WI: The Hamilton Plan is approved by the Constitutional Convention

What would the likely consequences have been had this happened?

  • A civil war against the new government which leads to the states seceding from the US

    Votes: 12 60.0%
  • Things calm down at least for the time being, but a later crisis leads to liberalization

    Votes: 2 10.0%
  • The US government progressively becomes a dictatorship (Sedition Act, etc)

    Votes: 2 10.0%
  • Elective monarchies become a popular form of government, leading to a different French Revolution

    Votes: 4 20.0%

  • Total voters
    20
In 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton proposed a form of government which would've done away with the Articles of Confederation, but effectively would've installed a democratically-elected monarch.

According to the plan, the states would have effectively no sovereignty as all the power was to be invested in a iron-fisted federal government. The plan featured a bicameral legislature, the lower house elected by the people for three years. The upper house would be elected by electors chosen by the people and would serve for life. The plan also gave the Governor, an executive elected by electors for a life-term of service, an absolute veto over bills. State governors would be appointed by the national legislature, and the national legislature had veto power over any state legislation.

In a long speech to the Convention, Hamilton stated his belief that elective monarchs had sufficient power domestically to resist foreign corruption, yet there was enough domestic control over their behaviour to prevent tyranny at home.

When Hamilton presented his plan, it was rejected because it resembled the British system of government too closely. Besides, the plan called for a annulling of state sovereignty, which the states would not allow under any circumstances.

But what if the chaos resulting from the failure of Articles of Confederation grew so out of control that the delegates decide to sacrifice their sovereignty for a stronger government, that they decide to enshrine the Hamilton Plan into the new Constitution, effectively making the United States a democratic monarchy?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Even if the delegates lost their minds and approved the plan, the states would never have ratified the Constitution under these conditions. It's a dead letter.
 
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