Download The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Time Line
1787 May 25
September 17
October
December 7
1788 June 21
1789 April 30
1791
Constitutional Convention is convened
Constitution is signed
Federalist Papers
Delaware ratifies the Constitution
Constitution becomes law
George Washington inaugurated
Bill of Rights
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
The Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1788, after months of closed debate
among the framers of the document, followed by months of argument in the public sphere
once it was printed and circulated. When the U.S. Congress convened in 1789, its
members immediately began to debate a series of amendments to the document. These
amendments, passed in 1791, are known as the Bill of Rights.
The framers of the Constitution had many interests to try to balance. First, small and
large states must to be fairly represented. Second, state and national governments must
fairly share their governing powers. Third, individual rights must be protected. Fourth,
issues such as slavery, the American-Indian population, and territorial expansion must be
addressed. In every area, compromise was the only solution; each state had to give up
something it wanted so that the final product would be reasonably fair to all.
Congress designed a federal government with a balance of powers among its three
branches. The executive branch would have a president elected for a four- year term. The
legislative branch would be a bicameral Congress; one house would represent the states
according to population, while the other would represent all equally. The judicial branch
would consist of a Supreme Court. Each branch would have certain powers over the other
two.
Many Americans were dismayed by the fact that the Constitution ignored the subject of
individual rights; however, the required nine states did ratify the document. After the first
national elections, Congress drafted a Bill of Rights that set forth many important
freedoms and privileges of ordinary citizens. These ten amendments were ratified in the
year 1791.
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. Like the Second
Continental Congress, the convention met in the State House in Philadelphia (today
called Independence Hall because the Declaration of Independence was signed there).
Many of the fifty-five delegates had represented their colonies in the First and/or Second
Continental Congresses. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton,
and James Madison were among the delegates. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both
on diplomatic missions in Europe, did not attend the convention. Rhode Island sent no
representatives. The delegates unanimously chose George Washington as president of the
convention.
The delegates’ first decision was to maintain secrecy. They would keep the doors and
windows of Independence Hall closed during debate, and they would not discuss the
proceedings with any outsiders. The reason for the secrecy was so that each man could
speak without fear of outside pressure to change his mind, or fear of reprisal for voting a
certain way.
The delegates soon agreed that instead of revising the Articles of Confederation, they
would discard them altogether and start fresh. The new document they would prepare
would be called the Constitution of the United States.
There were several important historical influences on the Constitution. The first was the
influence of the Roman Republic. The second was the British government. The third
were the ideas of the Enlightenment. The fourth was their own experience of government
within the colonies.
The Roman Republic was an ancient and long-lasting system of government that had a
legislative branch (the Senate) and elected officials. Like Americans, Romans did not
enjoy universal suffrage; only male property owners could vote, and only men could hold
office.
The British government had a long tradition of representation and individual rights. In
1215, the Magna Carta established that the monarch must abide by the laws of the land; it
also established certain individual rights and expressed the basic principle that
government could succeed only by the consent of the governed. In 1689, the English Bill
of Rights specifically listed more individual rights and established that the monarch could
not take them away.
A third influence was more recent—the writings of eighteenth-century Enlightenment
thinkers such as John Locke and the Baron de Montesquieu. In 1748, Montesquieu’s The
Spirit of Laws described and argued for the separation of powers—a three-branch
government (executive, legislative, and judicial) in which each branch had certain checks
on the authority of the others. Locke insisted on the rights of the governed to design the
government that would rule them.
The final important influence on the framers of the Constitution was their own experience
of American government, going back to the Mayflower Com- pact of 1620. Since the
former British colonies were first settled, they had run efficiently and well on a system of
representative government.
The Great Compromise
The Great Compromise
There were two primary causes of disagreement among the delegates. One was the issue
of states’ rights versus the powers of the central government. The other was the concern
for equal representation for small and large states.
The Virginia Plan
With the support of James Madison, Edmund Randolph of Virginia proposed the first
detailed plan for a new government. The Virginia Plan called for a bicameral legislature
in which each state would be represented in proportion to its population. Randolph’s plan
also included executive and judicial branches for the national government.
The New Jersey Plan
On June 16, William Patterson of New Jersey presented a second idea for the new
government. The New Jersey Plan called for equal representation of all states in both
houses of the legislature. The New Jersey Plan did not garner as much support as the
Virginia Plan, although many of its ideas appeared in the final Constitution.
Many of the delegates were wary of any notion of direct democracy, but they did believe
that since government should represent the people, it must in part be freely elected.
Therefore, they agreed on a bicameral legislature with a popularly elected lower house,
the House of Representatives, and an appointed upper house, the Senate. The existence of
two houses meant that each would provide a check on the power of the other. To settle
the question of equal representation of all the states, the delegates agreed that states
would be equally represented in the Senate, with two votes for each, but proportion- ally
represented in the House, with larger states having more representatives than smaller
ones. Roger Sherman of Connecticut, one of only four men who attended both the Second
Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, proposed this plan, known as
the Great Compromise.
Fierce debate over how to determine a state’s population ensued. Southerners wanted
their slaves counted toward the total population of their states, because this would mean
more representatives in the House. Northern states protested that since slaves were
treated as property rather than people, with no civil rights, they should not be counted
toward the total population. On July 11, the Three-Fifths Compromise established that
each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining a state’s
population.
In August, the debate turned to national control over trade. Over southern protests, the
delegates agreed to give Congress the power to pass navigation acts. Over northern
protests, they agreed to prevent Congress from passing any laws restricting the slave
trade until 1808. As the delegates to the Second Continental Congress had done in 1776,
the delegates to the Constitutional Convention passed up a chance to resolve the issue of
slavery once and for all. This surrender to compromise would prove to affect the nation
more than any other issue over the next two centuries.
By September 8, the debates had drawn to a close and the convention had appointed a
committee to write the Constitution in its final form. Gouverneur Morris of New York
completed most of this work by September 12, and the Constitution was signed on
September 17. On that day, Benjamin Franklin, the oldest of the delegates at age 81,
made a speech praising the efforts of the convention and urging the delegates to join in
friendship and forget their differences:
Mr. President, I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do
not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having
lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better
information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects,
which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. . . .
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are
such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form
of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and
believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and
can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people
shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any
other. . . .
On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the
Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion
doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his
name to this instrument.
An Overview of the Constitution
An Overview of the Constitution
The Constitution begins with the following Preamble:
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish
Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The opening of the Preamble is remarkable for its first three words. “We the People”
suggests that symbolically, the government is a democracy, not a republic—that rather
than being written by the representatives, the founding document of the nation was
actually written and approved by the people themselves. This shows the framers’ concern
for the Lockian principle of government by the consent of the governed.
The Constitution is divided into seven articles, as follows:
Describes the legislative branch with two houses, a Senate and
a House of Representatives. Senators are chosen by state
legislatures; there are two for each state. Representatives are
Article
popularly elected; there is one for every 30,000 people in a
I
state (excluding Indians, and counting each slave as three-fi
fths of one person). Gives the rules by which the legislature
will conduct business and pass laws.
Describes the executive branch, which will be headed by a
Article President. In a system known as the electoral college, voters
will choose electors who will in turn cast their votes for
II
president. Sets forth the duties and powers of the President.
Describes the judicial branch, which will consist of a Supreme
Article
Court with nine justices who will serve for life during good
III
behavior.
Article
Describes the powers and rights of the states.
IV
Article Describes the process by which the Constitution can be
amended.
V
States that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and
Article
that no religious test will be administered as a qualifi cation for
VI
office.
Article States that the Constitution will become law when nine states
have ratified it.
VII
Checks and Balances in the Constitution
Checks and Balances
The Constitution was specifically designed so that no one branch of the government
could establish tyranny over either of the other two branches. Each branch has checks on
the power of the others.
Executive branch. The president can veto congressional legislation. The president has
the power to nominate Supreme Court justices.
Legislative branch. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two- thirds vote of
both houses, and can impeach a president, vice president, or Supreme Court justice for
committing “high crimes or misdemeanors. Congress can also refuse to appoint a
Supreme Court justice nominated by the president.
Judicial branch. The Supreme Court can overturn congressional legislation that it deems
unconstitutional. The chief justice presides over the impeachment of a president. Justices
serve for life, under good behavior, and are therefore not subject to outside pressure to
keep their seats on the bench.
The citizens. The people have the power of their votes; they can refuse to reelect any
president, senator, or representative whom they do not support. Additionally, a free press
(guaranteed in 1791 in the First Amendment) is a popular check on the power of all three
branches; it reports and comments on their proceedings, keeping the people informed and
always reminding elected leaders, candidates for office, and prominent citizens that their
actions will be made public.
Ratification of the Constitution
The Struggle for Ratification
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and Edmund J. Randolph and Thomas Paine of Virginia
refused to sign the Constitution, feeling that it gave too much power to the central
government. Their refusal foreshadowed the struggle for ratification that would end in the
addition of ten amendments to the Constitution. These amendments are collectively
known as the Bill of Rights.
Those who supported the Constitution were called Federalists because they had designed
a federal government—one in which the national and state governments shared power
and authority. Those who opposed the Constitution as originally written were known as
the Antifederalists. Both sides took their case directly to the voters in pamphlets,
speeches, and newspaper editorials.
The Antifederalists feared a repetition of what had happened between the colonies and
Great Britain: that local interests would be ignored in favor of national ones, that a distant
central government would ignore the people it had been designed to represent, and that
smaller and weaker states would come under the sway of the larger, more powerful states.
Above all, the Antifederalists stressed the fact that the Constitution said nothing about the
rights of individual citizens.
James Madison had been the best-prepared delegate at the Constitutional Convention. He
had shut himself up in his Virginia home for months before the convention, reading
historical and political works as he considered what kind of government would best suit
the United States. His detailed written notes of the debates in the Constitutional
Convention have been a priceless record for historians to study ever since. Now Madison
took pen in hand to defend the Constitution. Beginning in October 1787, a series of
essays known collectively as the Federalist Papers began to appear in print. Signed with
the name Publius, these essays presented a variety of reasoned arguments in favor of the
Constitution. “Publius” was actually three men: Alexander Hamilton, wrote fifty-one of
the essays, Madison, twenty-nine, and John Jay, five. The entire collection was published
together in the spring of 1788.
By far the most famous of the Federalist Papers is number 10, written by Madison. In
this essay, Publius discusses the danger of factions—what we today call “special-interest
groups.” He argued that the United States included so many factions that only a
representative central government, in which all factions had an equal voice, could
possibly succeed, as smaller local governments were bound to discriminate in favor of the
majority. With so many diverse interests in the national government, Publius argued,
there would be no danger of any one faction gaining a majority.
Ratification and Its Aftermath
By May 1788, eight of the nine necessary states had ratified the Constitution: Delaware,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and South
Carolina. On June 21st, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution,
making it officially the law of the land.
Virginia was one of the largest and most powerful states; thus, its ratification was
especially crucial to the success of the Constitution. After intense debate, Virginia ratified
the Constitution with recommendations that it be amended. Led by Antifederalist Patrick
Henry, those who opposed the Constitution offered the Congress a bill of rights and
twenty suggested changes to the Constitution.
New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify; Virginia and New York followed. On
July 2, Congress announced that the Constitution had been ratified. On September 13, it
called for the first national elections. As everyone had expected, George Washington was
elected president. John Adams had come in second in the voting and was named vice
president. George Washington took the oath of office on the steps of Federal Hall on
Wall Street in New York, which was then the national capital. The first Congress of the
United States, comprising 59 representatives and 22 senators, convened in New York in
March, 1789.
The Bill of Rights
As the First Congress of the United States opened, James Madison immediately moved to
begin work on a Bill of Rights. On September 9, Congress submit- ted twelve
amendments to the states; ten of these were ratified and formally became part of the
Constitution on December 15, 1791.
The Bill of Rights includes the following important individual rights and freedoms:
The Bill of Rights
First
Amendment
Second
Amendment
Third
Amendment
Fourth
Amendment
Fifth
Amendment
Sixth
Amendment
Guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble,
and the right to petition the government for redress of
grievances.
States that the people have the right to keep and bear
arms because a well-regulated militia is necessary to the
state.
Guarantees that private citizens cannot be forced to
house soldiers in peacetime, and can be forced to house
them in wartime only by the passage of laws to that
effect.
Protects the people against unreasonable search and
seizure of personal property. Requires probable cause
for the issue of a search warrant.
Protects an accused criminal from selfincrimination;
outlaws double jeopardy; requires a grand jury
indictment for trial; requires due process of law.
Guarantees a speedy and public trial by jury; requires
that an accused criminal be told the charges against him
and be confronted with the evidence, and guarantees
him the right to present his own case and to legal
representation.
Requires a trial by jury in any case where the disputed
value of property exceeds $20.
Seventh
Amendment
Eighth
Bans excessive bail and cruel or unusual punishment.
Amendment
States that listing certain rights in the Constitution does
Ninth
not imply that the people do not have other rights as
Amendment
well.
States that any powers not delegated to the national
Tenth
Amendment government are reserved to the states, or to the people.
1. All of these leaders contributed to the Federalist Papers except _____________
A. James Madison.
B. Alexander Hamilton.
C. Benjamin Franklin.
D. John Jay.
2. What power does the president have over the Supreme Court?
A. The president can veto legislation.
B. The president can nominate justices.
C. The president can appoint justices.
D. The president can impeach justices if they commit crimes.
3. In what way is a free press a check on the power of the government?
A. It keeps the people informed of the leaders’ actions and decisions.
B. It argues that individual citizens should be allowed to vote.
C. It establishes the rights and freedoms of the citizens.
D. It argues for compromise among various factions.
4. A federal government is defi ned as one in which ___________________
A. the state governments have more power than the national government.
B. the national government has more power than the state governments.
C. the national and state governments share power equally.
D. there is a national government but no state or local governments.
5. The idea for a government with three branches, each with power over the other
two, originally came from ______________
A. ancient Rome.
B. medieval Britain.
C. the Enlightenment.
D. Colonial custom and experience.
6. How does the Great Compromise diff er from earlier ideas for the national
legislature?
A. It provides for a bicameral legislature.
B. It requires proportional representation in both houses.
C. It requires equal representation in both houses.
D. It provides for proportional representation in one house and equal representation in the
other.
7. The Antifederalists’ greatest concern about the Constitution was that it did not
__________________
A. provide for a balanced government.
B. address the subject of individual rights.
C. prevent the danger of factions taking power.
D. treat the interests of all states impartially.
8. The First Amendment establishes all of the following except ________________
A. freedom of speech.
B. freedom of the press.
C. free exercise of religion.
D. freedom from slavery.
9. All of these except ____________ were important in shaping the thinking of the
delegates at the Constitutional Convention.
A. the Magna Carta
B. The Spirit of Laws
C. the English Bill of Rights
D. the Federalist Papers
10. Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention were kept secret during the period
of debate because the delegates ___________________
A. did not want to be subjected to outside pressure to vote a certain way.
B. knew that their work would be unpopular with their constituents.
C. were afraid of provoking a popular uprising.
D. knew that foreign spies might report their activities to other governments.