Founders' Constitution Drafting: Discussions And Debates

The drafting of the U.S. Constitution was a complex and contentious process that involved many of the country's Founding Fathers, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. The Founders discussed a range of topics and issues when drafting the Constitution, including the structure of the government, the division of powers, religious freedom, slavery, and the protection of individual liberties. They also debated the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution, which gave power to the states but lacked enforcement powers and the ability to regulate commerce. The Founding Fathers wanted to create a fair and balanced government, with checks and balances in place to prevent the misuse of power. They also understood that the Constitution should be a living document, able to change and grow over time through amendments. The final document was signed by 38 delegates on September 17, 1787, and it has since become one of the longest-lived and most emulated constitutions in the world.

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The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

The founding fathers of the United States met to draft a constitution to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, which was America's first constitution. The Articles of Confederation gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but it had no enforcement powers, couldn't regulate commerce, or print money. This led to disputes between the states over territory, war pensions, taxation, and trade, threatening to tear the young nation apart.

The Founding Fathers, including George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, were wary of centralized power and loyal to their states. They crafted a powerful central government with a separation of powers between three branches: the executive, legislative, and judiciary. Each branch has its own rules, responsibilities, and powers to prevent the misuse of power.

The founders also set the terms for ratifying the Constitution, bypassing the state legislatures and calling for special ratifying conventions in each state. They understood that the Constitution should be able to change and grow over time, so they included a process for amending it.

The Constitution was designed to limit the government and establish rules for each part, addressing the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and creating a more unified and stable nation.

Creating a fair and balanced government

The Founding Fathers of the United States wanted to establish a fair and balanced government. They had just won the Revolutionary War and gained independence from Great Britain, and it was time to set up a government for the new nation. Many Americans feared having a strong ruler and did not trust the government. The Founding Fathers agreed to be governed under the Articles of Confederation, which gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but it had no enforcement powers, couldn't regulate commerce, or print money.

The Founding Fathers wanted to create a government that would be difficult for one person, party, or group to control. They proposed a national government with a separation of powers, dividing power between three branches: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary. Each branch has its own rules, responsibilities, and powers, and this division of power prevents the misuse of power.

The Founding Fathers also understood that the Constitution should be able to change and grow over time, so they included a way to amend it. These changes are called "amendments," and they are difficult to make, requiring approval from two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate or two-thirds of the states. The first ten amendments are known as the "Bill of Rights," and they list fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, religion, and press, as well as the right to a jury trial and the right to keep and bear arms.

The Constitutional Convention, which assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787, included delegates from each state except Rhode Island. They discussed commercial problems and disputes over territory, war pensions, taxation, and trade. They crafted compromises and created a powerful central government, bypassing state legislatures and calling for special ratifying conventions in each state. Ratification by 9 of the 13 states enacted the new government.

Separation of powers

The Founding Fathers of the United States drafted the Constitution to establish a fair and balanced government, setting out rules for each part of the government and limiting its power. They were wary of centralised power and loyal to their states, and so created a powerful central government.

The Founders wanted to make it difficult for any one person, party, or group to gain control of the government. To achieve this, they proposed a national government where power was divided into three branches: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary. This is known as the "separation of powers". Each branch has distinct rules, responsibilities, and powers.

The Founding Fathers also included a mechanism for changing the Constitution, known as "amendments". Amending the Constitution is a difficult process, requiring the approval of two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or two-thirds of the states. Over 200 years, the Constitution has only been amended 27 times.

The first 10 amendments are known as the "Bill of Rights", and they outline fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, religion, and press, as well as the right to a jury trial and the right to keep and bear arms.

The Founders were not unified on every issue. For example, they accommodated slavery within the new nation, despite some being morally opposed to it. They also had differing views on religion, with Washington, a local leader of the Church of England, strongly advocating for religious freedom.

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Religious freedom

The Founding Fathers of the United States were heavily influenced by their experiences and the social and political climate of the late 18th century. They were particularly influenced by the Enlightenment, which emphasised the importance of individual liberties and sought to prevent government overreach. The framers of the Constitution wanted to protect religious freedom and prevent religious persecution, which was a prominent issue in Europe at the time.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the third and fourth Presidents of the United States, are considered less hospitable to religion than their predecessors, George Washington and John Adams. However, they played a crucial role in shaping the First Amendment, which addresses religious freedom. On September 28, 1789, both houses of Congress voted to send twelve amendments to the states, and in December 1791, ten of these were ratified and became the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This language aimed to prevent a national church and protect the free exercise of religion, ensuring separation between church and state.

Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, passed by the Virginia General Assembly on January 16, 1776, is considered a forerunner to the First Amendment. The statute, divided into three paragraphs, reflects Jefferson's belief in freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state. In his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, Jefferson referred to the First Amendment as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state, emphasising their mutual independence.

The First Amendment's protection of religious freedom has been nuanced and continuously refined to address evolving societal norms and increasing diversity in the United States. Supreme Court rulings have broadened the scope of religious freedom but have also opened debates about equitable treatment under the law. The dynamic nature of contemporary society demands ongoing evaluation to ensure these protections remain effective.

Slavery

The issue of slavery was a highly controversial topic during the drafting of the US Constitution, with a range of views expressed by the Founding Fathers. Many of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin, owned slaves, and nearly half of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were slaveholders. Despite this, several Founders expressed moral qualms about slavery and some became members of anti-slavery societies. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, owned only a few slaves but served as an officer in Pennsylvania's anti-slavery society. Alexander Hamilton was born in a slave colony and also became a member of an anti-slavery society in New York.

During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, there were bitter debates over slavery. The Southern states, led by South Carolina, wanted to prohibit the federal government from regulating the Atlantic slave trade, while some Northern states, such as Maryland, argued for federal regulation. The Southern states threatened to leave the Union if the regulation of the slave trade was taken out of their hands. The Founders, committed to maintaining the unity of the new nation, sought to diffuse sectional tensions over slavery. They drafted a series of constitutional clauses that acknowledged regional differences while requiring all sections of the country to compromise.

One such compromise was the Three-Fifths Clause, which granted slaveholding states the right to count three-fifths of their slave population when apportioning the number of a state's representatives to Congress. This gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. However, the same ratio was used to determine the federal tax contribution required of each state, increasing the direct federal tax burden of slaveholding states. The word "slave" was consciously avoided in the Constitution, but slavery received important protections, and the Founders left the seeds for future conflict by sidestepping the issue.

While the Constitution did not directly address the abolition of slavery, it created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish the institution. In 1863, during the Civil War, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all persons held as slaves in the rebellious states would be forever free. However, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery nationwide, and Lincoln recognised that a constitutional amendment was needed. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States, providing that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime...shall exist within the United States".

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