The Supreme Law of the Land
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Why did Benjamin Franklin attend King George III’s coronation and what did he predict?
September 17, 2026. In 1761, 55-year-old Benjamin Franklin attended the coronation of King George III and later wrote that he expected the young monarch's reign would be happy and truly glorious.
How did Franklin contribute to the 1776 Declaration of Independence?
Fifteen years later, in 1776, he helped to draft and then signed the Declaration of Independence. An 81-year-old man in 1787, he urged his colleagues at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to rally behind the new plan of government they had written. I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them, he said. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise." The framers of the new constitution hoped it would fix the problems of the first attempt to create a new nation.
During the Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress had hammered out a plan for a confederation of states, but with fears of government tyranny still uppermost in lawmakers' minds, they centered power in the states rather than in a national government.
What problems with the Articles of Confederation led to Shays’s Rebellion?
The result, the Articles of Confederation, was a firm league of friendship among the 13 new states, overseen by a Congress of men chosen by the state legislatures and in which each state had one vote. The new pact gave the federal government few duties and even fewer ways to meet them. indicating their inclinations, in the first substantive paragraph, the authors of this agreement said, each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. Within a decade, the states were refusing to contribute money to the new government and were starting to contemplate their own trade agreements with other countries.
An economic recession in 1786 threatened farmers in western Massachusetts with the loss of their farms when the state government in the eastern part of the state refused relief. In turn, when farmers led by Revolutionary War Captain Daniel Shays marched on Boston, propertied men were so terrified their own property would be seized that they raised their own army for protection. The new system clearly could not protect property of either the poor or the rich, and thus faced the threat of landless mobs. The nation seemed on the verge of tearing itself apart, and the new Americans were all too aware that both England and Spain were standing by, waiting to make the most of the opportunities such chaos would create.
And so in 1786, leaders called for a reworking of the new government centered not on the states, but on the people of the nation represented by a national government. The document began, we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union. The Constitution established a representative democracy, a republic, in which three branches of government would balance each other to prevent the rise of a tyrant. Congress would write all necessary and proper laws, levy taxes, borrow money, pay the nation's debts, establish a postal service, establish courts, declare war, support an army and navy, organize and call forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.
the president would execute the laws but if congress overstepped the president could veto proposed legislation in turn congress could override a presidential veto congress could declare war but the president was the commander-in-chief of the army and had the power to make treaties with foreign powers it was all quite an elegant system of paths and trip wires really A judicial branch would settle disputes between inhabitants of the different states and guarantee every defendant a right to a jury trial.
How did the 1787 Constitution create a balanced three‑branch government?
In this system, the new national government was uppermost. The Constitution provided that the citizens of every state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states and promised that the United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why did Benjamin Franklin attend King George III’s coronation and what did he predict?
0:07–0:25
2
How did Franklin contribute to the 1776 Declaration of Independence?
0:25–1:39
3
What problems with the Articles of Confederation led to Shays’s Rebellion?
1:39–5:01
4
How did the 1787 Constitution create a balanced three‑branch government?
5:01–7:10
5
Why did Franklin urge everyone to sign the Constitution as the supreme law of the land?
7:10–7:23