The Constitutional Convention and the Meaning of Liberty

Before the American Revolution, the colonists felt they had too little say in the laws that governed them and that the British Crown had too much say. They protested in several ways, but perhaps the most famous was the Boston Tea Party.

After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed a series of bills known in the colonies as the 'Intolerable Acts.' They closed the Boston harbor, changed the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, changed the judicial system in that colony and allowed the quartering of troops in private homes without paying compensation.

The colonists organized under a very weak type of central government called the Articles of Confederation. Under this arrangement, the federal government had little power to force the states to do anything. After winning the Revolutionary War, the thirteen states started exercising their state sovereignty in somewhat extreme ways. They were very uncooperative with one another and started acting almost like independent countries.

Consequently, the Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia to consider how to strengthen the federal government so that we could seriously call ourselves one unified country. As the constitutional convention proceeded and the new constitution was debated, it became clear that the new federal government was viewed by most as a government of specifically 'delegated powers.' Whatever power it had, came from below by delegation and common consent.

About three months into the constitutional debate in Philadelphia, George Mason rose to his feet and proposed that the new constitution contain certain delineations of rights like freedom of speech to protect the people from the federal government. The basic upshot of the response was effectively this: 'Don't worry Mr. Mason, we didn't delegate any power to the federal government to regulate speech — so it would be superfluous to even talk about it in the text of the constitution.'

After about 4 months of debate and drafting, the final version of the Constitution was complete. Under the signature of George Washington, a letter of transmittal accompanied the document: 'Individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the object to be obtained.'

The issue of slavery was debated during the convention. Many wanted to abolish the practice, but the southern states refused to go along with anything that would do that. Henry Jaffa cautions us not to think of slavery as a 'constitutional principle' but rather, a 'constitutional compromise' dictated by the demands of prudence.

Liberty, as understood by the Founders, was not the absence of all restraint. It was ordered liberty — freedom within the bounds of natural law and moral virtue. They understood that a republic could only survive if its citizens were virtuous, self-governing individuals who did not require external force to maintain order.