Origins of the US Constitution

Third Assignment

Between Wednesday, March 18 (the day we read excerpts from Hamilton’s essays in The Federalist) and Wednesday, April 1 (the day we read comments from the Virginia Ratifying Convention) we read a number of comments on the draft of the US Constitution.  Let’s call those the Readings from Period I. Prior to that, in the period between Wednesday, February 18 (the day we read the material from the Annapolis Convention) and Friday, March 6 (the day we read the material from the Federal Convention) we read a number of criticisms of the Articles of Confederation and suggestions for the new constitution. Let’s call those the Readings from Period II.

For this assignment, you should pick one reading from Period I and one reading from Period II that you think are the most alike, and write an essay exploring the similarities (and such differences as there are) between the two readings.

NOTE: As we have discussed in class, these documents discuss how to structure a constitutional order and also talk about the philosophy upon which a constitutional order should be based. You should think about both structure and philosophy, and address both in your essay. You might, for example, find some structural similarities (and some structural differences), but still decide the two documents are very similar because they rest on the same philosophy. Alternatively, you might find that two documents have very different underlying philosophies, but propose very similar structures.