[lbo-talk] Re: Let Us Be Glad It Is Hard to Amend the Constitution

Michael Hoover hooverm at scc-fl.edu
Sat May 20 18:18:41 PDT 2006



>>> jdevine03 at gmail.com 05/20/06 2:01 PM >>>
On 5/20/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> That is exactly the rationale that Madison & Co. used, except their
> idea of "idiot passions" included any "wicked" attempt by the masses
> to expropriate the rich. The classic passage from Federalist 10
> <http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/federal/fed10.htm>: "A rage for
> paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of
> property, or for any other improper or wicked project..."

they weren't just thinking this up, either. States like Rhode Island waited a long time to ratify the Con because there lots of debtors there, and they were organized. Jim Devine <<<<<>>>>>

hey hoss, that was *rogue* island to likes of jimmy madison where paper money, moratoria on foreclosure, and redistribution of land that wealthy left unproductive were state policy...

rhode island was only state that sent no delegates to 1787 philly convention, it and north carolina (another paper money state whose first ratifying convention overwhelmingly opposed because of absence of a bill of rights) were only states to reject ratification for any length of time, eleven others had ratified within ten months of constitution being sent out for consideration...

north carolina ratified in november 1789 when new government was already operating, rhode island in may 1790...u.s. government informed latter that it would be treated as foreign country, subject to import duties and economic sanctions, under this pressure, rhode island's legislature voted to hold a state ratifying convention (it had rejected one 5 or 6 times prior) and delegates to that convention voted *overwhelmingly* 34-32 to ratify... mh

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