September 26, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before the U.S. Constitution was written, America lived under the Articles of Confederation, a system so weak it nearly broke the young republic. States held most of the power, Congress couldn’t raise money or enforce laws, and unrest spread from coast to coast. Dr. Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College explains how the Constitutional Convention of 1787 replaced chaos with order, creating a framework built on federalism, separation of powers, and a strong central government.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories, and up next
one of our favorite types of stories a story about
American history. And all of our history stories are brought
to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And
you can go to Hillsdale dot edu to sign up
for their free and terrific online courses. That's Hillsdale dot edu.
(00:30):
Before the Constitution that we know today was ratified, the
United States governing document was the Articles of Confederation. Here
to tell the story about how we got from that
document to our constitution is doctor Larry arn President of
Hillsdale College, and our own Monte Montgomery, a graduate of
the college. Take it away, doctor Arne.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
The story of the American Revolution, the story of American
history is one of the most remarkable stories in human history.
We came here from nowhere, we settled a continent, we
extended freedom across the whole continent. All that, you know,
it's a really amazing story. But this revolution is a
really great story too.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And the story of the revolution begins like this.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
State legislatures under the British Crown were the most democratic
system of government ever practiced in the world for about
one hundred and fifty years it grew over that time,
and so they all had you know, they had their identities.
They were not, by the way separate. They were united
by the British Crown, but they didn't have to work together.
(01:41):
And the British government took care of foreign policy.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And the British managing the colony's foreign policy would get
themselves involved in the French and Indian War, which Britain
would win. But what victory came debt.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The British, flushed with victory, decide, we've just spent a
lot of money on those colonies, and so we're going
to tax them and regulate them, get some advantage from them.
Well that was one hundred and fifty years too late,
because these people were used to running their own business.
And that's how the American Revolution started. It really started
(02:20):
in seventeen sixty three. It went in stages. People just
started communicating different They started writing to each other more
and different kinds of things across state lines and cities,
and Boston was a hot seat, but the rest of
the country was very involved. And then finally they sent
delegates to a legislative body called the Continental Congress. And
(02:45):
this Continental Congress they wrote and adopted a constitution.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
The Articles of Confederation.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The Articles of Confederation leave the states in near total power.
But it's also called the Articles of a Confederation and
perpetual union. Perpetual so it had become a country, you know.
So it's charged now with waging a war for the
(03:12):
birth of the nation. And so the articles provided that
there was no real executive branch. That Congress would pick
somebody to run the government. Most things required nine states
to agree out of thirteen. That meant super majority. That man,
it's hard to agree about anything. And some things required
to unanimity. And they didn't have any power to get
(03:34):
any money except by asking the states. And you know,
with the best will in the world, if you don't
really have to send the money, will you, you know,
and they didn't. I mean, it got so bad that
in the last year of the war, there was a
big meeting of the Continental Army. By the way, it's
really cool that George Washington named the army of the
(03:55):
Continental Army, because at the time he did that, he
didn't know how big the continent was, and he actually
never lived to see to hear the knowledge of how
big it was. Because Lewis and Clark was about six
years after he died, and so they had a big
meeting in Newburgh and they had this Kakamami plan. They
(04:16):
were going to pick up and go out west and
start over and leave these idiots to their own devices,
because we have won the war against the greatest power
on earth, having started with not only no army, but
no large military experience anywhere in America. And we've won
this war and they won't pay us. So they just
(04:39):
didn't get paid, you know. So the best plan they
came up with was, let's just march out west and
lead them to their own devices. You know, they had
a justice on their side, but it's also a little
bit like a petulant child. And George Washington corrected that
he went there. He wasn't invited. He heard about it.
(05:00):
And the one thing you couldn't do by this time
and for the rest of his life was have a
fight in public with George Washington because he was just
so great. So he intervened. First, he moved the meeting
to a different time, and then he showed up and
walked up there to make a speech. It's very affecting speech.
It's the one where he takes out his spectacles and said,
(05:21):
excuse me. He says, I've grown old serving with you,
and then he makes himself their servants. George Washington's way.
He says, in this matter of your pay, I will
be your servant. See, and then George Washington wasn't getting paid.
So that shows the weakness of the government under the
(05:45):
Articles of Confederation.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
The Articles of Confederation were failing, and soon prominent thinkers
such as James Manison were writing that change needed to happen,
and happened fast.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He writes a essay called the Vices the Political System
of the United States. So this vice is the political
system just names what's wrong. We can't pay our bills,
we can't keep the peace. Their riots all over the country,
the British are all over our soil, and we can't
get them off. And they just scoff at us their armies.
(06:20):
We're afraid to go near them. And so this ain't working.
Those factors led a group of people, and it was widespread.
All of the states sent somebody. Not all of them
remained to the end, but all of them sent somebody
to figure out how to revise the Articles of Confederation.
That's what the Constitution was called for.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But to bring states to the table to discuss it,
they needed Washington.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well, Madison and Hamilton had Washington persuaded to go, but
Washington was so honorable that his sense of honor could
get in his way. And there were articles in the
paper saying that the Society of the Cincinnati, you know
which exists in America today, it's the Society of the
now the descendants of people who fought in the Revolutionary War.
(07:11):
And you know, it's named for a Roman statesman who
is famous for resigning his commission and returning to private
life every time he won a war. And so they
styled themselves after this man. But then people got the
false idea that it was an emerging aristocracy, and Washington
was embarrassed by that because he hated the idea of that,
(07:33):
as he would later prove, and so he decided not
to go to a convention of the Cincinnati. But then
he decided, if I go to the Constitutional Convention, it'll
be in the papers, and it will be a parent
that I have snubbed my fellow officers in the Cincinnati.
And so my personal situation prevents my attendance. And you know,
(07:56):
Madison reads that and he gets on his horse and
he goes to Mount Vernon, and you know, he goes
that day. You got to go talk to that guy
because we can't do it without him seeing, and he
talks him into it. We don't know exactly what arguments
he used, but he knows. After that visit, Washington returned
to the idea of going And you know, Washington was
(08:18):
a very shrewd man. He's a tremendous judge of men
and things. He was not, let's say, expansive in his
eloquence in the Constitutional Convention. He said one thing, but
he's sitting up there at the front, and the one
thing he said was he offered toward the end a
(08:38):
mild correction. Brook Haiser wrote a good book about Washington,
short too, called Founding Father. It's a very good book,
and he says in that book that the nature of Washington,
what Washington had to say emphasize the point that there's
not much wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
With this document.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
But of course they're designing a strong executive in that convention.
That was controversial because they'd just been fighting a king.
The fact that Washington was sitting up there and everybody
just knew whatever the executive is he's sitting right there,
and you know he ran twice unopposed because you couldn't
oppose him.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Washington could have been made a king, but he wasn't,
even though there were forces asking him to be made one.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There was a different fella. He was circulating the letter,
let's make Washington king. And of course they're you know,
they're like we are today, a lot of us. We
don't know what to do. Is the whole regime going
to change? Maybe? And Washington intervened to denounce that idea strongly,
to that particular soldier and to others.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
In the end, it was Washington that helped hold together
our newly formed nation and bring about a better rule
of law through example. But Madison actually made the gears
turn and wrote the best reasoning for our constitution, replacing
the Articles of Confederation. Here's what Madison had to say.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
What is government but the profoundest of all commentaries on
human nature. If men were angels, no government would be needed.
If angels were to govern men, neither internal nor external
controls on the government would be necessary. Now that's a
piece of beautiful logic that is, by the way, undeniable,
(10:26):
and it justifies the Constitution of the United States in
two sentences.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The story of the journey from the Articles of Confederation
with the Constitution, told by doctor Larry Arne. Here on
our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories, and up next
one of our favorite types of stories a story about
American history. And all of our history stories are brought
to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And
you can go to Hillsdale dot edu to sign up
for their free and terrific online courses. That's Hillsdale dot edu.
(00:30):
Before the Constitution that we know today was ratified, the
United States governing document was the Articles of Confederation. Here
to tell the story about how we got from that
document to our constitution is doctor Larry arn President of
Hillsdale College, and our own Monte Montgomery, a graduate of
the college. Take it away, doctor Arne.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
The story of the American Revolution, the story of American
history is one of the most remarkable stories in human history.
We came here from nowhere, we settled a continent, we
extended freedom across the whole continent. All that, you know,
it's a really amazing story. But this revolution is a
really great story too.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And the story of the revolution begins like this.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
State legislatures under the British Crown were the most democratic
system of government ever practiced in the world for about
one hundred and fifty years it grew over that time,
and so they all had you know, they had their identities.
They were not, by the way separate. They were united
by the British Crown, but they didn't have to work together.
(01:41):
And the British government took care of foreign policy.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And the British managing the colony's foreign policy would get
themselves involved in the French and Indian War, which Britain
would win. But what victory came debt.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The British, flushed with victory, decide, we've just spent a
lot of money on those colonies, and so we're going
to tax them and regulate them, get some advantage from them.
Well that was one hundred and fifty years too late,
because these people were used to running their own business.
And that's how the American Revolution started. It really started
(02:20):
in seventeen sixty three. It went in stages. People just
started communicating different They started writing to each other more
and different kinds of things across state lines and cities,
and Boston was a hot seat, but the rest of
the country was very involved. And then finally they sent
delegates to a legislative body called the Continental Congress. And
(02:45):
this Continental Congress they wrote and adopted a constitution.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
The Articles of Confederation.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The Articles of Confederation leave the states in near total power.
But it's also called the Articles of a Confederation and
perpetual union. Perpetual so it had become a country, you know.
So it's charged now with waging a war for the
(03:12):
birth of the nation. And so the articles provided that
there was no real executive branch. That Congress would pick
somebody to run the government. Most things required nine states
to agree out of thirteen. That meant super majority. That man,
it's hard to agree about anything. And some things required
to unanimity. And they didn't have any power to get
(03:34):
any money except by asking the states. And you know,
with the best will in the world, if you don't
really have to send the money, will you, you know,
and they didn't. I mean, it got so bad that
in the last year of the war, there was a
big meeting of the Continental Army. By the way, it's
really cool that George Washington named the army of the
(03:55):
Continental Army, because at the time he did that, he
didn't know how big the continent was, and he actually
never lived to see to hear the knowledge of how
big it was. Because Lewis and Clark was about six
years after he died, and so they had a big
meeting in Newburgh and they had this Kakamami plan. They
(04:16):
were going to pick up and go out west and
start over and leave these idiots to their own devices,
because we have won the war against the greatest power
on earth, having started with not only no army, but
no large military experience anywhere in America. And we've won
this war and they won't pay us. So they just
(04:39):
didn't get paid, you know. So the best plan they
came up with was, let's just march out west and
lead them to their own devices. You know, they had
a justice on their side, but it's also a little
bit like a petulant child. And George Washington corrected that
he went there. He wasn't invited. He heard about it.
(05:00):
And the one thing you couldn't do by this time
and for the rest of his life was have a
fight in public with George Washington because he was just
so great. So he intervened. First, he moved the meeting
to a different time, and then he showed up and
walked up there to make a speech. It's very affecting speech.
It's the one where he takes out his spectacles and said,
(05:21):
excuse me. He says, I've grown old serving with you,
and then he makes himself their servants. George Washington's way.
He says, in this matter of your pay, I will
be your servant. See, and then George Washington wasn't getting paid.
So that shows the weakness of the government under the
(05:45):
Articles of Confederation.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
The Articles of Confederation were failing, and soon prominent thinkers
such as James Manison were writing that change needed to happen,
and happened fast.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He writes a essay called the Vices the Political System
of the United States. So this vice is the political
system just names what's wrong. We can't pay our bills,
we can't keep the peace. Their riots all over the country,
the British are all over our soil, and we can't
get them off. And they just scoff at us their armies.
(06:20):
We're afraid to go near them. And so this ain't working.
Those factors led a group of people, and it was widespread.
All of the states sent somebody. Not all of them
remained to the end, but all of them sent somebody
to figure out how to revise the Articles of Confederation.
That's what the Constitution was called for.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But to bring states to the table to discuss it,
they needed Washington.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well, Madison and Hamilton had Washington persuaded to go, but
Washington was so honorable that his sense of honor could
get in his way. And there were articles in the
paper saying that the Society of the Cincinnati, you know
which exists in America today, it's the Society of the
now the descendants of people who fought in the Revolutionary War.
(07:11):
And you know, it's named for a Roman statesman who
is famous for resigning his commission and returning to private
life every time he won a war. And so they
styled themselves after this man. But then people got the
false idea that it was an emerging aristocracy, and Washington
was embarrassed by that because he hated the idea of that,
(07:33):
as he would later prove, and so he decided not
to go to a convention of the Cincinnati. But then
he decided, if I go to the Constitutional Convention, it'll
be in the papers, and it will be a parent
that I have snubbed my fellow officers in the Cincinnati.
And so my personal situation prevents my attendance. And you know,
(07:56):
Madison reads that and he gets on his horse and
he goes to Mount Vernon, and you know, he goes
that day. You got to go talk to that guy
because we can't do it without him seeing, and he
talks him into it. We don't know exactly what arguments
he used, but he knows. After that visit, Washington returned
to the idea of going And you know, Washington was
(08:18):
a very shrewd man. He's a tremendous judge of men
and things. He was not, let's say, expansive in his
eloquence in the Constitutional Convention. He said one thing, but
he's sitting up there at the front, and the one
thing he said was he offered toward the end a
(08:38):
mild correction. Brook Haiser wrote a good book about Washington,
short too, called Founding Father. It's a very good book,
and he says in that book that the nature of Washington,
what Washington had to say emphasize the point that there's
not much wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
With this document.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
But of course they're designing a strong executive in that convention.
That was controversial because they'd just been fighting a king.
The fact that Washington was sitting up there and everybody
just knew whatever the executive is he's sitting right there,
and you know he ran twice unopposed because you couldn't
oppose him.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Washington could have been made a king, but he wasn't,
even though there were forces asking him to be made one.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There was a different fella. He was circulating the letter,
let's make Washington king. And of course they're you know,
they're like we are today, a lot of us. We
don't know what to do. Is the whole regime going
to change? Maybe? And Washington intervened to denounce that idea strongly,
to that particular soldier and to others.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
In the end, it was Washington that helped hold together
our newly formed nation and bring about a better rule
of law through example. But Madison actually made the gears
turn and wrote the best reasoning for our constitution, replacing
the Articles of Confederation. Here's what Madison had to say.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
What is government but the profoundest of all commentaries on
human nature. If men were angels, no government would be needed.
If angels were to govern men, neither internal nor external
controls on the government would be necessary. Now that's a
piece of beautiful logic that is, by the way, undeniable,
(10:26):
and it justifies the Constitution of the United States in
two sentences.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The story of the journey from the Articles of Confederation
with the Constitution, told by doctor Larry Arne. Here on
our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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