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Scene on Radio: Capitalism

S4 E2: "The Excess of Democracy"

Scene on Radio: Capitalism

Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University

Society & Culture, Audiodoc, Radio, Documentary, Stories

4.911K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2020

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the summer of 1787, fifty-five men got together in Philadelphia to write a new Constitution for the United States, replacing the new nation’s original blueprint, the Articles of Confederation. But why, exactly? What problems were the framers trying to solve? Was the Constitution designed to advance democracy, or to rein it in?

By producer/host John Biewen with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Woody Holton, Dan Bullen, and Price Thomas. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In the fall of 1786, George Washington got a letter that I imagine messed up his whole day.

0:11.9

I picture him in his study out there at Mount Vernon. Outside his French-pained windows,

0:17.4

several hundred captive black people are toiling away on his vast farmlands. Washington

0:22.9

is 54, but feeling older. His rheumatism is acting up. It's been three years since the

0:29.2

Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War with the British recognizing the United States.

0:36.2

Washington spent eight years away from home leading the continental army, so he's written

0:41.4

that he wants to live quietly from now on, under the shadow of my own vine and my own fig tree.

0:48.4

There, at his desk, he opens the letter from his friend and former military officer, Henry

0:53.5

Knox, writing from New York.

0:55.8

My dear sir, I have long intended myself the pleasure of visiting you at Mount Vernon,

1:02.0

and although I have not given up that hope, Knox gets past the pleasantries and to his point.

1:07.3

He tells Washington about the commotions in Massachusetts, farmers protesting high taxes and

1:13.0

showing up with guns by the hundreds to shut down county courts.

1:17.2

This dreadful situation has alarmed every man of principle and property in New England.

1:23.2

They start as from a dream and ask what has been the cause of our delusion.

1:28.0

Wealthy people in New England wanted these protests to stop, but the Articles of Confederation,

1:34.0

the nation's first federal agreement created after the Revolution, gave the national government

1:39.4

no power to tax, make federal laws, or keep a standing army. The Articles tied together

1:46.1

loosely what were essentially 13 independent republics. The Confederation Congress could

1:52.0

sign treaties, print money into clear war, but couldn't put down uprisings like the one

1:57.6

in Massachusetts. So, Knox is telling Washington, the current arrangement just doesn't work.

2:04.6

Our government must be braced, changed, or altered to secure our lives and property.

...

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