Do You Know Your American History? The Fight for the Constitution!

Ignorance is no virtue and, unfortunately, most Americans are ignorant of our heritage.

Ask anybody what they know about the ratification of the Constitution and most won't have a clue. Maybe they'll be able to spout the phrase, "the miracle at Philadelphia," from the title of the famous book by Catherine Bowen; but probably few can even do that. What do they know about the Constitution's contents? Most have never read it and know little or nothing.

How many, for example, know that ratification was not a foregone conclusion and that there was a bitter fight over it?



George Mason, who should get more credit for the Declaration of Independence which was based on his Virginia Declaration of Rights was an anti-federalist who feared the power the proposed Constitution gave to a centralized government. The anti-federalists wrote a response to the Federalist Papers addressing many concerns about the tyranny possible from a strong central government. One author using the name Brutus who, writing on January 31, 1788, expressed concern over what he feared would be the unlimited power of the Supreme Court:

They will give the sense of every article of the constitution, that may from time to time come before them. And in their decisions they will not confine themselves to any fixed or established rules, but will determine, according to what appears to them, the reason and spirit of the constitution. The opinions of the supreme court, whatever they may be, will have the force of law; because there is no power provided in the constitution, that can correct their errors, or control their adjudications. From this court there is no appeal. And I conceive the legislature themselves, cannot set aside a judgment of this court, because they are authorised by the constitution to decide in the last resort.

This isn't true of the Supreme Court only. We are seeing from the lowest levels to the highest. #HumptyDumptyJudge James Robart is a tyrant in black. He ignored the law and made up a ruling based on his own opinion, a ruling that apparently gives foreigners rights under our Constitution, something the Founders would find appalling.

I'll be talking more about the Constitution and the fight over its ratification. It's unfortunate that we didn't remain a Confederation of sovereign states working together because the best government comes from the bottom up and not the top down.