Isabella Carter
The US Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in the world. It is the foundation of the US Federal Government and is often referred to as the supreme law of the land. The Constitution was created to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people and their posterity. The three main principles on which the US government is based are inherent rights, the separation of powers, and federalism.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of amendments | Two |
| Steps to amend the Constitution | Two |
| Procedures for adopting the language of a proposed amendment | Two |
| Procedures for ratifying the proposed amendment | Two |
| Number of articles in the original constitution | Twenty-three |
| Number of articles in the final draft | Seven |
| Number of signers of the Constitution | 39 |
| Number of states needed to enact the new government | 9 |
| Number of states with a pro-Constitution majority | 6 |
| Number of states that needed to be converted by Federalists | 3 |
| Number of delegates disappointed in the final result | Several |
| Number of delegates who refused to sign | 3 |
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What You'll Learn
The Articles of Confederation were deemed too weak
Secondly, the Articles of Confederation were the first constitution of the United States, drafted by a committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and ratified by the 13 colonies in 1781. By the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, it had become clear that the Articles were insufficient for governing the country. The delegates at the convention, representing a wide range of interests and views, sought to create a stronger central government that could address the nation's challenges.
Thirdly, the Articles did not provide a clear framework for resolving disagreements over congressional representation. The delegates at the Constitutional Convention fiercely debated whether representation should be based on population or divided equally among the states. They ultimately compromised by giving each state one representative for every 30,000 people in the House of Representatives and two representatives in the Senate.
Additionally, the Articles of Confederation did not adequately address the issue of slavery. The delegates at the Constitutional Convention temporarily resolved the issue by agreeing that the slave trade could continue until 1808, and by counting enslaved Africans as three-fifths of a person for representation purposes. However, this was only a temporary solution, and the issue of slavery remained a contentious one that threatened to divide the Union.
Overall, the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, including its lack of central authority, inability to manage interstate disputes, and insufficient provisions for congressional representation and slavery, led to the recognition that a new constitution was needed to establish a stronger and more effective government for the United States.
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Centralised power was a concern
The delegates who wrote the US Constitution were wary about centralised power and loyal to their states. They wanted to avoid giving too much power to a national government, so they bypassed the state legislatures and called for special ratifying conventions in each state. They crafted a powerful central government, but one that was a compromise between different interests and views.
The Federalists believed that a strong central government was necessary to face the nation’s challenges. However, the Anti-Federalists fought against the Constitution because it created a powerful central government that reminded them of the one they had just overthrown, and it lacked a bill of rights.
The US Constitution was a compromise between these two factions, and it has stood the test of time as one of the longest-lived and most emulated constitutions in the world. The Founding Fathers set the terms for ratifying the Constitution, and ratification by 9 of the 13 states enacted the new government.
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Compromises were made on sectional interests
The US Constitution was drafted by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. The delegates were heavily divided over the representation in each branch of Congress. This division was based on sectional interests, with smaller states fearing that a commonality of interest among the larger states would work to their disadvantage. Conversely, representatives of the larger states were skeptical of a legislature that could pass laws favouring a minority of the people.
To resolve these concerns, the delegates approved the formation of a compromise committee to devise a plan that would work for all the states. This committee proposed a plan that became known as the "Great Compromise" or the "Connecticut Compromise". The Great Compromise combined two previously proposed plans for state representation: the Virginia Plan and the Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan provided for representation based on each state's population, while the Jersey Plan proposed equal representation for every state. The Great Compromise led to a two-chamber Congress, with the Senate providing equal representation for each state and the House of Representatives providing population-based representation.
Another compromise related to the representation of enslaved people. Delegates from Northern states, where the economy did not rely heavily on the enslavement of African people, felt that enslaved people should not be counted towards representation. In contrast, Southern states, where the economy depended on enslaved labour, fought for enslaved individuals to be counted in terms of representation. The compromise between the two became known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, where every five enslaved people were counted as three individuals concerning representation.
The issue of enslavement was a volatile one that threatened to tear the Union apart. Northern states wanted to end the importation and sale of enslaved individuals, while Southern states felt that the enslavement of African people was vital to their economy and did not want government interference. A compromise was reached, with the Northern states agreeing to wait until 1808 before Congress would be able to ban the trade of enslaved people in the US.
These compromises, which balanced the interests of large and small states, as well as those of the North and the South, were essential in creating a unified framework for the United States government.
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The founding fathers wanted to bypass state legislatures
The founding fathers of the United States Constitution were among the wealthiest people in the colonies. They believed that there were too many voices in the state legislatures, and that the states were becoming too radical. The founding fathers were of the opinion that the state legislatures were too beholden to the interests of the common man, and that they needed to be more reserved and accommodating to wealthy, educated business-interest types.
The first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, vested almost all power in individual state legislatures, with practically nothing in the hands of the national government. This led to political chaos and crippling debt, which almost sunk the fledgling nation. The founding fathers wanted to avoid a repeat of this, and so they bypassed the state legislatures, reasoning that their members would be reluctant to give up power to a national government.
The founding fathers had just broken free from the British empire, and they were anxious about the possibility of foreign powers influencing their young democracy. They did not want to emulate the British form of government, known as "unitary", where all power originates from a centralized national government and is delegated to local governments. Instead, they initially chose a confederation, where power originates at the local level and is only delegated to a weak central government.
The founding fathers wanted to divide power between state and federal governments. Under the Constitution, the state legislatures retain sovereignty to pass laws, but the federal government can intervene when it suits the national interest. Federalism, or the separation of powers between the state and federal governments, was a novel concept at the time. It served as a safeguard against tyranny while providing a check against rogue states.
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The final draft was a series of compromises
The US Constitution was drafted by the Constitutional Convention, which assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787. The convention was convened to revise the Articles of Confederation, which was America's first constitution. However, the delegates soon decided to completely redesign the government, and the final draft of the Constitution was a series of compromises that reconciled differing sectional interests, views, and ideologies.
One of the fiercest arguments during the Constitutional Convention was over congressional representation—whether it should be based on population or divided equally among the states. The framers compromised by giving each state one representative for every 30,000 people in the House of Representatives and two representatives in the Senate. They also agreed to count enslaved Africans as three-fifths of a person, which was known as the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Another compromise was reached on the issue of slavery, which threatened to derail the Union. The delegates agreed that the slave trade could continue until 1808, temporarily resolving the issue. Additionally, there were compromises on presidential term limits, powers, and method of selection, as well as the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary.
The final draft of the Constitution, presented on September 12, 1787, contained seven articles, a preamble, and a closing endorsement. It was distilled from 23 approved articles by a Committee of Style and Arrangement, which included Alexander Hamilton, William Samuel Johnson, Rufus King, James Madison, and Gouverneur Morris, the primary author. The final document was signed by 39 delegates on September 17, 1787, and it stands today as one of the longest-lived and most emulated constitutions in the world.
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