Objections to This Constitution of Government

September 1787

There is no Declaration of Rights, and because the laws of the general government are paramount to the laws and constitutions of the several States, the Declarations of Rights in the separate States offer no security. Nor are the people secured in the enjoyment of the benefits of the common law.
In the House of Representatives there is only the shadow of representation, which can never produce proper information in the legislature or inspire confidence in the people. Laws will therefore be made by men little concerned with—and unacquainted with—their effects and consequences.
The Senate may alter all money bills, originate appropriations, and set the salaries of officers of their own appointment (in conjunction with the President), despite not being representatives of the people or answerable to them.
With these and other great powers—appointment of ambassadors and public officers, treaty‐making, trying impeachments, influence on and connection with the executive, long tenure, and constant session—the Senate, as one complete branch of the legislature, will destroy any balance in government and enable itself to usurp the rights and liberties of the people.
The Judiciary of the United States is so constructed and extended that it absorbs and destroys the judiciaries of the several States, rendering law as tedious, intricate, and expensive—and justice as unattainable for a great part of the community—as in England, thereby enabling the rich to oppress and ruin the poor.
The President has no constitutional council—unknown in any safe and regular government—and will therefore lack proper information and advice. He will be directed by favorites, become a tool of the Senate, or form an informal Council of State from principal department officers, the worst ingredient for a free country. From this defect arises the Senate’s improper power in appointing public officers and its alarming dependence on the executive.
The unnecessary office of Vice-President is created merely to preside over the Senate, dangerously blending executive and legislative powers and unfairly giving one State undue pre-eminence over the others.
The President’s unrestrained power to grant pardons for treason may be exercised to shield those he secretly instigated, thereby preventing discovery of his own guilt.
By declaring all treaties to be supreme law, the executive and Senate gain, in many cases, an exclusive power of legislation—avoidable by proper treaty distinctions and requiring the House’s assent where safe.
Requiring only a simple majority to make commercial and navigation laws allows five Southern States—whose circumstances differ radically from eight Northern and Eastern States—to impose rigid regulations that ruin the former, enable Northern merchants to demand exorbitant freight, and monopolize commodity purchases, to the injury of the landed interest and impoverishment of the people. A two-thirds requirement in both Houses would have produced moderation, promoted general interest, and removed a major objection to adoption.
Under the general clause at the end of the enumerated powers, Congress may grant monopolies, create new crimes, inflict severe punishments, and extend its powers at will, leaving the State legislatures insecure in their remaining powers and the people unprotected in their rights.
There is no declaration preserving the liberty of the press, trial by jury in civil causes, or protection against standing armies in peacetime.
State legislatures are restrained from laying export duties on their own produce.
Both the general and State legislatures are prohibited from making ex post facto laws—though necessity and public safety will inevitably require such laws—creating a breach of all constitutions and setting precedents for further innovations.
This government establishes a moderate aristocracy; its operation may produce a monarchy or a corrupt, tyrannical aristocracy, likely oscillating between the two before settling on one.
The general legislature is barred from prohibiting the importation of slaves for twenty-five years, despite such importations weakening the United States, making it more vulnerable and less capable of defense.