American Government and the Constitution Lecture One

American Government and the Constitution Lectures: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14

“

Hold on my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what happened once in 6,000 years may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution!

”

Those were the words of one of the greatest statesmen of the 1800s, Daniel Webster, who represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives in the 1820s, and in the U.S. Senate until 1850, and was Secretary of State after that.

Daniel Webster was not the first to call the U.S. Constitution a "miracle". George Washington was. He presided over the Constitutional Convention that created the Constitution in Philadelphia during the hot summer of 1787. The following winter he said this about it:

“

It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States (which States you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections.

”

There was no single author of the Constitution, and no single person (not even George Washington) had an enormous influence over it. It was the product of a few dozen men, most of whom had fought alongside each other in the successful American Revolution, and virtually all of whom where devout Christians inspired by their faith. They opposed a monarchy, which was the system of government in England and all of Europe.

The men were "delegates" sent from 12 of 13 colonies (every colony except Rhode Island). The total number of delegates who attended was 55, but only 39 of them signed the final document, as others gave up during the process or disagreed with the final result. The eldest was Benjamin Franklin, who was too weak at age 81 to walk up the stairs to the room, and the youngest was 26 years old.

The convention was conducted in total secrecy, so that the media could not report on and influence the decisions. Participants were ordered to destroy the notes that they took. At the conclusion, a woman noticed Benjamin Franklin outside and asked him, "What have we got — a Republic or a Monarchy?" Benjamin Franklin responded, "A Republic, if you can keep it." Franklin's quote explains that the Constitution neither creates a monarchy (rule by a king or queen, as in Europe at that time) nor a democracy (rule directly by the people, as in ancient Athens), but a "Republic" (rule by representatives of the people, in accordance with the law). By saying "if you can keep it," Franklin emphasized that it requires constant work and education to maintain a Republic against pressures to convert it to a less favorable system of government, such as a monarchy or democracy.

The United States Constitution has been successful longer than any other written legal document in the history of the world - nearly 230 years. This Constitution is relatively short, less than 5,000 words, and can be read easily in less than hour. It contains only seven separate Articles (entitled Article I, Article II, Article III, etc.) Subsequent to the adoption (ratification) of the Constitution, 27 Amendments have been added to it, pursuant to Article V which sets the rules for amendments. The Constitution is the greatest legal document ever written, and this course will enable you to understand and use it beneficially.

The Articles of Confederation

The "United States of America" existed before the Constitution was written and approved. Written in 1777 (a year after the Declaration of Independence) and adopted by all 13 colonies by 1781, the "Articles of Confederation" brought together the 13 colonies while they were still fighting in the American Revolution to win independence from the King of England. The Articles of Confederation had 13 Articles, but did not establish a federal executive branch (now led by the president) or a federal judiciary. Instead, nearly all the power remained in the hands of the States, the former colonies. Each State had equal power in the Continental Congress established by the Articles of Confederation.

Only a few good things were achieved after the Articles of Confederation were adopted, most notably the passage by Congress of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to set rules for the settlement and eventual creation of what became the new states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, which were "northwest" of the original 13 colonies.

By the summer of 1787, many people (including George Washington) recognized that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for the young United States of America. Rebellions occurred which the national government was unable to quell. At one point congressmen themselves had to flee Philadelphia, where they were meeting, because the Pennsylvania governor would not use his militia to protect them from rioters. The national government depended on voluntary contributions from the States to raise money, and as a result the national government was broke. Amendments to the Articles of Confederation required unanimous consent of all 13 States, and which was virtually impossible to achieve. The tax burdens on the States were in proportion to their land values, but the national government had no power to collect the taxes and support its operations. Britain continued to occupy forts in territory west of the States, but there was nothing the new United States of America could do about it. The national government was simply too weak under the Articles of Confederation. A stronger national government was needed.

The Constitutional Convention

In early 1787, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison pushed for a new convention to fix the problems in the Articles of Confederation. They persuaded George Washington, who was the recognized leader of the young nation by virtue of his victory in the American Revolution, to ask the States to send representatives ("delegates") to this new convention. Many people refused to participate, while others were unable to attend due to other responsibilities. The Founders who did not attend included John Adams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson (American minister to France at the time), John Hancock, and Richard Henry Lee.

But an even greater group of men did attend and participate in the new convention, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Elbridge Gerry, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Mason, Gouverneur Morris, Roger Sherman, William Paterson, Charles Pinckney, and Edmund Randolph.

The delegates met in Independence Hall in Philadelphia during the hot summer months of 1787, debating and writing the new Constitution over a period of about four months (from May to September, with breaks in between). There were three basic rules for the convention:

1. All proceedings were secret and communications with the outside media were strictly prohibited;
2. Each state had one vote, based on the majority opinion of the delegates from that State; and
3. Respectful decorum must be maintained at all times during the proceedings.

George Washington was elected by unanimous vote to preside over the convention, giving him the power to keep order and rule on issues of procedure.

All told, 55 delegates participated in some way in the Constitutional Convention, but some left early and others (including Elbridge Gerry and George Mason) refused to sign it. When the Constitution was fully written, only 39 delegates signed it on September 17, 1787, which is honored annually as "Constitution Day."

Limited Powers, and Separation of Powers

George Washington, who presided over the Constitutional Convention that created the new Constitution, explained that it had two great features:

“

1st That the general Government is not invested with more Powers than are indispensably necessary to perform [the] functions of a good Government; and, consequently, that no objection ought to be made against the quantity of Power delegated to it. 2ly That these Powers (as the appointment of all Rulers will forever arise from, and, at short stated intervals, recur to the free suffrage of the People) are so distributed among the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, into which the general Government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an Oligarchy, an Aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form; so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the People.

”

Notice the condition that George Washington included at the end: "so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the People." The Founders knew that the Constitution would not last unless the people continued to be moral and virtuous. John Adams, another Founder and the second President after Washington, said that "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were a series of articles published anonymously under the pen name "Publius" in an influential New York City paper in order to urge that large State to ratify the U.S. Constitution in late 1787 through April 4, 1788. Today we know that 51 of these articles were written by Alexander Hamilton and 29 were written by James Madison, two of the most important delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and 5 were written by John Jay, a future Supreme Court Justice.

Today the Federalist Papers are the leading resource for interpreting what the Constitution means. They are cited by their article number, as in "Federalist No. 83," in order to reference a particular article. Usually the person who authored the particular article is included in parentheses, as in "Federalist No. 83 (A. Hamilton)."

The most famous of the Federalist Papers is Federalist No. 10 by James Madison, in he which he makes a brilliant argument a strong union of the States will overcome harmful factions better than an individual State is able to.

The full text of the Federalist Papers are available online for free, at many websites.

There were also so-called "Anti-Federalist Papers," which opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The most prominent among the Founders who opposed the U.S. Constitution were Patrick Henry, George Mason, and George Clinton. They and others wrote anti-Constitution articles that almost irrelevant today, because the U.S. Constitution was ratified and very successful.

Resources

• http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_q_and_a.html - interesting facts and figures about the Constitution

Homework

1. Read the entire Constitution in about an hour's time beginning to end, to see the "big picture" of the document. Do not worry if you do not understand every term or concept in it.

2. Write an outline for the Articles in the Constitution (do not include the Amendments, which were added later). For example, "Article I - establishes Congress and defines its legislative power. Article II - ...."

3. Identify three major resources for learning more about the Constitution and what it means, such as documents written at the time which are now available on the internet.

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