannot decide whether or not the colonists lost sight of their priorities because of political turmoil, or if their original cry for freedom was merely a wish to not be taxed. If this was the case it would be logical to say that they forgot about their "ideals" completely because they were never truly there.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is did these road blocks end up making the United States a stronger country? Although I argued that the failure of the Articles of Confederation ended up making America much stronger, these issues, even hundreds of years later, did not help the United States. Perhaps if the entirety of the people- that is to say the African Americans, the Native Americans, the white men, and the women- had all been focused on the same cause, and had all been done right by the government, early America would have been much more stable.
I also agree that the Great Compromise really didn't solve the problem itself. I also agree that if the issue had been addressed far sooner, something could have actually been done about it. It seems that the longer the the delay, the worse that the problem became. I think that the analogy of the Great Compromise as a band-aid is accurate to some extent because it really only put the problem out of view, but actually allowed the issue (or the wound underneath) to become worse over time. This could be attributed to the Civil War that would follow.
ReplyDeleteI think actually meeting the problem head on could have really made an important impact on the issue. I also agree that this would not have completely ameliorated the issue, but it would have at lest brought it to the attention of the politicians who could have continued to work towards fixing it.Down the road it may have expedited the abolishing of slavery and sped along the process.
If for nothing but to be the devil's advocate, I think the colonists had to put a "band-aid" on slavery and the other issues, otherwise the United States of America would not exist. When the idea of abolishing slavery finally came around, so did the civil war. Both the North's and the South's beliefs on slavery were so firm that they were willing to kill their brothers over it (their sisters didn't really fight). If the colonial leaders had forced the debate on slavery, the already brittle Constitutional Convention was likely to shatter on top of the already broken Articles of Confederation, leaving the United States of America divided. On top of that, if war broke out, the anti-slavery side wouldn't stand a chance. Even in the northern states that banned the slave trade, there were too many people who still had slaves to recruit the necessary numbers for war, let alone their fiscal issues. Slavery is a terrible thing, but if the colonial leaders had jumped the gun, the bullet would have hit them. All that America's revolution had been for (originally fair or not), would have been for nothing. If America had broken up back then, there is a fair chance that America would no longer be America, but England, France or Spain.
ReplyDeleteI can pretty much agree with everything that's being said about the great compromise and its temporary effects. But at the same time I'd like to make a point about the civil war and the issue of slavery in general. Unfortunately I don't believe that slavery was the actual problem that faced the nation (although it was absolutely a human rights issue that contradicted our constitution). The real issue was the divide between North and South, slavery was just the tool used by each side to combat the other. On one hand the North used slavery to its advantage, declaring is cruelty while the South on the other hand used slavery to far surpass the North in wealth. The civil war erupted because the southerners felt that their northern counterparts were conspiring to weaken them by eliminating their main source of income. Its easy to pin the South as a hub of greed and exploitation but one must consider that emancipation didn't become a reality in most of the North until the mid 18th century. The conflict was indeed inevitable but the way I see it you have to admit you have a true moral problem before you work towards solving it.
ReplyDeletei think an important challenge was slavery. the great compromise was created to solve this problem, saying that house states would be represented on the basis of population; slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a free person. Upper house states would be represented equally with two members. Convention agreed to bar the new gov’t from stopping the slave trade for 20 years. However, this did not stop the problem - but only calmed the problem for a little while. They still needed to figure out what to do with it. I agree with danielle when she said that if the problem with slavery would have been solved earlier that the civil war could been avoided.
ReplyDeleteEmma, this is a very insightful blog post. I agree with Alexa's comment that said the biggest issue for America was that the leaders became unorganized, and forgot what their goals were. As a result of this came the Great Compromise, which was completely against the original values of the colonies. Also, in a sense, the leaders of America became savages as they forced out the people who lived in the land before them. Finally, I think that all of the issues mentioned in this post were issues would not be solved if the leaders of America did not settle their differences and clarify their objectives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Virginia in the idea that the Great Compromise was a band-aid of sorts, but a necessary one. The country was divided on the issue of slavery, and it is indeed possible that if slavery had been abolished, a huge conflict would start, as it did during the civil war. In addition to this, though I entirely believe that slavery is wrong, it helped to bolster the economy during the years of the revolution. Abolishing it would have been a large blow to the nation.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the biggest issues the nation faced was the partisan politics of the time- the conflict between the federalists and republicans. The differences in ideology between the two parties drew the country apart and made it difficult for progress to occur.
I do agree that the leaders became unorganized, Kira had stated, but i feel it was because of the Federalist and Republican rivalry. Both parties simply wanted to prove the other wrong, which kept the benefit of the country standing second place in terms of importance, the most important, being to prove the other party wrong. Instead of being a unified people, as stated in the Constitution, they were once again separated in the government. I feel their biggest issue was the sense of unity and equality they were trying to develop.
ReplyDelete