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The 1856 painting "Washington at Constitutional Convention of 1787, signing of U.S. Constitution" by Junius Brutus Stearns. TeachingAmericanHistory.org via Wikimedia Commons
This is the fifth in a series of essays defending the U.S. Constitution against common accusations against it. This essay examines the claim that the framers—the Constitution’s drafters—staged a coup d’état by proposing a new Constitution. As usually stated, the allegation is that:
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor, is Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Mountain States Policy Center and the Independence Institute. He authored “The Original Constitution” (4th ed., 2025) and is a contributor to the Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.”
