What it would have been like if television had covered the ratification…
Confounding Father - Episode 3
- Description
- Reviews
- Credits
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Many framers wanted to give congress nearly unlimited taxing authority. The powers of the executive branch are left surprisingly vague. Many antifederalists opposed a peacetime army. "Ensure domestic tranquility" is a euphemism for putting down rebellions. Many Americans were shocked by the power of the new national government; they had expected only a revised Articles of Confederation.
Confounding Father is available for individual streaming via OVID.tv.
. . . has made me, a professional historian, want to rush to the nearest library, read the historians’ books in full, and contemplate anew how a country originally organized around opposition to tyranny and coercion rather quickly made the watershed move at the Constitutional Convention to lay the groundwork for a country now characterized by authoritarianism and disregard for democracy. - Rev. Ellin Jimmerson, PhD
Citation
Main credits
Hall, Richard R. (film director)
Hall, Richard R. (film producer)
Hall, Richard R. (videographer)
Hall, Richard R. (editor of moving image work)
Browne-Marshall, Gloria J. (interviewee)
Distributor subjects
No distributor subjects provided.Keywords
WEBVTT
00:00:13.029 --> 00:00:19.519
Here\'s a tale you ought to know about
the Constitution, and a man who thought
00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:25.820
it did reverse the Revolution. Luther
Martin lost the fight, forgotten is his
00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:32.280
glory, drink some coffee sit up straight
we\'re going to tell his story!
00:00:33.440 --> 00:00:37.039
We the people of the United States in
order to form a more perfect union,
00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:42.920
establish justice, ensure domestic
tranquility. You know if you look at the
00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:48.769
preamble; \"ensure domestic tranquility\",
domestic tranquility may mean may sound
00:00:48.769 --> 00:00:53.539
like it means sitting by the fireside in
a tranquil evening. That\'s not what it
00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:59.899
means at all. Ensure domestic tranquility
is a euphemism for put down rebellions.
00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:06.980
Domestic tranquility for whom? So it was
the white American who was supposed to
00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:11.450
have domestic tranquility. There were
three anti-federalists in Western
00:01:11.450 --> 00:01:15.800
Massachusetts who complained about the
Constitution because they said under
00:01:15.800 --> 00:01:22.700
this we will have to march to Virginia
to suppress a slave rebellion and we
00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:25.920
will have to protect the African slave
trade
00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:31.440
♪♪ Free ♪♪
00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:38.800
♪♪ Free ♪♪
00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:50.960
The founding fathers had a deep belief
in the people of the United States. They
00:01:50.970 --> 00:01:56.210
believed that government should exist
only to serve the people..
00:01:57.440 --> 00:02:02.330
..and so the first article of the
Constitution establishes the legislative
00:02:02.330 --> 00:02:07.400
branch of our federal government: the
Congress of the United States.
00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:14.200
What the Federalists wanted is not always
clear. They did want a government with
00:02:14.210 --> 00:02:19.850
substantive taxing powers they
stood you know arm
00:02:19.850 --> 00:02:25.370
linked to arm for the first paragraph of
article 1 section 8 which basically
00:02:25.370 --> 00:02:32.690
gives Congress wall-to-wall taxing power.
The power of taxation is most likely to
00:02:32.690 --> 00:02:37.910
be criticized by the public. Direct
taxation should not be used but in the
00:02:37.910 --> 00:02:43.220
case of absolute necessity; and then the
states will be best judges of the mode
00:02:43.220 --> 00:02:48.440
There\'s nothing denied to Congress and
this is a big argument well there was no
00:02:48.440 --> 00:02:52.280
source of revenue reserved for the
states, why did they want that? Well, they
00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:56.510
wanted it because it would make the
United States more attractive to
00:02:56.510 --> 00:03:01.489
creditors and a respectable country had
to be able to borrow money. I had a
00:03:01.489 --> 00:03:05.810
couple small kids until I compared it to
the cookie jar, that you would never
00:03:05.810 --> 00:03:11.840
leave a jar of cookies on the floor or a
low table where the kids can get it.
00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.500
For their own good you take the cookie jar
and you put it on a high shelf and
00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:21.500
that\'s what the Constitution does it
takes the two most important things that
00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:25.580
a government does in peacetime which are
levy taxes to pay for the previous war
00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:31.130
and determining the money supply which
determines whether creditors get to
00:03:31.130 --> 00:03:34.610
defraud debtors or debtors get to
defraud creditors. The money supply is
00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:38.840
absolutely I\'d say the most important
thing a government does besides go to
00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:42.970
war. So you take those two most important
powers of a peacetime government
00:03:42.970 --> 00:03:47.600
taxation and the money supply and you
transfer them from state legislatures
00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:53.450
which were much more amenable to the
people than the federal government is
00:03:53.450 --> 00:03:56.959
and you transfer them to a federal
government where only one branch is
00:03:56.959 --> 00:04:01.190
elected by the people and even a branch
is elected from these huge districts
00:04:01.190 --> 00:04:05.720
where ordinary people can\'t influence
their local representative and where
00:04:05.720 --> 00:04:09.050
they\'re elected for long terms you know
six years per senator\'s life terms for
00:04:09.050 --> 00:04:12.500
Supreme Court justices.
You put that cookie jar way up on the
00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:17.840
shelf where the people can\'t reach it.
That House of Representatives has 65
00:04:17.840 --> 00:04:22.580
representatives in it, the first house.
Now that\'s smaller than most of the
00:04:22.580 --> 00:04:29.120
state legislatures. I mean that\'s
incredible, we have Massachusetts 350
00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.770
people most of them numbered in the you
know 200 or more and all of a sudden you
00:04:33.770 --> 00:04:39.380
can have this federal legislature is
going to be 65? I mean that really
00:04:39.380 --> 00:04:43.419
bothered lots of people with good
reason. It\'s still a problem because we
00:04:43.419 --> 00:04:47.810
still have a very small legislature. One
of the people advocating those smaller
00:04:47.810 --> 00:04:52.370
districts as if you have big districts
it\'s like an invisible fence, and the
00:04:52.370 --> 00:04:56.720
result of that is that ordinary people,
when you have these huge congressional
00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:03.110
districts they feel disempowered but
there\'s there\'s no fence to try to bash
00:05:03.110 --> 00:05:07.639
down because it\'s an invisible fence a
large congressional district is an
00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:12.620
invisible fence that that stymies you
but you can\'t see it
00:05:12.620 --> 00:05:17.240
to tear it down and I think you could
take that analogy through to the whole
00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:22.520
federal government that it was a way of
taking power away from ordinary farmers
00:05:22.520 --> 00:05:29.360
that wasn\'t explicit. The authors of the
Constitution, many of them, wanted to have
00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:34.010
a congressional veto of state laws. Hamilton wanted the President to
00:05:34.010 --> 00:05:38.840
serve for life, senators to serve for
life. Had the framers the Constitution
00:05:38.840 --> 00:05:42.020
done that: A) they wouldn\'t have gotten
that ratified but even if they\'d somehow
00:05:42.020 --> 00:05:46.250
gotten a ratified, everyone would have
looked and said we have a tyrannical
00:05:46.250 --> 00:05:51.289
government and eventually they might
have overthrown it. Instead, the founding
00:05:51.289 --> 00:05:57.260
fathers found a way to make the country
less democratic without seeming less
00:05:57.260 --> 00:06:01.039
democratic. We continue to have these
debates you know the Affordable Care Act
00:06:01.039 --> 00:06:06.409
it was one vote that upheld it and it
was upheld on tax-and-spend not on
00:06:06.409 --> 00:06:12.139
commerce, so there still is a
manifestation of the most fundamental
00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:17.210
founding debate it\'s still present in
American government today, although of
00:06:17.210 --> 00:06:23.790
course things have shifted. Nobody is
arguing for a return to the Articles
00:06:23.790 --> 00:06:30.720
of Confederation, but Luther Martin, to
me, his major contribution from the point
00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:35.690
of view of political and constitutional
thought is to articulate that
00:06:35.690 --> 00:06:43.140
traditional view of federalism. \"...Grasping
in their all-powerful hands the citizens
00:06:43.140 --> 00:06:49.620
of the respective states this government
will by the imposition of a variety of
00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:56.430
taxes imposts, stamps, excises, and other
duties squeeze from them the little
00:06:56.430 --> 00:07:01.640
money they may acquire, the hard earnings
of their industry, as you would squeeze
00:07:01.640 --> 00:07:06.440
the juice from an orange, till not a drop
more can be extracted..\"
00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:12.080
None of us can escape. Big business,
00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:22.080
small business,
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:25.440
farmers,
00:07:28.400 --> 00:07:30.400
workers.
00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:44.000
In the colonies the spirit of
Independence was abroad long before any
00:07:44.030 --> 00:07:49.580
formal declaration was made from the
beginning before the beginning Americans
00:07:49.580 --> 00:07:55.400
fought for freedom. Long years of warfare
were needed to prove that the
00:07:55.400 --> 00:08:02.930
Declaration of Independence had to be
respected by the world. The one skilled
00:08:02.930 --> 00:08:10.129
in the arts of war, the Americans at last
prevailed the architects of the
00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:15.600
Declaration were now free to expand
their ideas in the constitution.
00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:20.389
Its foundations were so broadly laid as to
provide for the expansion of national
00:08:20.389 --> 00:08:26.150
life and to make it an instrument which
would endure for all time. \"We the people
00:08:26.150 --> 00:08:30.909
of the United States in order to form a
more perfect union, establish justice
00:08:30.909 --> 00:08:36.380
insure domestic tranquility.\" You know if
you look at the preamble, \"ensure domestic
00:08:36.380 --> 00:08:42.409
tranquility\", domestic tranquility may sound like it means sitting by
00:08:42.409 --> 00:08:47.180
the fireside in a tranquil evening,
that\'s not what it means at all. Ensure
00:08:47.180 --> 00:08:52.820
domestic tranquility is a euphemism for
put down rebellions whether they\'re by
00:08:52.820 --> 00:08:59.470
slaves or small farmers or anybody else
and the constitution for the first time
00:08:59.470 --> 00:09:05.660
gives the federal government the power
that it needs to put down farmers
00:09:05.660 --> 00:09:11.720
rebellions. That is, Congress now has for
the first time the money it needs to
00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:14.959
field an army to put down rebellions and
you can see it if you just compare
00:09:14.959 --> 00:09:21.079
rebellions. Shay\'s rebellion in 1786 1787
right before the Constitution, Congress
00:09:21.079 --> 00:09:24.620
tried the Articles of Confederation
Congress tried to send an army to
00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:30.709
suppress Shay\'s rebellion. That army
never took the field because there was
00:09:30.709 --> 00:09:33.570
no money in the Treasury to fund that
army
00:09:33.570 --> 00:09:36.660
and armies move on their stomachs you
got to have a lot of money to put an
00:09:36.660 --> 00:09:41.339
army out there. So compare that failure
on the part of Congress to field an army
00:09:41.339 --> 00:09:46.440
to suppress Shay\'s rebellion to the
tremendous success in 1794 when farmers
00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:52.050
rebelled again this time in Pennsylvania
and who led those troops out there to
00:09:52.050 --> 00:09:56.790
suppress the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794?
The Secretary of the Treasury Alexander
00:09:56.790 --> 00:10:02.610
Hamilton because he was the one who put
up the money to fund that army. You just
00:10:02.610 --> 00:10:06.240
compare these two rebellions before the
Constitution that half the Constitution
00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.200
you see the power in that phrase ensure
domestic tranquility.
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:17.670
Domestic tranquility for whom? So it was the white
American who was supposed to have
00:10:17.670 --> 00:10:23.399
domestic tranquility. When I think about
for example policing, and we realized
00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:28.139
that our modern-day Police Department
even though it\'s taught that it came
00:10:28.139 --> 00:10:32.639
from the bobbies of England, but it was an
amalgam of the bobbies from England in
00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:40.050
the 1800s and the slave catchers of the
South as well as the militias formed to
00:10:40.050 --> 00:10:45.300
put down uprisings of Native Americans.
Our laws especially, criminal laws were
00:10:45.300 --> 00:10:52.199
created to criminalize the behaviors of
people of color and protect you know
00:10:52.199 --> 00:10:57.149
white America whatever white was
considered at that time from those
00:10:57.149 --> 00:11:00.660
people of color. Those people of color
were not supposed to speak up about
00:11:00.660 --> 00:11:05.130
being oppressed, they were not supposed
to rise up, they were not supposed to
00:11:05.130 --> 00:11:09.209
protest, and they were certainly not
supposed to fight back against
00:11:09.209 --> 00:11:16.170
oppression and if those people of color
did any of those things, caused any
00:11:16.170 --> 00:11:22.319
damage, rose up, fought against, took lives
based on the lives that were taking of
00:11:22.319 --> 00:11:27.839
people of color then there were to be
crushed and so the Constitution,
00:11:27.839 --> 00:11:35.220
you know, affirms to the white American
reader of the document that we will
00:11:35.220 --> 00:11:40.410
protect your interests against these
people of color. There were three
00:11:40.410 --> 00:11:43.590
anti-federalists in Western
Massachusetts who complained
00:11:43.590 --> 00:11:49.380
the Constitution because they said under
this we will have to march to Virginia
00:11:49.380 --> 00:11:54.990
to suppress a slave rebellion. And we
will have to protect the African slave
00:11:54.990 --> 00:11:58.590
trade. There is a speaker in the New York
ratifying convention it makes the same
00:11:58.590 --> 00:12:05.600
kind of speech saying that I cannot put
my hand to this bloody Constitution
00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:12.560
drenching the bowels of Africa in gore
to support the slave trade
00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:18.000
But even those who were moderate were critical of
the extensiveness of the powers that
00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:23.600
were given to the new federal government
under the Constitution. In particular
00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:28.170
complete power to raise taxes and
complete power to raise armies so they
00:12:28.170 --> 00:12:35.010
were suspicious of the very extended
sphere the large government that we tend
00:12:35.040 --> 00:12:37.040
to take for granted today.
00:12:48.400 --> 00:12:53.600
Martin later told the Maryland
Convention he said it\'s almost
00:12:53.640 --> 00:12:59.220
impossible to imagine people consenting
to allow, you know, the militia of their
00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:03.660
state to go to some, you know, distant
state. I mean, you know, would
00:13:03.660 --> 00:13:08.220
the people of New Hampshire really agree
that their young men should be sent to
00:13:08.220 --> 00:13:12.300
say Georgia to quell some sort of
domestic disturbance? You can imagine
00:13:12.300 --> 00:13:15.870
what he would think of the the National
Guard which is the heir to the militia
00:13:15.870 --> 00:13:21.570
of New Hampshire being sent to to Iraq
or Afghanistan. I mean it\'s in one sense
00:13:21.570 --> 00:13:27.329
he predicted it. He also thought though
that we\'d fight back he thought people
00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:32.240
are not going to accept this. He thought
too much of us I think actually.
00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.720
♪♪ I\'m an American warrior ♪♪
00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:40.160
♪♪ a citizen soldier ♪♪
00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:43.040
♪♪ Awww yeah!!! ♪♪
00:13:44.880 --> 00:13:47.440
♪♪ I\'ll never leave another behind ♪♪
00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:50.400
♪♪ I will never accept defeat ♪♪
00:13:51.760 --> 00:13:54.800
♪♪ I\'m a soldier in war ♪♪
00:13:54.800 --> 00:13:58.640
♪♪ civilian in peace ♪♪
00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:06.950
Ready to swell the ranks of our regular
army is the National Guard. The
00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:11.660
present-day descendent of the state
militia of our constitutional planners.
00:14:11.660 --> 00:14:18.770
It is true that the president could order
the state militias to go from one place
00:14:18.770 --> 00:14:23.630
to another as commander-in-chief of the
army, but Congress has to appropriate
00:14:23.630 --> 00:14:28.850
money to arm the state militias. Congress
has to appropriate money to provide
00:14:28.850 --> 00:14:32.750
uniforms for the state militias, to set
rules and regulations for the state
00:14:32.750 --> 00:14:38.810
militias even the highest officers of
the state militias have to be approved.
00:14:38.810 --> 00:14:44.870
I took the sense of the convention on a
proposition by which the Congress should
00:14:44.870 --> 00:14:50.420
not have power in time of peace to keep
embodied more than a certain number of
00:14:50.420 --> 00:14:57.530
regular troops. This proposition was
rejected by a majority, it being their
00:14:57.530 --> 00:15:03.020
determination, that the power of Congress
to keep up a standing army, even in peace,
00:15:03.020 --> 00:15:09.190
should only be restrained by their will
and pleasure.
00:15:21.860 --> 00:15:27.570
To secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity reads the
00:15:27.570 --> 00:15:32.520
preamble. To implement these words to
bring them to life, the Constitution
00:15:32.520 --> 00:15:37.800
continues, the executive power shall be
vested in a president President shall be
00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:42.209
commander in chief of the Army and Navy
of the United States and of the militia
00:15:42.209 --> 00:15:46.790
of the several states when called into
the actual service of the United States.
00:15:46.790 --> 00:15:53.820
What\'s interesting is Washington writes
to Madison in April I think of 1787 you
00:15:53.820 --> 00:15:58.709
know a month or so before the convention
and he\'s probably had some inkling of what
00:15:58.709 --> 00:16:02.760
Madison\'s up to but he says to him oh
what about the executive? And Madison
00:16:02.760 --> 00:16:05.100
replies he says I haven\'t given it much
thought.
00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:10.470
On June 1st when they take up the
executive for the first time and there\'s
00:16:10.470 --> 00:16:17.310
a proposal for a unity, Madison writes a
considerable pause ensued. Now, I like to
00:16:17.310 --> 00:16:23.520
ask my students to think about this, this man is taking notes on everything. There was enough quiet for him
00:16:23.520 --> 00:16:30.570
to write that you know why are they quiet? Oops, what are we talking about? And it\'s only in
00:16:30.570 --> 00:16:36.300
the convention that you get people like
Edmund Randolph who was governor of
00:16:36.300 --> 00:16:41.130
Virginia who proposed the plan, it was
Madison\'s plan. Randolph and Mason they
00:16:41.130 --> 00:16:46.980
argue that unity is the fetus of
monarchy. The executive power of the
00:16:46.980 --> 00:16:52.350
government was placed in one man, the
President of the United States. He would
00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:56.810
be responsible to the people for all
departments of government. Many
00:16:56.810 --> 00:16:59.910
anti-federalists proposed is an
alternative to what they call the
00:16:59.910 --> 00:17:04.439
President General either a plural
executive, which is two or more men
00:17:04.439 --> 00:17:09.300
sharing the office a recipe for what a
sage once called a wise and masterly
00:17:09.300 --> 00:17:14.400
inactivity, or they wanted no executive
at all. Once it\'s decided it\'s going to be
00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:19.740
a single person, then they have, it\'s a
very simple Article two is very simple
00:17:19.740 --> 00:17:25.770
and commander-in-chief and will be the
executive, that is he will execute the
00:17:25.770 --> 00:17:29.670
laws. Well that\'s vague, but what do they
mean by that?
00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:35.100
Well, we\'ve been filling it in ever since and
now of course you see the president
00:17:35.100 --> 00:17:40.200
seems to have all the prerogative powers
of a king including the power to declare,
00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:45.150
well not the declare war but to go to
war. That\'s not something that they
00:17:45.150 --> 00:17:47.200
really anticipated.
00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:55.520
Despite having the
every day and every man theory that\'s
00:17:55.520 --> 00:17:59.600
out there that in America anyone can be
President I think many people believe
00:17:59.610 --> 00:18:04.500
that that job needs to be won within
the hands of the elite and I think
00:18:04.500 --> 00:18:08.040
that\'s why there\'s praise for the
founding fathers because they were the
00:18:08.040 --> 00:18:12.630
elite in a time period in which the
majority the vast majority of people in
00:18:12.630 --> 00:18:18.330
1787 were uneducated. George Washington
had been elected as a delegate from
00:18:18.330 --> 00:18:23.040
Virginia to the Constitutional
Convention and he had said no I\'m not
00:18:23.040 --> 00:18:27.900
going, but then Shay\'s rebellion happened
and he started getting these incredibly
00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:33.090
alarming letters from his friends
further north who said this is not just
00:18:33.090 --> 00:18:37.650
a farmer\'s revolt, but to use modern
language it\'s a communist revolt that is
00:18:37.650 --> 00:18:41.850
the farmers want to March to Boston and
take the property from the merchants and
00:18:41.850 --> 00:18:46.350
distribute it among themselves. They
didn\'t but, that was the perception that
00:18:46.350 --> 00:18:51.690
arrived at Mount Vernon and that
frightened Washington. He\'s not a guy
00:18:51.690 --> 00:18:57.570
who\'s scared real easily, but that was
enough to scare him into saying okay
00:18:57.570 --> 00:19:00.120
I\'ve got to go to the Constitutional
Convention and so he changed his mind
00:19:00.120 --> 00:19:03.780
after Shay\'s rebellion and said that
Shay\'s rebellion was the main reason
00:19:03.780 --> 00:19:08.340
that he was doing so. And so you might
say to me okay well that\'s just one guy
00:19:08.340 --> 00:19:14.100
out of fifty-five, but the Constitution
is unimaginable without George
00:19:14.100 --> 00:19:19.799
Washington, if he hadn\'t been there then
and hadn\'t endorsed the product there\'s
00:19:19.799 --> 00:19:23.730
no way that the states would have
ratified the Constitution.
00:19:23.730 --> 00:19:29.130
General Washington, honored by Americans above all other men, are now elected president
00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:33.360
of the convention he reminds the
delegates of the need for unity and
00:19:33.360 --> 00:19:37.900
facing their common problems. People did
say
00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:42.550
afterwards, federalists, saying well I
reason I made the presidency so I was
00:19:42.550 --> 00:19:47.710
willing to accept the presidency as
strong as it was is because I thought
00:19:47.710 --> 00:19:51.250
of George Washington, but they don\'t
think you know what happens after
00:19:51.250 --> 00:19:55.600
Washington? They really hadn\'t thought through that. Bill Clinton: \"I did not
00:19:55.600 --> 00:19:58.960
have sexual relations with that woman.\"
00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:04.240
Donald Trump: that was what we, what was originally projected.\"
00:20:07.360 --> 00:20:11.360
♪♪ Slavery it was codified and so were standing armies ♪♪
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:16.000
♪♪ Bill of Rights would have to wait in a land of milk and honey ♪♪
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:25.600
♪♪ Luther Martin went to town, Luther Martin tried hard. Anti-federalist could not stop creation of an empire ♪♪
00:20:41.040 --> 00:20:48.230
At last the work is finished. We the
people of the United States in order to
00:20:48.230 --> 00:20:53.450
form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility,
00:20:53.450 --> 00:20:59.930
provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the
00:20:59.930 --> 00:21:05.600
blessings of liberty to ourselves and
our posterity do ordain and establish
00:21:05.600 --> 00:21:11.780
this constitution for the United States
of America.
00:21:11.780 --> 00:21:16.080
Luther Martin actually left I think
September 4th, a couple of weeks before
00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:21.780
the document was signed, came home from
Philadelphia laiden not with Sylvester
00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:27.510
Stallone souvenirs or larded by
mountains of inedible cheesesteaks
00:21:27.510 --> 00:21:32.640
but loaded for bear. He was gonna spill
the beans he\'s gonna sound the toxin
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:36.330
about with the conspirators at
Philadelphia had been up to. So, on
00:21:36.330 --> 00:21:43.350
November 29, 1787 he spoke at predictable
posterior shifting length to the
00:21:43.350 --> 00:21:49.559
Maryland House of Delegates in the first
and most powerful probably assault ever
00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:54.750
mounted on the new constitution. This was
later published and under the carnival
00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:59.670
barker-esque title \"The Genuine Information\".
Kind of cheesy but and it was very
00:21:59.670 --> 00:22:04.770
widely read, it was a furious assault on
the Constitution from from the preamble
00:22:04.770 --> 00:22:09.510
you know \'We the People\', to every jot and
tittle, to the office of the presidency,
00:22:09.510 --> 00:22:13.260
to the makeup of Congress, to its powers
and he was active he campaigned in
00:22:13.280 --> 00:22:18.560
taverns throughout Maryland which was
sort of his natural venue.
00:22:18.560 --> 00:22:28.160
♪♪ Luther Martin he went home, worried about a nation. Took a pen and wrote in down in \"The Genuine Information\" ♪♪
00:22:29.040 --> 00:22:32.160
Martin told the Maryland legislature in that November speech
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:36.540
quote \"by the principles of the American
Revolution arbitrary power may and ought
00:22:36.540 --> 00:22:40.860
to be resisted even by arms if necessary
the time may come when it shall be the
00:22:40.860 --> 00:22:43.770
duty of a state in order to preserve
itself from the oppression of the
00:22:43.770 --> 00:22:47.520
general government to have recourse to
the sword.\" End quote. that certainly
00:22:47.520 --> 00:22:50.280
would have made Luther a person of
interest to the Department of Homeland
00:22:50.280 --> 00:22:56.670
Security today. Luther Martin was
different than many of those who failed
00:22:56.670 --> 00:23:02.220
to sign the Constitution. There were
three delegates who lasted to the end of
00:23:02.220 --> 00:23:06.600
the convention and refused to sign that is
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and both
00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:12.960
Edmund Randolph and George Mason of
Virginia. They thought the constitution was
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:16.740
basically good but needed some
amendments. Martin\'s position was
00:23:16.740 --> 00:23:21.660
entirely different. He thought the whole
of the idea of radically changing the
00:23:21.660 --> 00:23:24.840
government was a mistake. It\'s
conventional wisdom
00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:29.100
made famous by Montesquieu that
republics can exist only in small
00:23:29.100 --> 00:23:34.080
territories, and this is something that\'s
pertinent even today. Authoritarian
00:23:34.080 --> 00:23:38.100
governments are necessary to rule a
corrupt people, corrupt being people who
00:23:38.100 --> 00:23:41.790
are self-interested,
selfish, doing their own thing, how are
00:23:41.790 --> 00:23:45.720
you going to hold them together? Well, you
have to have a strong standing army, have
00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:49.680
to have establishment, religious
establishment you have to have patronage,
00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:54.270
you have to power coming from the top
down in an authoritarian manner. So, the
00:23:54.270 --> 00:23:58.890
idea is that a republic has to come it\'s
consensus has to be built from the
00:23:58.890 --> 00:24:03.270
bottom up. People have to be willing to
surrender their private interests for
00:24:03.270 --> 00:24:07.740
the sake of the whole and therefore they
can\'t have many diverse interests.
00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:11.370
So the anti federalists said well look what
we\'re too big, people from Georgia and people
00:24:11.370 --> 00:24:14.640
from New Hampshire are too different they
can\'t they\'ll never be able to hold
00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:19.200
together this thing can\'t work, and
that\'s a major argument that Madison and
00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:24.060
the reason Madison is considered such a
brilliant intellectual is he offers
00:24:24.060 --> 00:24:30.210
an answer to that in Federalist 10 and
also in 51 in which he says no no the
00:24:30.210 --> 00:24:34.440
opposite is true, we\'ll let all these
diverse interests fool around with one
00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:38.430
another, negate one another and it
will allow they\'ll neutralize one
00:24:38.430 --> 00:24:43.860
another so to speak and this will allow
an enlightened elite to promote the
00:24:43.860 --> 00:24:48.030
public good, and that\'s Madison\'s
answer to this, but the anti federalists
00:24:48.030 --> 00:24:52.590
really suspicious of that kind of
argument with good reason because
00:24:52.590 --> 00:24:55.760
there\'s never quite worked out that way.
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:10.050
This country has never really figured
out how it can be economically viable
00:25:10.050 --> 00:25:16.300
without oppressing people, and that\'s not
a system of government, that\'s a
00:25:16.300 --> 00:25:22.300
mentality and that American mentality is
one that we\'ve been wrestling with, but
00:25:22.300 --> 00:25:26.590
not wrestling hard. We\'re not working up
a sweat in wrestling with this issue of
00:25:26.590 --> 00:25:30.820
oppression. We think about it every now
and then when horrible things happen and
00:25:30.820 --> 00:25:40.360
then we let it fade away. It leads to
oppression it leads to all these
00:25:40.360 --> 00:25:44.470
horribles that this country has
expressed and going back to the fact
00:25:44.470 --> 00:25:48.310
that when you look at the old films you
don\'t see anything about slavery,
00:25:48.310 --> 00:25:52.930
or every now and then if you see an
enslaved person they\'re happy after
00:25:52.930 --> 00:25:59.500
slavery, they\'re diabolical into the Jim
Crow era there\'s this criminality now
00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:04.300
that\'s connected with people of African
descent, it\'s this whole mechanism to
00:26:04.300 --> 00:26:10.930
make the other always seem to be someone
deserving of harm. So that this country
00:26:10.930 --> 00:26:16.320
can grow rich off their oppression so
all the states made concessions on
00:26:16.320 --> 00:26:23.560
tariffs, currency, on all the problems
that concern them as states. The large
00:26:23.560 --> 00:26:28.690
ones agreed that all states should have
equal powers. The small states agreed
00:26:28.690 --> 00:26:33.790
that representation should be according
to population. In fact the states deeded
00:26:33.790 --> 00:26:37.090
their Western lands to the new
government and surrendered other
00:26:37.090 --> 00:26:43.299
privileges in favor of a strong Union.
Their final draft was hammered out after
00:26:43.299 --> 00:26:47.529
many weeks. The delegates were to take
the plan back to see if their states
00:26:47.529 --> 00:26:50.240
would ratify it.
00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:40.950
Next time on Confounding Father... There is
still a fundamental question about where
00:28:40.950 --> 00:28:47.099
is the problem. Is the problem that
ordinary voters want to be freeloaders
00:28:47.099 --> 00:28:51.269
and get free stuff from the government?
Or is the problem that there are wealthy
00:28:51.269 --> 00:28:56.999
interests who have too much power in
Washington? And that\'s the same battle
00:28:56.999 --> 00:29:01.679
that there was between the Federalists
the Anti-Federalists. We the people of the
00:29:01.679 --> 00:29:08.129
United States in order to form a more
perfect union.. Is there a need to
00:29:08.129 --> 00:29:12.029
re-examine the structure of government?
Well I think
00:29:12.029 --> 00:29:15.959
there are enormous problems with the
structure the American government.
00:29:15.959 --> 00:29:20.729
I don\'t know that a constitutional
convention would be the way to solve it
00:29:20.729 --> 00:29:26.489
one could only imagine what kind of
circus that could become today.
00:29:26.489 --> 00:29:30.809
This is earth this is not heaven and on earth, there will always be battles and as long
00:29:30.809 --> 00:29:35.249
as people know that this is a battle and
that they\'re ready to come in with a
00:29:35.249 --> 00:29:41.099
value system that\'s not based in
rhetoric of this American Dream and the
00:29:41.099 --> 00:29:47.700
praise of the founding fathers, just for
their existence, but looking at this from
00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:53.309
a very practical standpoint. The Anti-Federalists lost decisively and their
00:29:53.309 --> 00:29:59.369
heirs had been losing decisively for 225
years and yet there are American
00:29:59.369 --> 00:30:03.659
political movements that I think have
the anti-federalist as a kind of
00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:05.800
wellspring or source.
Distributor: Nerds Make Media
Length: 30 minutes
Date: 2020
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Closed Captioning: Available
Existing customers, please log in to view this film.
New to Docuseek? Register to request a quote.
Related Films

Episode one introduces the series, then covers the Articles of Confederation,…

The final episode details the 1787-1788 ratification battle, reasons for…