Jonah Patel
The United States Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, by 38 delegates, with an additional signature by George Reed on behalf of John Dickinson of Delaware. The delegates assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787, tasked with revising the Articles of Confederation, which had given the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but lacked enforcement powers, the ability to regulate commerce, and the ability to levy taxes. However, the delegates ultimately decided to create a new government with a powerful central government, compromising on various issues such as congressional representation and slavery. The Constitution faced opposition from Anti-Federalists, who believed it created a central government reminiscent of the one they had overthrown and lacked a bill of rights. The document was ratified by 9 of the 13 states, and celebrations were held in Philadelphia on July 4, 1788, to honour the new national constitution.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date of the Constitutional Convention | May 1787 |
| Location | Philadelphia |
| Objective | To revise the Articles of Confederation |
| Outcome | A new government was designed |
| Compromises | Congressional representation was based on population, with each state getting one representative for every 30,000 people in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate; slavery was temporarily addressed by allowing the slave trade to continue until 1808 |
| Signatories | 38 delegates, including George Reed signing on behalf of John Dickinson of Delaware |
| Ratification | Required ratification by 9 of the 13 states; special ratifying conventions were held in each state |
| Federalist support | Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison published a series of essays called the Federalist Papers in support of the Constitution |
| Anti-Federalist opposition | The Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution due to its creation of a powerful central government and the lack of a bill of rights |
| Amendments | The Twenty-seventh Amendment addressed Congressional salaries to reduce corruption |
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What You'll Learn
The Three-Fifths Compromise
The delegates at the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787. They had gathered to revise the Articles of Confederation, but by mid-June they had decided to completely redesign the government. One of the fiercest arguments was over congressional representation—whether it should be based on population or divided equally among the states. The delegates from the small and large states were divided on the issue of the apportionment of legislative representation. The Virginia, or large state, plan provided for a bicameral legislature with representation of each state based on its population or wealth; the New Jersey, or small state, plan proposed equal representation for each state in Congress. Neither the large nor the small states would yield, but the deadlock was resolved by the Connecticut, or Great, Compromise, which resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house and equal representation of the states in the Senate.
The delegates from the Northern and Southern states were divided over the inclusion of slaves in a state's total population. Slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. Eventually, the framers agreed on a compromise that called for representation in the House of Representatives to be apportioned on the basis of a state’s free population plus three-fifths of its enslaved population. This agreement came to be known as the Three-Fifths Compromise.
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Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, is Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. It requires that a "Person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who escapes to another state must be returned to their master in the state from which they fled. The clause was a compromise between northern and southern states, as slavery was outlawed in most northern states but was a way of life in the American South. It was also a compromise between those who believed in the power of the Constitution to prohibit the slave trade and those who did not want their names attached to a document that mentioned slavery outright.
The Fugitive Slave Clause states:
> No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
The clause was enacted without much discussion or debate, despite slavery being a highly contentious issue at the time. The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided using the words "slave" and "slavery", instead referring to "persons held to Service or Labour". This was done to sidestep the issue of slavery and gain support for a strong central government from southern delegates, who threatened to refuse to join the Union if the Constitution restricted the slave trade.
The Fugitive Slave Clause formed the basis for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which gave slaveholders the right to reclaim their "property" from free states. The enforcement provisions of this Act were strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850, which gave the federal government a role in capturing fugitive slaves. The Fugitive Slave Clause was rendered mostly irrelevant by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
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Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
The issue of slavery was a contentious question during the drafting of the US Constitution in 1787. The delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia agreed to a compromise, allowing each state one representative for every 30,000 people in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate. They also agreed to count enslaved Africans as three-fifths of a person. The delegates further compromised by deciding that the slave trade could continue until 1808.
The Constitution did not include the word "slavery", but it did contain several provisions regarding unfree persons. The Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution, arguing that it lacked a bill of rights and created a powerful central government. Despite these objections, the Constitution was ratified by 9 of the 13 states, establishing a strong central government.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states were henceforth free. While the wording was expansive, the Emancipation Proclamation had limitations. It only applied to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery legal in the border states. Additionally, it exempted parts of the Confederacy that were already under Union control.
The Emancipation Proclamation played a crucial role in the end of slavery in the United States. It changed the legal status of over 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states, freeing them. The Proclamation also allowed former slaves to join the Union Army and Navy, with almost 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors fighting for freedom by the war's end. Lincoln also ensured that Reconstruction plans for Southern states included laws abolishing slavery and encouraged border states to adopt abolition. The 13th Amendment, passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1864 and 1865, respectively, made slavery and involuntary servitude unconstitutional, except as punishment for a crime.
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The 13th Amendment
Before the 13th Amendment, slavery was only sparingly mentioned in the Constitution. The Three-Fifths Compromise, in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, was the only reference to how enslaved persons were to be regarded by the federal government, counting them as “three-fifths” of a fully free citizen. The Fugitive Slave Clause, in Article IV, Section 2, asserted that a slave remained a slave even if they fled to a non-slavery state.
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the delegates agreed to temporarily resolve the divisive issue of slavery by allowing the slave trade to continue until 1808. However, in the decades that followed, the Northern states abolished slavery or provided paths to emancipation, while the Southern states, where the majority of slave labour was concentrated, did not.
In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all persons held as slaves in states rebelling against the Union would be forever free. However, it did not end slavery nationwide, as it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in rebellion and not to the border states that remained in the Union. Lincoln recognised that a constitutional amendment was necessary to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
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The Civil War
The issue of slavery was a contentious topic during the drafting of the US Constitution, with delegates from southern states relying heavily on enslaved persons' labour and those from northern states increasingly morally opposed to the practice. Despite fervent disagreement, the Constitution's original text did not specifically refer to slavery.
The Fugitive Slave Clause, for example, did not use the term "slave" but instead granted the owner of a "person held to service or labour" the right to seize and repossess them in another state, regardless of that state's laws. The Three-Fifths Clause was another cornerstone of the Great Compromise, addressing states' fears of an imbalance of power in Congress.
In 1861, seven seceding states created the Confederate Constitution, a document similar to the US Constitution but with greater emphasis on state autonomy. They named Jefferson Davis as provisional president until elections could be held. President Buchanan refused to surrender southern federal forts, leading to their seizure by southern state troops. Lincoln, who succeeded Buchanan, hoped to resolve the national crisis without warfare, stating he had no plans to end slavery in states where it existed but that he would not accept secession.
In December 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed to ban slavery in territories north of the Missouri Compromise line while permitting it to the south. Lincoln and the Republicans rejected it, stating that any compromise extending slavery would bring down the Union. The Republicans proposed the Corwin Amendment as an alternative, but this was regarded as insufficient by the South.
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all persons held as slaves in states and parts of states in rebellion against the US "are, and henceforward shall be free". While this proclamation was questioned, it marked a significant step towards abolition. Congress also enacted the Confiscation Acts in 1861 and 1862, freeing enslaved persons who came within Union lines, though these acts were largely ineffective.
The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, ultimately abolished slavery, removing it from the jurisdiction of the states. This was followed by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, guaranteeing citizenship to former slaves, and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, colour, or previous servitude. These Reconstruction Amendments resolved critical issues in the aftermath of the Civil War, reshaping the country's social and economic landscape.
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Frequently asked questions
The federal government’s inability to levy taxes.
James Madison's research-backed proposal for a new national constitution.
The compromise that helped secure victory in Massachusetts and other states for the Federalists, who believed in a strong central government.
