Join NNK250 on Sunday, April 19, 2026, from 2 – 4pm for a free lecture, “The Constitution They Argued Over: Power, Democracy, and Compromise in 1787.” Dr. Michael Ross will describe the compelling arguments made as a new Constitution was considered for the young nation. The lecture is part of the NNK250 series.
The presentation will be in the meeting building at historic Rice’s Hotel / Hughlett’s Tavern, 73 Monument Place, Heathsville. It is free to attend but you are asked to register online at NNHeritageArtsCenter.org (“Classes”) or call 804-580-3377.
When delegates gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, they agreed on one thing: the young United States was in trouble. Independence had been won, but the nation’s first experiment in self-government, the Articles of Confederation, was failing. What no one agreed on was what should come next.
As James Madison and others urged the creation of an entirely new Constitution, one that would dramatically strengthen the national government, deep and competing fears came to the surface. Some delegates believed the Revolution had gone too far, that democracy was sliding into disorder. They pointed to state debtor relief laws, paper money schemes, and violent uprisings by farmers resisting taxes as evidence of “mob rule.” Others, however, feared the opposite danger: that concentrating power in a strong federal government, especially in a single executive, would betray the Revolution’s ideals and lead straight back to monarchy.
In this talk, University of Maryland constitutional historian Michael Ross will bring the high-stakes debates about the nation’s self-governance to life, revealing the anxieties, ambitions, and hard-fought compromises that emerged from the Constitutional Convention, and explaining how those decisions continue to shape American politics and government today.
Dr. Michael Ross is a Professor of History at the University of Maryland and a nationally recognized expert on U.S. constitutional and legal history. He is the author of numerous award-winning books and articles on the Supreme Court and the development of American law and is the Associate Editor of Journal of Supreme court History.
