Page 108 - Dragon Flood

The overwhelming majority of its members, at least five-sixths, were immediately,
directly, and personally interested in the outcome of their labors at Philadelphia, and
were to a greater or less extent economic beneficiaries from the adoption of the
Constitution.

1. Public security interests were extensively represented in the Convention. Of the fifty-five
members who attended, no less than forty appear on records of the Treasury
Department...

2. Personal assets invested in lands for speculation was represented by at least fourteen
members...

3. Personal assets in the form of money loaned at interest was represented by at least
twenty-four members...

4. Personal assets in mercantile, manufacturing, and shipping lines was represented by
at least eleven members...

5. Personal assets in slaves was represented by at least fifteen members...

It cannot be said, therefore, that the members of the Convention were “disinterested.” On
the contrary, we are forced to accept the profoundly significant conclusion that they knew
through their personal experiences in economic affairs the precise results which the new
government that they were setting up was designed to attain.
[End Excerpt]

Beard proceeds to set forth cogent arguments for the design of the government. He presents
a convincing view of the separation of powers as a means by which the moneyed and
propertied classes could protect themselves against the popular will of the people. By
separating the government into Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, and by
staggering the election of public officials (Representatives - 2 years; Senators - 6 years;
President - 4 years; Supreme Court - Lifetime Appointment), the Convention members were
insuring that a sudden popular uprising against the moneyed and propertied classes would
be stymied. It would be nearly impossible to pass any sweeping reforms that would
adversely effect that aristocratic class of Americans who were men of money and property.

Keep in mind that many of these men at the Convention were Freemasons. There was a
prevailing conviction among them (expressed in the words of Manly Hall) that certain men
were born to govern, and the majority of men must in turn be content to be governed by
others. Charles Beard writes of the “notions of government which were common to the
Federalists” at that time. One of the Convention members was George Clymer who asserted
that “a representative of the people is appointed to think FOR and not WITH his
constituents.”

James Madison took detailed notes of the Convention and recorded the following about
John Dickinson of Delaware. “Mr. Dickinson had a very different idea of the tendency of
vesting the right of suffrage in the freeholders of the country. He considered them as the