Commentary
In an earlier essay in my “Defending the Constitution” series, I responded to the common charge that the 1787 Constitutional Convention abused its trust. The charge is that the commissioners (delegates) exceeded the scope of the convention “call” issued by Congress. In response, I pointed out that Congress did not call the Constitutional Convention; Virginia did. And the scope of the commissioners’ power was not defined by Congress but by the states, which granted them sufficient authority to recommend a new Constitution.
The present essay addresses a related charge. It is that the framers acted improperly when they provided that the Constitution would become effective if ratified by only nine states. The critics say that the approval of all 13 states and the Confederation Congress should have been required, because that is what the Articles of Confederation mandated….