Interesting Take on the History of the Constitution

[Griffin, Stephen M]

C'mon now, everybody knows about the Barbary pirates, don't they?

After all, "To the shores of Tripoli"?  Aren't there some war powers
cases here?

 

Although when I described these facts to my students earlier this
semester, they thought it humorous and told me, "pirates are funny."

 

Steve Griffin

Tulane Law School

 

________________________________

From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of
DavidEBernstein at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 9:04 PM
To: Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
Subject: Interesting Take on the History of the Constitution

 

>From Michael Oren, author of Power, Faith and Fantasy, a book about U.S.
involvement in the Middle East:

 

While working on the book, Oren encountered several unknown episodes
"that knocked me off my chair." One has to do with the Americans' first
war in the Middle East and its influence on the U.S. Constitution. Oren
describes at length the Barbary Wars between the U.S. and the rulers of
Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya around the turn of the 19th century.
The Barbary Wars were mainly a struggle for control of trade routes.
After U.S. independence in 1776, American ships lost the protection of
the British navy, the strongest in the world, becoming easy prey for
pirates. The problem was greatest in the Straits of Gibraltar, as U.S.
ships made their way to the eastern Mediterranean. The North African
rulers viewed the region as being under their control and demanded
payment for safe passage. 

These were the early days of the young democracy, the dramatic decade
between independence and the formulation of the U.S. Constitution. The
founding fathers - Washington, Jefferson and Madison - were busy with
the question of whether to pay up or instead create a strong military
force to defend American interests in the region. Oren believes the
threat to U.S. economic interests in the Middle East was very
influential in the decision to strengthen the central government and in
fact to create the United States of America as it is today. 

"In that decade," Oren says, "there were very prolonged debates in the
13 states about the constitution that was being formulated. When I
opened the protocols of every single state, I found a wealth of
material. Preoccupation with this question was a significant catalyst in
the decision to establish the strong federal government we see today.
The assumption was that without a strong and stable federal
administration, the U.S. would not have the resources necessary for
setting up a strong fleet. It was clear that each would not be able to
build battleships on its own. 

"This feeling was very strong in a state like Massachusetts, in which
maritime commerce was a crucial economic component, but similar opinions
were also heard in the South. This is how Williamson from North
Carolina, for example, wondered out loud: 'What will prevent Algerian
pirates from landing on American shores and taking American citizens as
slaves?' 

"In the end, the Americans played a complicated game. In some instances,
they paid the ransom demanded of them, sometimes while biting their
tongues and forgoing national pride. Only in the 19th century did they
feel strong enough to threaten them with military force and put an end
to this episode. But from my point of view, it was a real revelation to
find out that the Middle Eastern threat had had such an influence on the
American Constitution and the structure of the U.S as we see it today." 

 

David E. Bernstein
Professor
George Mason University School of Law
http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste





________________________________

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