Ch02 Wilson Brief 10e Script
In this chapter you will learn about the Constitution.
The Framers of the Constitution sought to create a government capable of protecting liberty for citizens and order in government. The solution they chose was a government based on a written constitution that combined the principles of popular consent, the separation of powers, and federalism.
Popular consent was embodied in the procedure for choosing the House of Representatives but limited by the indirect election of senators and by the Electoral College system for selecting a president.
Power was to be distributed into three branches of government in a manner deliberately intended to produce conflict. This conflict, motivated by the self-interest of the people occupying each branch, would prevent tyranny, even by a popular majority.
Federalism came to mean a system in which both the national and state governments had independent authority. Allocating powers between the two levels of government and devising means to ensure that neither large nor small states would dominate the national government required the most delicate compromises at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
In the drafting of the Constitution and the struggle over its ratification in the states, the positions people took were not chiefly determined by their economic interests but by a variety of political opinions. Among these were profound differences of opinion over whether state governments or a national government would be the best protector of personal liberty.
America’s first constitution was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles did not allow for effective government. The Continental Congress could not levy taxes or pay soldiers without the consent of most state governments. For example, General George Washington was often left with few soldiers and little money.
Human nature was a consideration of the Framers of the Constitution. They were not optimistic. They thought people had enough virtue to make government possible, but government would not protect freedom without restricting the ability of any politician to acquire power.
A government needs to be strong enough to govern without threatening freedom. Therefore, limits are put on the ability of politicians to govern. These limits are found in the form of federalism, the separation of powers, and checks and balances.
The system of separated powers and checks and balances has protected liberty. However, it took almost a century to abolish slavery. As you will see, weak central authority means it is not only difficultto start new programs, but also to do away with outdated ones.
The goal of the American Revolution was liberty. What Americans sought to protect were the traditional liberties to which they thought they were entitled as British subjects. These included the rights: to bring cases before independent judges rather than those subordinate to the king, to be free of the burden of having British troops quartered in their homes, to engage in trade without costly restrictions, and to pay no taxes levied by the British Parliament in which Americans had no direct representation.
Those who supported the Revolution were convinced that only independence would guarantee freedom. Their explanation for the inadequacy of British government was human nature. When the American Constitution was being debated by the states, the chief issue was whether it went far enough in protecting people from self-servingpoliticians.
The liberties that Britain threatened and that the colonists cherished did not exist because a king had granted them or a statute had authorized them, but because they were supported by a “higher law” embodying “natural rights” that were ordained by God, discoverable by reason, and essential to progress.
Jefferson set out the case for independence in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed—that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, having its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.
After declaring their independence, each of the thirteen former colonies formed a loose alliance under the Articles of Confederation.
The Articles of Confederation, which had gone into effect in 1781, created little more than a “league of friendship” that lacked the power to levy taxes or regulate commerce. To amend the Articles of Confederation, all thirteen states had to agree.
Many leaders of the Revolution, such as George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, believed that a stronger national government was essential. Delegates assembled in Philadelphia for what was advertised as a meeting to revise the Articles; they adjourned four months later having written a whole new constitution.
Shays’ Rebellion occurred between the aborted Annapolis convention and the upcoming Philadelphia convention and had a powerful effect on public opinion. Delegates who might otherwise have been reluctant to attend the Philadelphia meeting were galvanized by the fear that state governments were about to collapse from internal dissension.
The Philadelphia convention attracted fifty-five delegates, only about thirty of whom participated regularly in the proceedings and pledged to keep their deliberations secret.
The convention produced a completelynew written constitution creating a true national government unlike any that had existed before.
The chief problem faced by the Framers, as they came to be called, was that of liberty: How to devise a government strong enough to preserve order but not so strong that it would threaten liberty.
Madison became the author of the outline for a new constitution, called the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan quickly became the meeting’s major item of business. It called for a strong national union organized into three governmental branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. It had two key features: one was a national legislature which would have supreme powers over all matters on which the separate states were not competent to act, as well as the power to veto any and all state laws; and second was that the people would directly elect at least one house of the legislature.
The representatives of New Jersey and other small states became increasingly worried that the convention was going to write a constitution in which the states would be represented in both houses of Congress on the basis of population. If this happened, the smaller states feared they would always be outvoted by the larger states. An alternative plan, the New Jersey Plan, was submitted by William Paterson. It would have amended the Articles of Confederation, giving the central government somewhat stronger powers than it had but retaining the Articles’ one-state, one-vote system of representation. The key feature of the New Jersey Plan was a unicameral Congress in which each state would have an equal vote.
The small states demanded equal representation as embodied in the New Jersey Plan, which led to the GreatCompromise.
The structure of the national legislature was set as follows: A House of Representatives apportioned among the states roughly on the basis of population and elected by the people; A Senate would consist of two senators from each state to be chosen by the state legislatures.
Finally, on September 17, the Constitution was approved by all twelve states in attendance. Rhode Island had never sent a delegation.
Even though popular rule was one element of the new government, it was not to be the only one. State legislatures, not the people, would choose the senators; electors, not the people directly, would choose the president. The Framers wished to observe the principle of majority rule, but they felt that, on the most important questions, two kinds of majorities were essential: a majority of the voters and a majority of the states.
The proper way to keep government in check while still leaving it strong enough to perform its essential tasks was to allow the self-interest of one person to check the self-interest of another. This would make republican government possible. Also, by dividing power between the states and the national government, one level of government can be a check on the other.
The great issue before the state conventions was liberty, not democracy. The proponents of the new government called themselves the ‘Federalists’, implying that they strongly favored states’ rights. This left the opponents of the new system with the unhappy choice of calling themselves the ‘Anti-federalists’, even though they were much more committed to strong states and a weak national government. The Anti-federalists had a variety of objections, but they were united by the belief that liberty could be secure only in a small republic in which the rulers were physically close to—and closely checked by—the ruled.
James Madison answered these Anti-federalist objections in the FederalistPapers. Madison argued that liberty is safest in large republics, where there are many opinions and interests rather than the uniformity characteristic of small communities. People with unpopular views find it easier to acquire allies in a larger, more diverse society.
By favoring a large republic, Madison was attempting to show how democratic government really works and what can make it work better. The implication of Madison’s argument was daring. Liberty was threatened as much or more by public passions and popularly based factions as by strong governments. Thus the government had to be designed so as to prevent both the politicians and the people from using it for ill-considered or unjust purposes.
The Constitution contained a number of specific guarantees of individual liberty: the right of trial by jury in criminal cases, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, prohibitions against bills of attainder and ex post facto laws, bans on religious tests for holding federal office and on laws interfering with contracts, and promises that citizens of each state would enjoy the same rights enjoyed by citizens of every other state. Despite the lack of a national bill of rights, most states already had bills of rights, and the delegates at the convention thought that these were sufficient to guarantee individual liberties.
However, it quickly became clear that without at least the promise of a bill of rights, the Constitution would not be ratified. To that end, Madison introduced into the first session of the First Congress a set of proposals, many based on the existing Virginia bill of rights. Twelve were approved by Congress; ten of these were ratified by the states and went into effect in 1791. These amendments limited the power of the federal government over citizens.
The American Constitution contains only 4,553 words and was ratified over two centuries ago to govern thirteen states with a few million inhabitants. Today, after only twenty-seven amendments, it governs fifty states with over 300 million people.