Luther Martin’s Warning: The Constitution as a Threat to State Sovereignty
Luther Martin, a prominent Anti-Federalist, warned that the proposed Constitution would destroy state sovereignty by concentrating power in a centralized national government. One of the few opponents of the constitution to attend as a delegate to the Philadelphia...
The Day the Philadelphia Convention Narrowly Avoided Permanent Adjournment
โSomething must be done, or we shall disappoint not only America, but the whole worldโฆ. We must make concessions on both sides. Without these, the constitutions of the several states would never have been formed.โ -Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, July 2, 1787 W....
The Great Compromise and the Struggle to Preserve State Sovereignty
The first weeks of July, 1787 were full of fiery speeches, threats of disunion, and tenuous compromises. In other words, just an ordinary time at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. On July 16, 1787 after nearly two weeks of debate, the convention adopted what has...