Eleanor Finch
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. It was signed by 39 delegates on September 17, 1787, and it established a new form of government with a powerful central government and a system of checks and balances to limit government power. The Constitution has been amended several times, including the addition of the Bill of Rights, which protects individual liberties such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms. Those brought up to respect the Constitution value the freedoms and protections it affords, as well as the principles of federalism and limited government power that it enshrines.
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What You'll Learn
The US Constitution: a framework for the US government
The US Constitution is a framework for the US government that superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. It was an attempt to revise the existing government, but the delegates ended up creating a new form of government. The Constitution 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.
The Constitution includes four sections: an introductory paragraph titled Preamble, a list of seven Articles that define the government's framework, an untitled closing endorsement with the signatures of 39 framers, and 27 amendments that have been adopted under Article V. The Preamble lays out the purposes of the new government, stating that the people, not the states, are the source of the government's legitimacy.
The first three articles of the Constitution embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, dividing the federal government into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article I); the executive, consisting of the President and subordinate officers (Article II); and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts (Article III). This system of checks and balances is designed to avoid the tyranny of any one branch, with most important actions requiring the participation of more than one branch.
Articles IV, V, and VI embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, their relationship to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment. The Constitution provides for a division of authority between the national government and the state governments, with the federal government having broad powers over the states but limited to those enumerated in the Constitution. The Constitution also includes protections for individual rights, such as the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to keep and bear arms.
The Constitution has been amended several times, with amendments proposed by a Convention or by Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States. The process of amending the Constitution is difficult, and the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of its meaning, with the power of judicial review to declare Congressional Statutes unconstitutional.
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The Connecticut Compromise
The Compromise was proposed by Connecticut delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth to resolve the dispute between small and large states over representation in the new federal government. The convention, held in Philadelphia, met to amend the Articles of Confederation, but instead, the assembly set about drawing up a new scheme of government.
The Compromise also included a controversial agreement on how enslaved individuals would be counted for representation purposes, leading to the "Three-Fifths Compromise". This complicated the issue of popular representation in the House, as it stated that each state should have one representative for every 40,000 inhabitants, counting three-fifths of each state's enslaved population toward that state's total population.
The framework established by the Connecticut Compromise laid the foundation for the American legislative system, which remains in place today, marking a significant moment in the evolution of US governance.
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The Three-Fifths Compromise
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, given that 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 based on a state's free population plus three-fifths of its enslaved population. This agreement came to be known as the Three-Fifths Compromise.
The three-fifths ratio was first proposed by James Madison, although his amendment ultimately failed to gain the unanimous approval required to amend the Articles of Confederation. The compromise was then proposed by delegate James Wilson and seconded by Charles Pinckney. It was an attempt to resolve sectional interests and balance the representation of small and large states in the legislature.
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The Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights, comprising the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, was proposed following the 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution. It was written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, who wanted power to remain with state and local governments and favoured a bill of rights to safeguard individual liberty.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution safeguard freedoms like speech, religion, and the right to bear arms, while ensuring protections such as due process and trial by jury. The Fourth Amendment, for example, safeguards citizens' right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion in their homes through the requirement of a warrant.
The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and the Magna Carta (1215).
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The checks and balances system
In the context of government, checks and balances are applied primarily in constitutional governments, and they are of particular importance in tripartite governments, such as that of the United States, which separate powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The US Constitution provides checks and balances for the US government through the separation of powers among its three branches. Each branch has specific abilities to check or limit the power of the other bodies and ensure that no one section of the government can obtain excessive unchecked power. For example, while the legislative branch makes laws, the executive branch, led by the President, has veto power over those laws. However, the legislative branch can override this veto with a two-thirds supermajority vote. The judicial branch interprets the laws and can deem certain laws unconstitutional, making them void.
Checks and balances also operate within parliament itself, through the bicameral system. Second chambers, such as the House of Lords in the UK, function as 'revising chambers', with limited veto powers, but with the ability to request a rethink of proposals. This provides a check on both the executive and the lower house. The courts also provide a check by applying the law as made by parliament, ensuring the executive acts within the law.
In the UK, another check is provided by regulators and constitutional watchdogs, which foster good practice and investigate and identify wrongdoing by those working in all parts of the system. The impartial civil service also operates as a balance within the executive, serving the government of the day while maintaining impartiality.
Checks and balances may also operate in one-party political systems, where informal, and perhaps even illegal, checks and balances can emerge when organs of an authoritarian or totalitarian regime compete for power.
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Frequently asked questions
The Constitution of the United States is a document that outlines the framework for the country's government. It was written by a group of delegates, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington, who were concerned that the young nation was on the brink of collapse due to disputes among the states. The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, which was America's first constitution but lacked enforcement powers and the ability to regulate commerce or print money.
On September 17, 1787, 38 delegates signed the Constitution, with George Reed signing on behalf of the absent John Dickinson of Delaware, bringing the total to 39 signatures. Benjamin Franklin, despite having reservations about certain parts of the document, accepted it, stating that he expected no better and was unsure if a better version could be achieved.
The Constitution establishes a federal system with a separation of powers, where power is divided between the national government and state governments. It also includes a Bill of Rights, which protects individual liberties such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. Additionally, it outlines the process for admitting new states to the Union and prohibits the formation of new states within the jurisdiction of existing states without their consent.
The Constitution has been amended several times since its creation. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were added to address concerns about limited government power. James Madison wrote these amendments to protect individual liberties and limit the government's authority. The process of amending the Constitution involves proposing changes, which must then be approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures or state conventions.
