03: The New Nation

And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his religious profession or sentiments, provided he doth not disturb the public peace or obstruct others in their religious worship.

The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: I

Sir, I have long been convinced, that if your love for your Selves, and for those inesteemable laws which preserve to you the rights of human nature, was founded on Sincerity, you could not but be Solicitous, that every Individual of whatsoever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof, neither could you rest Satisfyed, short of the most active diffusion of your exertions, in order to their promotion from any State of degradation, to which the unjustifyable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.

Pauline Maier, the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of History at MIT

Throughout, she makes sure to highlight not just the “usual suspects” of ratification history, but also many lesser players, showing that the argument over the Constitution burst the bounds of the category of first-rank founding fathers to include a wide array of ordinary Americans who, though sometimes expressing their sense of being daunted by the importance of the occasion and the great names dominating the process, more than held their own.

Thomas Bourne, a Massachusetts man who had been chosen as a delegate to the state’s ratifying convention by his fellow townsmen in Sandwich, but who resigned when they sought to bind their delegates by instructions to vote against the Constitution: “To place myself in a situation where conviction could be followed only by bigotted persistence in errour would be extremely disagreeable to me. Under the restrictions with which your delegates are fettered, the greatest ideot might answer your purpose as well, as the greatest man”

It is not hyperbole but fact that Maier’s book is the first truly comprehensive history of the Constitution’s ratification ever attempted.

Not only did it take place within the political systems of all thirteen states--with each state authorizing the election of a ratifying convention, conducting the election, and then convening the convention--but these formal political processes also were enveloped by a larger, informal process of debate and discussion unfolding within each state. Even more important, yet even harder to capture, was that these informal debates and discussions overflowed state boundaries, merging into what one contemporary called “the great national discussion.”[4] For the first time in American history, the people of all the states were arguing about, deliberating, and deciding on the same vital political choice--whether to adopt or reject the proposed Constitution. Not only did this shared national discussion help to draw citizens of the states together as Americans facing a common choice and defining a common political identity--it also was the origin of American constitutional discourse, that shared conversation about the Constitution, its origins, meaning, and goals that has persisted from that day to the present.