Episode 3: America’s Mulligan

In this episode of Constitutionally Speaking, Jay and Luke continue to discuss the Articles of Confederation (a.k.a. America’s Mulligan), arguing that there were two major failures.

In this episode of Constitutionally Speaking, Jay and Luke continue to discuss the Articles of Confederation (a.k.a. America’s Mulligan), arguing that there were two major failures. First, the Articles allowed state governments to devolve into a kind of mob rule, pitting a numerical majority against minorities. Second, they lacked a national authority powerful enough to ensure coordination among the states for their mutual welfare. These problems were most evident in the way loyalists (i.e. those who sided with George III in the Revolution) were mistreated, as well as the extreme debtor-relief laws that many states passed. The nationalists who advocated a stronger central government grew increasingly alarmed, and used the Annapolis Convention of 1786 to call for a constitutional convention. However, it is the violence of Shays Rebellion (1786-87) that awakens the political class from its collective stupor, leading to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in May 1787.

Recommended Readings

Alexander Hamilton, “Address of the Annapolis Convention“
James Madison, “Vices of the Political System of the United States“
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Essays 6, 7, 8
Sean Condon, Shays’s Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-Revolutionary America