Good Advice Against a Con Con
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2010/apr10/10-04-09.html
Speaking to us from across the years, the Father of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison, wrote this warning on November 2, 1788, against calling another general constitutional convention.
“If a General Convention were to take place for the avowed and sole purpose of revising the Constitution, it would naturally consider itself as having a greater latitude than the Congress appointed to administer and support as well as to amend the system; it would consequently give greater agitation to the public mind; an election into it would be courted by the most violent partisans on both sides; it would probably consist of the most heterogeneous characters; would be the very focus of that flame which has already too much heated men of all parties; would no doubt contain individuals of insidious views, who under the mask of seeking alterations popular in some parts but inadmissible in other parts of the Union might have a dangerous opportunity of sapping the very foundations of the fabric.
“Under all these circumstances it seems scarcely to be presumable that the deliberations of the body could be conducted in harmony, or terminate in the general good. Having witnessed the difficulties and dangers experienced by the first Convention which assembled under every propitious circumstance, I should tremble for the result of a Second, meeting in the present temper of America, and under all the disadvantages I have mentioned.”
What is being proposed is not a “general constitutional convention”. It’s merely a Convention of the States to propose amendments to the Constitution. Nothing more.
Makes you wonder why the framers proposed to include this option then, huh?
Consider:
In November of 1788 the Articles of Confederation, such as they were, were still in force.
Two states, NC and RI, had rejected the constitution.
Nearly half the population of most states had disapproved of the constitution. Ratification had been a close run thing.
More than a few Anti-Federals sought to murder the newborn constitution. Count Patrick Henry and George Mason among them.
New York sent a circular letter to the other states, which demanded a second general convention.
The triumph of the constitution was conditional, for the new government wouldn't meet until March of 1789. Even then, it was a government on paper and would require years to set up and get the various departments going.
What Madison referred to were determined efforts by known enemies of the union. They called for another general, not Article V convention with destruction as their goal.
It is good then that the CoS is not a General Constitutional Convention. Rather under Article V it is simply another way to propose amendments to the constitution and then have those amendments forwarded to the stTes for ratification.