American History

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  • July 23, 2020 at 11:48 am #118288
    wv
    Participant

    Just a blurb i read in The Framer’s Coup. (Noam called the author ‘the Gold Standard’ on Constitutional history fwiw).

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    THE FRAMER’S COUP, BY MICHAEL J. KLARMAN
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    “When [State]governments cracked down on enforcement, tens of thousands lost their farms. In the 1780s 60 to 70 percent of taxpaying farmers in some particularly stricken Pennsylvania counties saw their properties foreclosed upon. Yet distress sales yielded little at a time when currency was in short supply and hard times were widespread. In 1787, one of Madison’s correspondents reported that distress sales were yielding much lower returns than before the war because of ‘the extreme scarcity of hard money.’ In one Virginia county, protestors, discussed entering into an ‘association,’ and collectively refusing to bid on property sold at execution.
    Many farmers ended up in debtors prison – as much as ten percent of the population in one Pennsylvania county in the 1780s. Other landholders simply pulled up stakes and moved west seeking to escape debts, avoid debtors prison….”

    July 23, 2020 at 12:03 pm #118289
    wv
    Participant

    I started this at the 4 min mark. Klarman sums up his admittedly non-original interpretation of the Constitution:

    “….the Constitution is a kindof conservative counter-revolution against the forces that were set in motion and accelerated by the revolutionary war.”
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