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POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
It is true that the political arrangements established by the Constitution were the result in large measure of the historical experience and the circumstances of the newly independent colonies, and much has been written about this experience and these circumstances. It is also true, however, that the Framers brought to their deliberations a coherent philosophy about the ends and means of government.
This philosophy, sometimes implicit and sometimes made explicit, guided their deliberations and informed the choices they made among competing solutions to pressing problems. This philosophy of government incorporated three major political doctrines: natural rights, republicanism, and constitutionalism. These ideas were part of the common intellectual currency of eighteenth century America.
It is important, if we are to understand the events surrounding the adoption and ratification of the Constitution, to remember that the discussion of these issues was not limited to a small intellectual elite. A knowledge of these philosophies was widespread. This is not, of course, to say that most Americans had read the works of philosophers such as Locke or Montesquieu. Many, however, had become acquainted with their ideas by reading the pamphlets that were published by the hundreds during the Revolution as well as during the debates over the adoption and ratification of the Constitution. In addition, the doctrines of these and other philosophers had also been preached from numerous pulpits and promulgated in the pages of many of the thirtyeight newspapers that existed in the colonies in 1775.
The modern reader must be struck, for instance, by the frequency with which the authors of the numerous pamphlets and newspaper articles published during the ratification controversy, appealed to the authority of the man they called " the celebrated Montesquieu." These pamphlets were intended for a relatively wide audience, and one can only assume that the authors took it for granted that their readers would know who Montesquieu was and be acquainted with his theories of republican government. It surely is one of the more interesting aspects of this episode in American history that these were people who took ideas seriously, who believed, in short, that ideas have consequences. The challenge before them, as they understood it, was to apply the ideas to the circumstances of the moment, to transform the ideas into political reality.