Who Is Abraham Baldwin?

He is a person that arguably played one of the most meaningful roles in the history of our country and yet is practically unknown. He was a Yale College tutor who had recently moved to Georgia, which was still in its infancy as a state. He was selected as one of the two delegates sent to Philadelphia in 1787 to discuss revisions to the Articles of Confederation. This convention moved far beyond that pre-text to become the genesis of the Constitution.

One of the first major disagreements among the state delegates at the convention was the power of larger states over smaller states. James Madison and his Virginia Plan favored the larger states by giving them more votes that the smaller ones. The New Jersey Plan was proposed and supported by the smaller states to have the same number of votes for each state. The debate lasted almost the entire month of June and became so contentious that the convention was close to being disbanded.

Roger Sherman, one of the delegates from Connecticut, proposed a compromise (now called the Connecticut Compromise) wherein the national government would consist of two houses, one with representation based on state size and one with representation of two people for every state. This was a reasonable compromise, but it had to be voted upon by the convention. Five voted in favor of the compromise (CT, NJ, DE, MD, and NY) while five voted against it (VA, PA, MA, NC, SC). It was down to Georgia to provide the tie-breaker since neither New Hampshire or Rhode Island chose to send delegates to the convention.

One Georgia delegate voted against the measure and so it was down to Abraham Baldwin to make the final decision. If he voted against the measure, it was likely the convention would end (and with no Constitution ever created!). If he voted for the measure, the vote would be deadlocked and a method to resolve the issue would have to be decided. But he would face the possible stigma of having negated the voice of the state he was representing. Baldwin voted in favor of the measure. The committee later appointed (of which he was a member) determined to pass the measure by reasoning that the two small non-attending states would have voted for the measure.

So why should you care about this little moment in history? Well, I'm sure this will interest some of my blog readers because Abraham Baldwin, the man who arguably saved the Constitution, was also the founder of the first state-chartered school of higher learning - the University of Georgia.

No Easy Answers

I'm currently on an American history kick right now. I guess it is due to the historic primary race between Clinton and Obama and also that it is an election year. I'm reading three different books simultaneously: 1776 by David McCullough, Young Patriots by Charles Cerami, and now a book I got for my birthday - Andrew Jackson by Sean Wilentz. I need to discipline myself and focus on one and get it finished! I'm also listening to a great series of lectures available free as a podcast ("Teaching American History"). The sound quality is bad, but the content is superb.

Anyway, here are some various thoughts that I've had recently:

Who is the first president of the United States?
You'd think that would be an easy one - George Washington, right? Well, actually you would be wrong. Our first president was actually John Hanson. You see, when our nation made its Declaration of Independence and launched into a war with Britain, we needed a national government to coordinate our actions. This national entity was not the constitutional republic we know so well. It was a confederation of the states created by the Articles of Confederation in 1777. John Hanson was unanimously elected to serve as the newborn nation's first president. His actions set precedents for the future presidents as did the other men who served after him. It wasn't until 1789 that the Constitution officially replaced the Articles of Confederation and George Washington, our eighth president but first under the Constitution, began his first term.

How many US presidents have their been (under the US Constitution)?
Okay, here is another trick question. After a little thinking (or research) you would know that George W. Bush is our 43rd president. But if you counted up the list of names of US Presidents, you would only get 42. This is because of Grover Cleveland. He was our 22nd and our 24th president - the only one to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.

Why do I like the Electoral College?
For the past two presidential elections, much has been made about the popular vote versus the electoral college vote. The current thinking among many Americans is that the popular vote is the supposedly true will of the people and that we should do away with the "confusing" and "archaic" system created by the founders of our country. In my view, just because something is simpler does not mean that it is better. The reason why we have the Electoral College is to avoid the tyranny of the majority. To become president, one must win a majority of majorities. I'll write more on this some other time.

"Every nation has the government it deserves"
I just found this quote from the French political philosopher, Joseph de Maistre, and I love it! I am concerned with how our Constitution is being abused and how populism continues to overtake reasoned thought. If we continue to abdicate our sovereignty to foreign entities and allow an activist Supreme Court to twist or disregard the Constitution for sectarian political agendas, we truly will get what we deserve.