The Constitution
From the Founding Fathers to Today
Features of the Constitutional System
• Democratic government is based on the
consent of the governed
– Right to vote is the essence of consent
• The labyrinth system of our constitutional
system—checks and balances, separation of
powers, etc.—provides citizens with both
opportunities and hurdles to advance their
causes
Foundations of Democracy
• Colonists were happy until the British
government started looking for financial
support
• First settlement—Jamestown, VA (1607)
– Commercial enterprise of the Virginia Company of
London
• By 1619, the colonists have created the House
of Burgesses
– First legislative body
Foundations of Democracy
• In 1624, the Crown realized there was no gold
and took control of the colony
– Instill a royal governor
• Religious dissenters, in 1625, create Plymouth,
MA
– Reject the Catholic pope and the king of England
– Yet the Puritans were also intolerant of dissent
• Flock to Rhode Island with Roger Williams
Economic Distress
• Colonies were suppliers of raw materials
• These are shipped to British factories and then
sold back to the colonies
– Colonies were only permitted to trade with the Crown
• Leads to smuggling and piracy
• Colonial governor do not care because of their salary
• Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)
– UK defends colonies from the French and Native
Americans
– To help defray costs, the UK taxes sugar and stamps
Economic Distress
• Parliament delivers the Townshend Acts
– Taxes on lots of goods (glass, paper, tea, lead)
• Colonists decide to boycott British goods
– 1773—Boston Tea Party—East Indian Company
• Parliament responds by blockading the harbor and quartering troops
• Tensions are high…First Continental Congress meets in 1774 in
Philadelphia
– Want to restore good relations, but declare a list of grievances and urge a
boycott of British goods
– All we ask for is a say
• In early 1775, Second Continental Congress meets
– Marshal military forces under Washington
– Plan to finance war effort thru loans and bonds
– Also produced the Articles of Confederation
• Revolution opens on April 19, 1775 in Lexington
Declaration of Independence
• List of grievances against King George III
• “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
– Borrowed from John Locke
– These rights are granted by God
• Citizens have right to abolish a government when
it is not protecting their rights
• 27 specific issues
• Only applied to males of sufficient means
• Only 1/3 of Americans supported independence
• Thomas Paine—Common Sense
Birth of a Nation
• Articles of Confederation
– Single Congress…every state has one vote
• Nine votes to pass…Unanimous to change
– Colonies were sovereign [independent]
– Three huge problems:
• No national currency
• No control of interstate commerce
• No federal taxes
– Hard to be an economic power
• Hamilton Course Reader!
– Farmers were hard hit by the high price for imported
goods
• In 1786, Shays Rebellion occurs
Road to Philadelphia
• In 1786, representatives meet for the Annapolis
Convention
– Five states
– Discuss weaknesses of the articles
– Schedule a meeting for May 1787 to “revise the Articles of
Confederation”
•
•
•
•
All states but Rhode Island show up
Thoughts were not unified
Meet in secrecy
“Group of extremely talented democratic politicians
seeking practical answers to practical problems
confronting them”
New Constitution
• Edmund Randolph presents the Virginia Plan
–
–
–
–
Bicameral legislature
Lower House popularly chosen
Upper House selected by Lower House
Why did small states not like this?
• William Patterson presents the New Jersey Plan
– Equal state representation
– More powers over trade and security
– Plural executive body…chosen by Congress
New Constitution
• Roger Sherman presents the Great
Compromise
– Lower House allocated by population
– Upper House equal votes
– Money bills initiate in lower House
Regional Tensions
• How do we count for slaves?
– Taxation v. representation for the South
• Tax imports, but no tax exports
•
•
•
•
•
Three-fifths Compromise
How do we handle runaway slaves?
What do we do about trade?
When can slavery end?
Constitution would take effect once 9 states ratified it
– Ingenious aspect was the incorporation of a process for
change
Constitutional Construction
• 4,068 words—Fairly short
• Preamble and seven articles
• Preamble:
– “We the People…”
• Article I
– Establish bicameral legislature
– Everything about Congress
– Article I, Section 8: Elastic/Necessary and Proper
Constitutional Construction
• Article II:
– Establishes the executive branch
• Article III:
– Establishes judicial branch
– Creates Supreme Court and gives Congress power
to create more
• Article IV:
– Relations among states
– Recognize legitimacy of each other’s laws
Constitutional Construction
• Article V:
– Provisions for amendment
• Article VI:
– Federal government assumes responsibility for
national debt
– Supremacy Clause
• Article VII:
– Discusses ratification
Fight for Ratification
• Federalists: support the new Constitution
– Bill of Rights not necessary because document limits powers
enough (Webster CourseReader!)
• Antifederalists: Opponents
–
–
–
–
–
Drawn from all over
Many farmers
Small town members
Didn’t like that Framers overstepped their bounds
Points of disagreement:
•
•
•
•
Strong central government forgets states
Senators serve too long
Lack of Bill of Rights
Presidency is new
Battle in the States
• Constitution finds support in:
–
–
–
–
Commercial centers
Western territories [want protection]
Plantation owners
Smaller states
• Delaware first state to ratify
• Federalist Papers
– John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
•
•
•
•
85 articles
Extol virtues of new Constitution
Federalist 10 warns of factions…threaten unity
New nation counters factions
Making Good on a Promise
• Federalists get states to budge by promising a
Bill of Rights
• First three amendments hit on political
liberties
• Next five outline basic rights
• Last two deal with federal-state relations
• States did not have to incorporate until the
14th amendment in 1868
Amendments
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1: Freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition
2: Right to bear arms
3: No quartering
4: Search and seizure
5: Double jeopardy, self-incrimination, use of grand juries
6: Speedy trial, jury of peers, right to be informed of charges, right
to counsel
7: Right to jury trial
8: Cruel and unusual punishment/excessive bail
9: Mandates that rights not explicitly listed belong to the people
10: Mandates that powers not given to national government are
reserved to the states and people
Constitutional Change
• Two methods
• First:
– Amendment introduced by Congress
– Approved by 2/3 of each House
– States ratify
• Second:
– 2/3 of state legislatures call for a national
convention
– NEVER USED
Constitutional Change
• Must be ratified by ¾ of states
– Can either happen by approval of state legislatures or
by ratifying conventions
• Originally amendments had no fixed time limit
– Amendment 27 was proposed by Madison and passed
203 years later
• Not meant to change easily
• Since 1789, we’ve had 10,000 amendments
proposed
– We have 27
Constitutional Principles
• Make government strong enough to meet the
nation’s needs
• Do not threaten the existence of the separate
states
• Do not threaten liberty
• Base it on popular consent
• We grant and deny powers
– Habeas corpus, ex post facto laws
Separation of Powers/Checks and
Balances
• Locke gives us the idea of separation of
powers
• Montesquieu gives us checks and balances
• No branch can consolidate too much power
• Overlap so cooperation is required
• Prevent arbitrary use of power
• Examples???
Federalism
• Some powers are controlled by different levels
of government
– Declare war?
– Ability to create towns?
– Power to tax?
Institutional Adaptation
•
•
•
•
Adapt to the times
Survive power struggles
Declaration of war is a prime example
Changes in state-federal relationship
Judicial Review
• Marbury v. Madison (1804)
– Makes Supreme Court able to rule on
constitutionality of a law…judicial review
More Voters
• Originally white, propertied, adult males could
vote
• 1800s see property requirements disappear
• 13th amendment
• 15th amendment
• 19th amendment
• 26th amendment
Constitution and Civic Engagement
• September 17th…Constitution Day
• Rights are never completely secure
– We take inconveniences in stride…examples?
• “Price of freedom is eternal vigilance”
Theory Underlying the Constitution
• Two of the Federalist papers (No. 10 and 51)
focus on the fundamental problem of selfgovernance.
• We are not “angels” as Madison write, so how
do we get a government of non-angels not
only to govern the governed, but to “govern”
itself as well?
Federalist No. 10
• Here Madison tackles the problem by
both exploring the likelihood that tyranny
of the majority would arise in a
democracy and identifying a solution to
such tyranny.
Federalist No. 10
• Responds to the strongest argument of the
Antifederalists—that a “large Republic” cannot long
survive.
• Discusses the negatives of factions, which are
defined as “a number of citizens, whether amounting
to a majority or minority of the whole, who are
united and actuated by some common impulse of
passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other
citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests
of the community.”
• “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire…”
Federalist No. 10
• Madison then identifies two ways to eliminate
factions, authoritarianism or conformism—neither of
which is acceptable.
• So if the causes of factions cannot be removed, then
one must control their effects rather than “snuffing
out liberty.”
Federalist No. 10
• Minority and majority factions are controlled in
different ways.
• Democracy does not allow minorities to dominate.
The problem lies with majorities. Direct democracy
would allow for majority usurpation of minority
rights.
• However, a representative government would:
– dilute factious spirit
– negate the ability of potential majorities to attempt any
form of collusion
Federalist No. 51
• A more mechanistic approach is taken in Federalist No. 51.
• By separating government officers into different branches
(separation of powers) and giving them the authority to
interfere with each other’s actions (checks and balances) they
could defend the integrity of their offices:
– bicameralism
– popular election
– presidential veto
• Ambition is made to counteract ambition. . .
• This argument gave reassurances to those fence sitters who
worried about a tyrannical government forming.
Federalist No. 10 and 51
• In summary, Federalist No. 10 conveys the theory of
pluralism that guided the Constitution’s chief
architect.
• Federalist No. 51 explores how and why the
governmental system that emerged from the political
process in Philadelphia might actually work.
• But did they overdo it? What criticisms can be
leveled at the system?
The Constitution:
Born of Sweet Reason or Politics?
• Irony: national pluralism Madison was striving to install
already at work at the federal convention, frustrating their
success.
• Many of the Constitution’s provisions have no theoretical
rationale; they are simply the hammered out products of
compromise.
– Can you think of examples?
• Did Madison achieve this goal of building a national society
that would prevent majority factions from tyrannizing local
minorities?
– What do you think?
– What does the evidence suggest?
Questions for Thursday
• What are the six institutions that large scale
democracy is alleged to require?
• What was wrong with the Articles of
Confederation? How did the Constitution go
about fixing the issues?
• Why does Webster believe The Bill of Rights is
absurd? Do you think it was necessary?