Even though it was extremely important, the first Congress was left to write the Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution. Therein lies a story.
After reading Woody Holton's 'Unruly Americans and the Birth of the US Constitution I was left with the impression that the US Constitution was born from a meeting of the governing class of the US.
The Congressional Congress was in debt to its governing class, so they could not welsh on the debt.
The debt was in specie, gold and silver, so they could not print money. Everyone knew US printed money was not worth a Continental Dollar.
They tried taxing everyone for gold and silver. 90% plus Americans were dirt farmers, no gold or silver, just land they'd move off and go west anytime. They tried taxing dirt farmers and got Shay's Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, farmers going in a body to the state legislature to veto enforcement of taxes, tax collectors going to debtor's prison because they could not collect taxes, farms seized from farmers who lit out west and left neighbors laying in the bushes to backshoot whoever bought the farms ... After that and worse, dirt farms still had no gold and silver.
So the governing class got together and made a Constitution that said taxes would be collected by tariffs at ports where the gold and silver was.
But by then they'd annoyed the dirt farmers, who made them accept a BIll of Rights to keep tax farmers from messing with them.
Every economist on Earth hates tariffs. A tax on the consumers! A subsidy for local manufacturers! Bad!
All true, but the US manufacturers were in New England, which was seriously considering secession from the other buttholes in the US 1776 - War of 1812. New England had a good war of the Revolution. The Brits won the Battle of Bunker Hill, lost half their army, stayed in Boston. Nobody crossed the Brits in Boston with an army and British battleships. Afterwards Boston merchants repaid the Tories 5 million pounds and kept doing business. The South repaid nothing and stopped doing business with Brits. Why?
Everyone in the South had a horrible eight years total war with Brits raiding everyone. New Jersey had a total war for eight years, New York middling. 1776-1815 was a long time, and the Brits were waiting to pounce the whole time. A subsidy to the governing class of New England to convince them to stay in the Republic was a great idea.
So the tariffs worked. The US Constitution worked. The Bill of Rights worked to placate the dirt farmers because nobody federal sent tax collectors.
Great post!
After reading Woody Holton's 'Unruly Americans and the Birth of the US Constitution I was left with the impression that the US Constitution was born from a meeting of the governing class of the US.
The Congressional Congress was in debt to its governing class, so they could not welsh on the debt.
The debt was in specie, gold and silver, so they could not print money. Everyone knew US printed money was not worth a Continental Dollar.
They tried taxing everyone for gold and silver. 90% plus Americans were dirt farmers, no gold or silver, just land they'd move off and go west anytime. They tried taxing dirt farmers and got Shay's Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, farmers going in a body to the state legislature to veto enforcement of taxes, tax collectors going to debtor's prison because they could not collect taxes, farms seized from farmers who lit out west and left neighbors laying in the bushes to backshoot whoever bought the farms ... After that and worse, dirt farms still had no gold and silver.
So the governing class got together and made a Constitution that said taxes would be collected by tariffs at ports where the gold and silver was.
But by then they'd annoyed the dirt farmers, who made them accept a BIll of Rights to keep tax farmers from messing with them.
Every economist on Earth hates tariffs. A tax on the consumers! A subsidy for local manufacturers! Bad!
All true, but the US manufacturers were in New England, which was seriously considering secession from the other buttholes in the US 1776 - War of 1812. New England had a good war of the Revolution. The Brits won the Battle of Bunker Hill, lost half their army, stayed in Boston. Nobody crossed the Brits in Boston with an army and British battleships. Afterwards Boston merchants repaid the Tories 5 million pounds and kept doing business. The South repaid nothing and stopped doing business with Brits. Why?
Everyone in the South had a horrible eight years total war with Brits raiding everyone. New Jersey had a total war for eight years, New York middling. 1776-1815 was a long time, and the Brits were waiting to pounce the whole time. A subsidy to the governing class of New England to convince them to stay in the Republic was a great idea.
So the tariffs worked. The US Constitution worked. The Bill of Rights worked to placate the dirt farmers because nobody federal sent tax collectors.