Think Like a Founder

Perhaps you are one of the people that think it would be fair to make Washington D.C. a State.  Then the people who live there would be able to have Representatives in the House of Representatives and Senators in the Senate just like all the current fifty States.  After all, we’re all supposed to be equal – right?

Would you be surprised to learn that our Founding Fathers actually thought about this?  Would you be surprised to learn that they specifically rejected the idea?  Would you be surprised to learn that the District of Columbia idea did not come about until the United States of America was about sixteen years old?  Let’s do some digging and some learning, together.

The earliest example of collective representation for the purpose of achieving common interests came about with the Albany Congress (a.k.a. Albany Convention of 1754) held from June 19^th to July 11^th, 1754.  The meeting was attended by representatives of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.  Their proceedings centered on common concerns relating to the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France.

As time passed and the relationship between the Colonies and Great Britain grew more strained, the idea of a collective gathering of representatives again started to gain favor.  Benjamin Franklin tried to push the idea in about 1773, but was not able to make his case strongly enough to convince the other colonies.  The meeting finally came to fruition at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from September 5^th to October 26^th, 1774 and would be known as the First Continental Congress.  All the Colonies were represented except Georgia and their participation was not possible due to concerns about their own security with respect to their Southern border with Florida.  In the end, nothing was agreed to and the First Continental Congress ended without a resolution.

The relationship with Great Britain continued to deteriorate and fighting broke out in April of 1775 at Lexington – The Revolutionary War had started.  In response the Second Continental Congress was called to order on May 10^th, 1775 and it operated as the de facto national government going forward.  The Second Continental Congress continued to operate as the provisional government until the Articles of Confederation were ratified on March 1^st, 1781.

The United States of America was born on July 4^th, 1776.  This is common knowledge, but we don’t normally give much thought to the name of our Country.  The United States of America as a Nation on the world stage came into being as a Confederation of thirteen sovereign States.  At the time of our birth, we did not have any governing documents – everything was new – everything was for the first time so there were no precedents to guide the actions of our founders.  They were about as free as free could be and yet, if we really think about it, they probably never felt more constrained than they did on that very first day.  When we are free to do whatever we want, but we know that whatever we do will be used to guide our successors, we will be carrying the weight of our collective future and it is a heavy burden.

As I wrote in my book, A Broken Sausage Grinder; Is Our Government Fundamentally Flawed?, “The Articles of Confederation, which had been agreed to in November 1777, were signed on July 9, 1778, serving as the de facto laws of the new United States of America until they became de jure through ratification in March 1781.  The articles were essentially a treaty between the thirteen states wherein each state retained its sovereignty in all respects except those functions expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.  All functions of the new union government were to be carried out by a single congressional body and only when it was in session.”  So, the Articles of Confederation became the guiding light for our brand new Government of thirteen sovereign States, but what about the sovereignty of the new Confederation Government itself?  True, its power was limited to only those functions “expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled”, but in carrying out those duties was the Confederation Government truly sovereign?

The Articles of Confederation did not establish a place for the Congress to assemble.  The final paragraph of Article IX comes as close as we might find when it states, “The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months; …”  Again, was the new Confederation Government truly being sovereign if it did not have a place for its Congress to assemble and act without encumbrance of any kind?  This is just another example of a deficiency of the Articles of Confederation.

According to Wikipedia, “The Second Continental Congress was meeting at the Old Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time the Articles of Confederation entered into force on March 1, 1781, but left after an anti-government protest by several hundred soldiers of the Continental Army in June 1783. Congress moved its meeting site successively to Princeton, New Jersey, Annapolis, Maryland, Trenton, New Jersey, and then in January 1785 New York City, which remained the seat of government for several years.”

The 1^st Confederation Congress was called to order at the Pennsylvania State House where it had previously been operating as the 2^nd Continental Congress.  The Confederation Congress held its 1^st, 2^nd and part of its 3^rd session in this location which is now more familiarly known as Independence Hall.

The Articles of Confederation did not give the Confederation Congress direct control of the military during a time of peace.  Rather, the military forces remained organized as the various State Militias.  In June of 1783, June 17^th to be precise, the Congress learned that soldiers stationed in Philadelphia were demanding their pay for their service during the Revolutionary War.  The Congress had virtually no funds from which to pay the soldiers because the various States were not meeting their obligations under the Articles of Confederation to make payments into the central Treasury.  The Congress was dependent on the very Pennsylvania State Militia that was demanding payment for their wartime services for security of their Congressional proceedings.  The soldiers from other parts of Pennsylvania began to move to Philadelphia and joining with the local forces mobbed the Pennsylvania State House on June 20^th.

According to Wikipedia,  “The soldiers blocked the door and initially refused to allow the delegates to leave.  Alexander Hamilton, a delegate from New York, persuaded the soldiers to allow Congress to meet later to address their concerns.  The soldiers allowed the members of Congress to peacefully adjourn that afternoon.  That evening, a small Congressional committee headed by Hamilton met in secret to draft a message to the Pennsylvania Council, asking them to protect Congress from the mutineers.  The letter threatened that Congress would be forced to move elsewhere if the Council did not act.

“On June 21, the Congressional committee met again at the State House with members of the Pennsylvania Executive Council, including its president, John Dickinson.  The members of Congress asked the council to do more to protect the federal government.  Dickinson and the council agreed to consult with the militia commanders and reply to Congress the next day.  The following morning, the Pennsylvania Council again refused Congress’ request.  Lacking sufficient assurances that the state would be willing to protect Congress, the members left Philadelphia that day for Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey, which became the provisional capital of the United States.”  The Confederation Congress was only convened in New Jersey for a few months and it was during this short period of time that the Congress decided to alternate its location between Annapolis, Maryland and Princeton, New Jersey.  This whole affair became known at the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 and it offers us some examples of the need for and benefits of sovereignty for our central Government.

The 4^th Confederation Congress was called to order on November 3^rd, 1783 at Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey, but the Capital was again moved in November of that year to Annapolis, Maryland.  The 5^th Congress was convened at the French Arms Tavern, Trenton, New Jersey where it remained in session until December 24^th, 1784.  The location was the preferred location for the Capital by members from the northern States, the members from the southern States preferred a Capital location further south of the Mason—Dixon line.  The Capital of the United States of America was thus moved to the City Hall of New York City, New York on January 11^th, 1785.

The 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th Confederation Congress were all held in New York City under the authority of the Articles of Confederation, but we have evidence that the location was not the location of choice for all of the States.  Our evidence comes to us in the language of our Constitution where we find in Article I, Section 4, Clause (2) “The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December,unless they shall by law appoint a different day.”  The Constitution does not direct a particular location for the Capital, but the absence of such direction in our Constitution should tell us that there was no clear agreement on the issue.

The source of their disagreement appears to have been the desire for a location that would be independent from any of the States.  The experiences from Philadelphia and perhaps from the other locations that had been the site of our Capital over the years left our Founding Fathers with the idea that our Capital should not be located within any of our State borders.  The goal of a better location eventually came to fruition with the “Residence Act” agreement to establish the District of Columbia as a District of the United States of America rather than as another State.

We understand the desire for all Americans to be treated equally under our laws.  We understand the desire for all Americans to be involved in our government with equal representation in all of our governmental processes.  We may well decide at some future time to change the status of the District of Columbia so that it becomes a State with the same privileges, immunities, and authorities as our current States.  Should that time ever arrive, we owe it to our ancestors as well as our posterity to take such actions with full knowledge of how we came to our current situation.

The Sausage Grinder is Broken, will you help to fix it?

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