Eleanor Finch
The United States Constitution is a document born of compromise, drafted in 1787 by 12 of the 13 original states in a bid to revise the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, met in Philadelphia to create a new constitution, facing the challenge of establishing a working system of government that honoured the ideal of self-rule. The result was a bundle of compromises, with delegates having to give ground on several key points to create a government charter acceptable to each state.
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What You'll Learn
The Great Compromise
On the other hand, the Senate would provide equal representation for each state, with each state having two senators regardless of its population. This was a victory for smaller states, as it gave them a stronger voice in the government. The senators would be chosen by the state legislatures, not by popular vote.
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The Three-Fifths Compromise
The delegates from the Northern and Southern states had differing views on how to count enslaved people. Delegates from the Northern states, where the economy did not heavily rely on the enslavement of African people, felt that enslaved people should not be counted toward representation because counting them would provide the Southern states with a greater number of representatives. Southern states, on the other hand, fought for enslaved individuals to be counted in terms of representation. This was because slavery was vital to their economy, and they did not want the government interfering.
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Electoral College Compromise
The Electoral College is a process for electing the President of the United States. It was established by the Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution as a compromise between two schools of thought: electing the President by a vote in Congress, and electing the President by popular vote.
The Electoral College comprises 538 electors from the states and the District of Columbia. The number of electors from each state is equal to the number of its Senators (two each) and its delegates in the House of Representatives. Citizens vote for these electors, who are each bound to a particular candidate, and the electors then cast their votes for the President. This is why it is possible for a candidate to win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College.
The Electoral College was created as a compromise between the Virginia Plan, which proposed representation based on each state's population, and the New Jersey Plan, which proposed equal representation for every state. The Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise, combined both plans. It dictated that the upper house, or Senate, would include two people from each state regardless of size, while the lower house, or House of Representatives, would have different numbers of representatives from each state determined by population.
The Electoral College has been criticised as "archaic" and "ambiguous", and there have been many proposals to reform or eliminate it. However, it remains an integral part of the U.S. Constitution and would require a Constitutional amendment to change.
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State Sovereignty and Popular Sovereignty
The U.S. Constitution, produced after the Constitutional Convention and ratified by all 13 states in 1789, is often referred to as a "bundle of compromises" or a Constitution Through Compromise. This is because the delegates had to make several concessions on key issues to create a government charter that was acceptable to all 13 states.
The issue of state sovereignty was a key concern during the Constitutional Convention. The delegates had to grapple with the question of how to delegate authority from the people and the states to a strengthened central government. The Virginia Plan proposed representation based on each state's population, while the New Jersey Plan favoured equal representation for every state. The Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise, combined both plans: the upper house (or Senate) would include two people from each state, regardless of its size, thus reflecting the importance of state sovereignty; meanwhile, the lower house (the House of Representatives) would have different numbers of representatives from each state determined by population.
Popular sovereignty, or the idea that the legitimate source of authority in government is the people, was also a key principle asserted during the Constitutional Convention. This was expressed in the Preamble of the Constitution: "We the people of the United States...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America". Popular sovereignty was further reflected in Article VII, which required that nine states approve the proposed framework before it could become law, and in Article V, which outlines the process of amending the Constitution through elected representatives of the people. The founding of the United States and the framing of its Constitution set a standard for popular government that has influenced democracies worldwide.
The Constitution also addressed the balance between state sovereignty and popular sovereignty. For instance, while the House of Representatives was based on population, the two Senators in the upper house would be elected by the state legislatures, and the President would be elected at the state level through an Electoral College.
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Property Rights of Slaveholders
The U.S. Constitution, produced after the Constitutional Convention, is often referred to as a "bundle of compromises" due to the numerous concessions made by delegates to create a government charter acceptable to all 13 states. One of the most contentious issues was slavery, specifically the property rights of slaveholders.
Slavery was deeply ingrained in the fabric of American society by the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Delegates from Southern states, where slavery was a significant part of the economy and society, fought to protect the existing property rights of slaveholders and to prevent any future attempts by anti-slavery Northerners to restrict or abolish slavery. They argued that the federal government had no authority over slavery and that it was protected by the Constitution. On the other hand, Northern delegates, who did not rely heavily on slavery, wanted to end the importation and sale of enslaved people.
To address these conflicting views, the delegates made several compromises. Firstly, they refused to include the word "slavery" or enshrine a "right to property in men" in the Constitution. However, they did compromise by providing protections for slaveholders in the form of the Three-Fifths Clause. This clause, in Article I, Section II, Clause 3 of the Constitution, stated that for representation and taxation purposes, enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person. This gave Southern states greater representation in the House of Representatives, as the number of representatives was based on state population.
Additionally, the Constitution required non-slave states to return escaped slaves to their owners and prohibited them from granting freedom to runaway slaves. It also protected slaveholders' property rights by stating that citizens could not be deprived of property without due process of law and that private property could not be seized without compensation. These provisions ensured that the interests of slaveholders were addressed and protected.
While the legality of slavery was left to the states, the Constitution's compromises over slavery and the property rights of slaveholders were significant in shaping the nation's history. These compromises contributed to the growing tensions between the North and the South, eventually leading to the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which finally abolished slavery.
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Frequently asked questions
The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, was an agreement that established a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate. This compromise balanced the interests of larger and smaller states and set the groundwork for the federal government's operation.
The Three-Fifths Compromise addressed the issue of how slaves would be counted to determine congressional representation. Each slave was counted as three-fifths of a person, with delegates from Southern states fighting for slaves to be included in their state's representation.
While some delegates considered slavery an evil institution, others from Southern states, where slavery was expanding, wanted to protect it. The legality of slavery was left to the states, and the Constitution included protections for slaveholders. The Three-Fifths Compromise was also a part of this compromise over slavery.
