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Summary Of Unruly Americans And The Origins Of The Constitution By Woody Holton

848 Words4 Pages

The main purpose of this chapter is to determine the Founding Fathers’ motives for creating the Constitution by analyzing a secondary source by Woody Holton, and several primary sources. Frist, I will begin with the secondary source, “Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution” by Woody Holton. Mr. Holton’s main purpose was to locate the motivation behind the Constitution in developments in the states (page 90). Mr. Holton addressed several grievances for possible motives of the Founding Fathers’. First, the excessive democracy that acerbated many Americans, the runaway inflation caused by the farmers who were allowed to satisfy their debt to creditors with property and good instead of hard currency, and the Revolutionary War that …show more content…

Holton addressed were all valid reasons to support his argument that the unruly Americans led to the origins of the Constitution. The strongest argument made by Mr. Holton was the transgressions that the Founding Fathers laid at the feet of the thirteen state legislatures. He stated that the most glaringly representative had shown excessive indulgence to debtors and taxpayers, in which the state legislature had refused to force farmers to pay what they owed (page 92). These policies adopted by the state legislatures in the 1780s proved that ordinary Americans were not entirely capable of ruling themselves (page 96). “Honesty Is the Best Policy” (1786) “Curtis” written by an anonymous author that reads as if it was written by one of the Founding Fathers’. The purpose of the article was chastised farmers for amassing property with no means of paying their debt. The author goes on the criticize the legislature for wanting to remain popular by not enforcing farmers to pay their debt. This source supports Mr. Holton’s argument that representatives were also reluctant to load their constituents down with burdensome federal taxes, which crippled the government …show more content…

Their purpose was to address their issues and concerns with the Senate and the House and offer their recommendations for a foreseeable solution. They addressed in their petition the debt brought on by war and their willingness to pay their share of the debt, but could only do so if paper currency or some other medium were put into circulation. They claimed that the constables were selling their land and property for a half its value, and if something wasn’t done they will become bankrupt. This source addressed the emitted of paper currency from a personal perspective, which provided the reader's insight as to the way the farmers could not pay their debt, and their attempts to rectify the situation so they could pay their

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