Major Themes This classic suggests that the U.S. Constitution was written by the country's monied classes and largely serves their interests. It remains an important work not merely for its historical data but because it raises the question of whether representatives need to reflect the class backgrounds of their constituents to represent their interests. Beard is the first to compare the economic backgrounds of elites with their mass counterparts. He argues that the framers …showed first 75 words of 303 total…

…showed last 75 words of 303 total…resting on financial, mercantile, and personalty interests He held that the latter, suffering under the Confederation government and failing to achieve reforms through the prescribed channels in Congress, went outside the existing legal framework to adopt "a revolutionary programme" — the Constitution of 178710 Through the critical studies of Smith and Beard, to name only the most prominent examples, property interests in general were identified with defense of the existing Constitution as the basis of political conservatism.