Week Two: The Constitution and a Constitutional Convention
“I consider the difference between a system founded on
the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a league or treaty and a constitution.”
In week two, Isaacson and Ellis take us down the road that led from stalemate and inaction under the Articles of Confederation first to Albany, and then to Philadelphia, in search of a stronger and sustainable basis for governing America.
The Constitution of The United States, Courtesy, National Archives, Washington
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
—Preamble to the United States Constitution