May 18, 2019 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Creating Bicameral Legislature
Throughout the debate of the Constitutional
Convention of 1787 the delegates made constant reference to past significant
historical turning points such as history of England and its Glorious
Revolution (Revolution of 1688 wherein King James II of England was overthrown
by a bunch of politicians followed up by passing of the Bill of Rights of 1689
by the parliament of England), similar contemporary events in Holland, Germany
and even of some the important accounts of classical history associated with
Roman Republic and the Greek-city States.
Thomas Jefferson had this to say about the
delegates when he wrote from Paris to John Adams in London in a letter dated
August 30, 1787, “It really is an assembly of demigods.”
Since most of the men who attended the
Constitutional Convention came from the elite affluent class (they were all men
and white at that and could be bunched as WASPs – White Anglo Saxon Protestants
or “The Establishment”) and they in enacting the democratic form of government
would inevitably be transferring the power to masses to some extent who are
generally either poor or less educated or both one of the first things they
proposed was to safeguard the wealth of “minority of the opulent” against the
interests of the lower class who constituted the majority of the population.
This understanding came quite natural to
them that there exists an inherent class conflict between these two strata of
society.
So how did they go about it?
They did so by using the known British
bicameral legislature system to their advantage.
Just like the British House of Lords (in
contrast to the House of Commons both named very aptly as they very literally
comprise of people that the houses are named after) which is the upper house of
the parliament and comprised of royalty, ecclesiastics and noblemen the
American upper house which was to be called the Senate would NOT be chosen
directly by the people.
Instead members of the Senate would be
chosen directly by the state legislatures to preserve the power of the upper
class.
They quite unanimously agreed on the
statement that “the great mercantile interest and of stockholders, is not
provided for in any mode of election, they will however be better represented
if the State legislatures chose the second branch (meaning the Senators).”
The Founding Fathers just like Socrates had
their serious concerns regarding direct democracy and some even opposed using
the word and instead preferring their new country to be called a Republic.
According to Joseph Ellis, the American
professor of history and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Founding
Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” (2000) democracy was an epithet for mob
rule.
Democracy meant conceding serious issues to
people who don’t understand them.
This issue was discussed in great detail in
The Federalist Papers or more completely The Federalist: A Collection of
Essays, Written in the Favor of New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Federal
Convention, September 17, 1787.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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