1)Based on the arguments presented in Readings 6.1 and 6.2, which social class wrote the Constitution, and which class was excluded and not allowed to participate in this process? In your comment, make sure you clearly specify the difference between the two classes by giving examples from the readings.

The Constitution was mainly written by the wealthy upper class, like rich landowners, merchants, and people who owned a lot of property. The working and poorer classes were mostly left out of the process. The readings show that wealthy people had more political power, while regular workers and people without property had much less of a say in the government.

2)Would you say that the social class structure of early United States society was the same as ours today, or different? Explain.

I would say the social class structure was different from today. Back then, wealthy landowners had most of the power and poorer people had little say. Today, more people have rights and can participate in government, even though rich people still have more influence.

3)Why were the people who wrote the Constitution so afraid of democracy? Hint: Think about how to answer this question by discussing it in terms of social classes.

The people who wrote the Constitution were afraid of democracy because they thought the lower and working classes could gain too much power. They worried that poorer people would use voting to make decisions that could hurt the wealth and property of the upper class.

1. According to the readings, the Constitution was written by the propertied class, including wealthy gentlemen, merchants, slaveholders, bankers, creditors, and land speculators. The excluded class included slaves, indentured servants, men who could not qualify for voting under property tests, women, Native Americans, and poor farmers. The difference between them is the propertied class owned land, slaves, capital and securities, while the excluded class almost has nothing and survived solely by their labor.

2. The early American class structure was different from the current one but had a similar fundamental structure. The difference is there was a clear legal distinction between classes in the early days, such as, property ownership, voting rights, slavery, and discrimination against women under common law. While everyone is legally equal today. The similarity is a small number of people owned production materials and wealth dominated politics while the majority have to sell their labor to survive.

3. The people who wrote the Constitution so afraid of democracy because they belonged to the propertied class. Democracy implies that a majority without property might use the government to redistribute wealth, abolish debts, and threaten the interests of their class. Therefore, they incorporated mechanisms such as the separation of powers and the electoral college to curb the power of the majority when they designed the constitution.

1.The class that wrote the Constitution: Ruling class/ Capitalist class/ Economic elite (the propertied) class. Including wealthy landowners, slaveholding planters, merchants, bankers, and holders of public securities. They owned most of the wealth and means of production, so they had the ability to restrict qualification for voting. Therefore, voting rights were tied to strict property qualification. Consequently, they could use the Constitution to publish more laws that were beneficial to themselves.  According to Parenti, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to repay public debt, and it directly benefits speculators in that debt. Also, Beard pointed out that southern slaveholders supported a strong federal government merely in order to use federal troops to protect their own property and suppress slave revolts.

The class that was excluded: Working class who didn’t have huge properties, including small inland farmers, artisans, indentured servants, propertyless White males, enslaved Africans, and women. They might have a heavy debt under high tax and exorbitant interest rates. They didn’t have any right at law, and unprecedented at the Constitution Convention. Small scale farmers faced high debt, foreclosures, and prison, leading to the armed revolts like Shays’ Rebellion. This indicated the sharp conflict between indebted working class and ruling class. 

2.In my opinion, the social class structure of the early United States and today’s society are different and same in some ways. Difference: slavery is no longer legal, and the voting right doesn’t depend on personal property-most citizens have rights to vote. Same: the social properties and means of production are still controlled by the ruling class(capitalists), and the capitalists can use their right to lead policy formulation.

3.From my perspective, the framers were afraid of democracy because they were worried that democracy might threaten their wealth and status. The rich elites are the minority of the society, while the working class are the majority of the society. The framers are afraid that when people get more rights, they will make new policies which will be beneficial to the working class. That’s why they set up things like indirect elections and checks and balances, in order to keep power in their hands.  

1. Based on both readings, the social class that wrote the constitution was mainly the wealthy or owning class. These were the people who owned large amounts of land, were creditors, merchants, manufacturers, or had other forms of property and wealth. The class that was mostly excluded was the working and propertyless class, which also included people who were disenfranchised, like enslaved people, women, indentured servants, and poor white men who did not own enough property to vote. The difference between the two classes was that the wealthy owning class had property and wealth. They wanted to protect themselves, while many working people struggled with taxes and debt and had little political power because of it. An example from the reading is the conflict between creditors and small farmers. Many small farmers were in debt and supported laws that would give debtors relief, while creditors wanted stronger laws to ensure they were paid back. Because of this, the two classes had different economic interests and viewed the new constitution differently.
2. I would say the social class structure of early United States society is very similar to our society today. Obviously, there are differences because society has changed since then, especially in terms of who has the right to vote and participate politically, but I think the overall divide between the wealthy and working class still exists. In the reading, Beard describes a society where certain groups owned large amounts of land, businesses, securities, and other forms of wealth, while many working people and small farmers struggled with debt and had much less economic and political power. I think today we still see a similar divide, especially when you think back to our earlier readings about wealth and equality and how much wealth is concentrated among the top 1%. Even though there are different circumstances today, there’s still a large gap between people who own significant wealth and those who mainly depend on working for their Income.
3. The people who wrote the constitution were afraid of democracy because they were worried about giving too much political power to the majority, which was mostly made up of working and poorer people. When it comes to social class, the people writing the constitution were mainly from the wealthy and property owning class, so they had money and property they wanted to protect. If everyone had more political power, the working and propertyless class could vote based on their own needs and support things like debt relief and other policies that could go against the interests of the wealthy. Clearly, the wealthy class feared giving the majority too much power because they were afraid of what could happen to their economic power.

1. The Constitution was drafted by wealthy, propertied individuals such as landowners, merchants, bankers, slave-owners, and creditors. As noted by Parenti, many of these individuals bought government bonds from poor people at very low rates and profited from them when the new government paid back the notes in full value. Not included were poor and powerless individuals. According to Beard, there were four major classes that did not participate in the drafting of the Constitution: slaves, indentured servants, adult males without adequate property holdings to enable them to vote, and women. Parenti mentions Native Americans as well, and claims that only 10% of the adult population was eligible to vote. Poor farmers were also ignored since many were heavily indebted, some even imprisoned for being unable to pay their loans, and could not take time off to attend the convention in Philadelphia. The basic difference was that the rich were the lenders and the poor were the borrowers.
   
2. It is both similar and different. The difference is that there are no legal obstacles anymore. People do not have to be property owners to vote. The issue of slavery was settled. Women and African Americans gained the right to vote. The Senators are now directly elected. The similarity is that the small class of the rich still holds most of the wealth and significant political power due to such factors as political donations and lobbying. Numerous ordinary citizens still struggle with debt in form of loans for studying and medical care in the same way as farmers did back in 1787. So nowadays everybody is equal before the law but economically unequal anyway.
   
3. As the majority were poor, and the founders feared that if they were to gain any power, then they would abolish debts, print fiat money, or rob the rich. The Shays’ Rebellion involving armed indebted farmers was an example of the tangible danger feared by the framers. They expressed these sentiments openly. For instance, according to Elbridge Gerry, democracy was the worst evil in politics. Roger Sherman believed that the common man should not be involved in politics in any way. To Alexander Hamilton, there was a division in society of the aristocratic few and the rest of the common mass, and the latter hardly ever made sound decisions. Thus, they established a system of governance that appeared to be democratic but restricted the powers of the people. Senators were selected by the state legislatures; the president was selected by the Electoral College; and Supreme Court judges were appointed for life. The only elected officials were members of the House, and only property owners were allowed to vote.

1. From the readings, the Constitution was written by the wealthy, propertied class: merchants, bankers, creditors, land speculators, manufacturers, and slaveholders, the “gentlemen” the French chargé d’affaires described. Beard notes that many delegates held their wealth in personal property like money lent at interest, public securities, and shipping, and that they had more in common with each other than with their debt-burdened neighbors. Those excluded were slaves, indentured servants, women, American Indians, and white men without enough property to vote. In twelve of the thirteen states, only property-owning white men could vote, probably no more than 10% of the adult population, and holding office required even more (e.g. a South Carolina state senator needed an estate worth at least £7000). Even without those rules, ordinary working people couldn’t take four months off to go to Philadelphia and help write a constitution. It lines up with he owners vs. employees distinction from Reading 4.3: the delegates largely lived off property income, while the excluded majority, like the Delaware farm families who pulled their own plows, lived off their own labor, often in debt to the very class writing the Constitution.

2. I would say the core of the class structure is the same, but the form has changed. In early America, a small group owned most of the wealth (by 1700, fewer than a dozen people owned three-fourths of the land in New York), while most people were small farmers, artisans, and laborers, many were buried in debt at 25% to 40% interest. The legal barriers are gone now: there are no property requirements to vote, and slavery has been abolished. But, the divide between those who own and those who have to work for a living is still there, with the top 1% holding around 32% of the nation’s wealth. Even the debtor class looks familiar; people in 1787 were jailed for unpaid debts, and Parenti describes today’s student borrowers as living in a “debtor’s prison without walls.” The difference is that instead of being limited to property owners by law, political power now comes through money, like the $205 million spent to pass Prop 22.

3. In class terms, democracy meant rule by the majority, and the majority was poor, propertyless, or in debt. Hamilton said it outright: every community divides into “the few and the many,” the rich and wellborn vs. the mass of the people. If the many actually held power, they could push for the “wicked” projects Madison warned about: paper money, the abolition of debts, and an equal division of property. That fear wasn’t just theoretical, since armed crowds had been blocking foreclosures and freeing debtors from jail, and Shays’s Rebellion broke out only months before the convention. So, as Parenti puts it, the goal was to keep the “form” of popular government with only a minimum of the substance. The federal government was even given the power to “suppress Insurrections,” which is basically Althusser’s RSA written into the Constitution, and a century later the Army was used to break strikes by miners and railroad and factory workers.

The American Constitution was written by the minority population of the country. The capitalists who were capable of owning “property”. Merchants, bankers, slaveholders, these were the decided writers of the governing papers of the nation. These people wanted a government with a more free market, that’d allow them to have little interference with their finances.

I personally believe that while there are a lot of similarities between the countries old government and our new government, I’d say they’re ultimately different. While there is still the wealthy minority class -which has a disproportionate amount of political leeway- dominating over the less fortunate majority. There are still major differences between that system and ours. A large example comes from the “New Deal”. Which created much more friction and actual challenge against what the upper-class wants. Which has lead to a lot of change and progress for the country.

The constitutional writers called democracy, “the greatest of political evils”. This is because they feared a majority mob rule. The upper-class feared that they’d be overtaken by the poor. The policies that favored the poor, would hurt the rich. Because between the conflict of the capitalist and the worker, whatever benefits one is a deficit to the other.

1. The wealthy, property owning class wrote the Constitution. Both readings say the men in Philadelphia were rich. Beard says many were creditors, merchants, big landowners, and slaveholders, like Robert Morris and Washington. Parenti calls them wealthy and powerful. The poor and working class was left out. Beard says enslaved people, indentured servants, men without enough property to vote, and women were not represented. The two classes were very different. The rich owned land, money, bonds, and slaves, and other people owed them money. The poor owned little and were in debt, paying 25 to 40 percent interest on loans. The rich could vote and hold office, but most poor people could not. Parenti says the debate between haves and have-nots never took place because the delegates only argued with other rich men.

2. I think it is different because the law is more equal now. Slavery is gone, women can vote, and you don’t need property to vote. There is also a bigger middle class. It is still similar because a small group of rich people has most of the wealth and a lot of the power. Many regular people are still in debt. So the rules changed, but the gap between rich and poor is still big.

3. Because they were rich, and democracy means the poor majority could rule. In 1787, most people were poor, and the rich were a small group. If the majority had power, they could pass laws against the rich, like canceling debts or printing paper money. Madison feared a rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property. Gerry even called democracy the worst of all political evils. So they made a government that is hard for the majority to control. They created the Senate (chosen by state legislatures), the Electoral College, and judges nobody votes for. They wanted to protect their property and their position in society.

The people who wrote the Constitution were mostly from the wealthy and higher social class. They were people who owned property, had money, and had more power in society. Poor people, workers, women, and enslaved people were not really included in the process and did not have the same chance to have their opinions heard.

I think the social class structure back then was different from today. There were very clear differences between rich and poor people, and many people did not have political rights. Today, people from different classes can vote and participate in government, but money can still make a difference in how much power or influence someone has.

The people who wrote the Constitution were afraid of democracy because they were worried that poor people would get too much power. They thought the majority could make decisions that might hurt wealthy people’s property and money. This is why they wanted the government to have limits and did not want everyone to have the same amount of political power.

Personally, I think it is surprising that the Constitution was created to help build the country while so many people were left out of the process. It makes me realize that democracy has changed a lot over time. I think everyone should have a voice in decisions that affect their lives, regardless of how much money or property they have. Even though society today still has differences between social classes, I think we have made progress by giving more people the right to participate.