dc.contributor.author | Sherry, Suzanna | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2015-12-09T00:23:33Z | |
dc.date.available | 2015-12-09T00:23:33Z | |
dc.date.issued | 1988 | |
dc.identifier.citation | 6 Law & Ineq. 43 (1988) | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1803/7335 | |
dc.description | article published in law journal | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | There is a tendency in the bicentennial year-and especially this week-to idealize the events of 1787. We tend to presume that the men who wrote the Constitution were near-perfect demigods, who crafted a brilliant and internally consistent document from their own insights. We assume that the Constitution represents the consensus of opinion of those fifty-five men, and even of the population at large in 1787. I want to debunk those myths. I want to talk instead about the problems, about the mistakes, and about the very different visions of government that were represented at the Constitutional Convention.
In short, I want to suggest that the drafters of the Constitution stumbled and bungled their way in to the document whose origins we are celebrating here today. That debunking process leaves a problem, however. Once we've debunked the myth and exposed lack of any solid foundation for the Constitution, we are left with a puzzling question. Why has it worked for two hundred years? If the framers were as inept and as wrongheaded as I am
going to suggest that they were, how did they create such an effective and long lasting document? That is the main question that I want to answer today, and it is one of the most important questions about the Constitution, because it is what links us to our history. | en_US |
dc.format.extent | 1 PDF (18 pages) | en_US |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
dc.publisher | Law and Inequality | en_US |
dc.subject | Framers of the Constitution | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | United States. Constitutional Convention (1787) | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | United States. Constitution | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Constitutional history -- United States | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Constitutional law -- United States | en_US |
dc.title | Two Hundred Years Ago Today | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |