by Greg Wilson
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| photo credit |
The notes from the committee that met before the final draft of the
constitution can be found at http://nhccs.org/Mnotes.html. James Madison's notes give us a picture
of the minds of those who formed the draft of the constitution and in some
cases the minds of those who sent them -- the people they represented. For
example, from the Friday night discussion of September 14, 1787; Mr. KING,
said, “The States will be prejudiced and divided into parties by it. In Philadelphia and New York, it will be referred to the establishment of a Bank, which has
been a subject of contention in those Cities. In other places it will be
referred to as mercantile monopolies.”
Reading Madison's notes is much like
hearing the conversations of a committee that writes or rewrites the by-laws of
any church's or non profit. The committee will meet, discuss, edit, agree and
disagree, and then bring a draft for the congregation or group to vote upon. As
members consider the nature of the by-laws, they consider how the church or
organization is going to run, the agreements and objections some members might
have, models of other by-laws, what is right and not right, and how to structurally
protect the organization and its members. The protection is both internal and
external. This comparison points to the nature of the constitution as a
document of structure; how the country will operate, how the philosophy of
representational democracy will be enacted, and how there is built into the
very structure protections of the State in relation to the Federal government,
protections of the individual from both the State and Federal government, and protections
from the different subgroups that make up the whole.
One thing that is not in
the Constitution are protections for the Earth. Yet they are there indirectly.
When as the Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness, ....... laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness.” All these unalienable rights require a healthy
Earth to be actualized. One day these Rights might be found more directly in
the laws of our land in the form of: Every component of the Earth community has
three rights: the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfill
its role in the ever-renewing processes of the Earth community. We are on our
way but not there yet. I wonder what the formation committee conversation would
be like to include these rights in our Constitution?
We are particularly
interested in Friday September 14th as it deals with incorporation and who
will mange the corporations: the Federal government or the State. We know that
in 1819, John Marshall brought the Federal government in to manage contracts
and corporations under the federal government's authority. This was a shift, I
believe, from the intention of the constitution. Further, it honored a charter
signed by King George in the 1750's that went against the people of New
Hampshire. I thought King George's rule was one of the reasons for the
revolutionary war. A decision by the New Hampshire State legislature was
invalidated and the signature of King George once again ruled the people of the
USA. This begs the question: Whose side are they on anyway?
In addition,
the Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 518 (1819),
was a landmark decision from the United States Supreme Court dealing with the
application of the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution to private
corporations. The case arose when the president of Dartmouth College was
deposed by its trustees, leading to the New Hampshire legislature attempting to
force the college to become a public institution and thereby place the ability
to appoint trustees in the hands of the governor. The Supreme Court upheld the
sanctity of the original charter of the college, which pre-dated the creation
of the State. The decision settled the nature of public versus private charters
and resulted in the rise of the American business corporation and the free
American enterprise system.
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