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The Framers Did Not Violate Their Trust

The Framers Did Not Violate Their Trust
The U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 22, 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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This essay examines the claim that the framers—the Constitution’s drafters—staged a coup d’état by proposing a new Constitution. The allegation is commonly stated this way:

The Confederation Congress adopted a resolution calling a convention limited only to proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation. But the convention disregarded limits on its authority and instead drafted an entirely new document. Moreover, the Articles could be amended only by approval of Congress and unanimous consent of the states. But the convention unilaterally changed the rule to allow ratification by nine states.

Rob Natelson
Rob Natelson
Author
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor who is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, authored “The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant” (3rd ed., 2015). He is a contributor to The Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.”
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