Episode Details

In this episode, we explore the messy startup of the united states. You know, usually when we talk about the founding of a nation, there's this this expectation of pristine order, like a museum exhibit. Right. You look at the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution and you see the elegant calligraphy, the marble statues, and you just assume everyone agreed, signed the paper and peacefully started a country. Yeah, it feels finalized. I mean, we like our history to be neat, to be predetermined and, you know, perfectly executed from day one. But then you step into the actual day to day. reality of the early United States and suddenly that museum exhibit is completely on fire. We're looking at a historical landscape that is, well, honestly, it's incredibly messy. Oh, it is the absolute definition of a chaotic startup phase. You have a brilliant foundational idea, but the execution is just a daily struggle for survival. Welcome to today's Deep essentially declare federal laws unconstitutional and void within their borders. Which is a terrifying precedent for a new country. I mean, if any state can just ignore a federal law they don't like, you don't really have a country. And even the Supreme Court is getting tangled up in this tug of war right out of the gate. Look at the case of Chisholm v. Georgia in 1793. Oh, that was a big one. The Supreme Court rules that a state can be sued in federal court by a citizen of another state. And the state's absolutely panicked. The idea that sovereign states could be hauled into a federal court by a private individual. was deeply threatening to their power. So they immediately band together and patch the Constitution. They passed the 11th Amendment, which is ratified by 1795 by 12 of the 15 states, specifically to strip the federal