The Constitution (and The Federalist Papers) was created during the end of days. Despite the Revolution’s promise of independence, liberty and freedom from arbitrary and absolute rule of the Parliament, the United States were slipping into the funk of egalitarianism and democracy. The states had been hijacked by a riotous rabble of levelers determined to destroy the economy by persecuting tories and redistributing wealth. Their unicameral legislatures enslaved the states to the ever-changing and short-sighted will of the people, whose lust for disorder erupted in 1786. With even the physical security of the country in jeopardy, the political system of the nation proved incapable of overcoming the narrow ambition of it’s leaders. By February 1787, only the Commonwealth of Virginia had complied the national government’s request for funding.The despair over the tyranny of mobocracy, George Washington feared, would ruin the experiment of republicanism and convince the world “that mankind when left to themselves are unfit for their own Government.” America’s democracy left Washington “mortified beyond expression” by its promotion of a “jealous” and “short-sighted” despotism. It is through this “mist of intoxication and folly” that America’s Founding Fathers sounded the horn of reason. The Constitution and The Federalist Papers represent the hope that these audacious men brought to our nation. Read firsthand accounts of Shays’ Rebellion.

~ PUBLICOLA