Constitutional+Convention

The Second Continental Congress became The United States’ first government and Articles of Confederation our first Constitution. The Declaration of Independence declared our freedom from Britain and gave an outline of liberties that all free, white, United States citizens could expect to enjoy but it was not working. The new country was in economic chaos and examples such as Shay’s Rebellion were threatening to bring the Unionized Colonies to a violent end. Prosperous business men such as the shop keepers in Boston that felt immediate danger from Shay’s started calling for changes to be made to the Articles of Confederation that might improve the situation in the States.

The Philadelphia Convention

The Delegates

Long before air conditioning, 55 delegates met on a hot day in May 1787, in the meeting room of Independence Hall. Twelve of the thirteen colonies sent representation with Rode Island refusing to attend. It was a group of relatively young men. Jonathan Dayton was only 26, Gouverneur Morris 35, and Alexander Hamilton, one of the bigger Federalist zealots, was thirty. They however, were not without some age and experience; Benjamin Franklin was there at the age of eighty-one. The median age was forty-three. (Check the age of Bush’s cabinet) Half of the men were lawyers, half college educated (check stats. For college Ed.) Three of the delegates were the largest slave owners in the country: George Madison (Va.), John Rutledge (Sc.), and George Washington (Va.). Three fourths of the members had been in the Continental Congress.

The quote that best describes this group, also known as Americas first Special interest group*, is “well bred, well fed, well read, and well wed.”

Thomas Jefferson was the most noticeably absent Founder. He called the group, “an assembly of Demigods.”

Patrick Henry was also absent, after being selected by the Virginia legislature to go saying, “I smell a Rat.” The question is, what rat did he smell?

Sam Adams also balked at his invitation. Both he and Patrick Henry were instrumental in the Revolution but not available for the writing of the Constitution. Sam Adams explained that their hands were better at pulling down than building. (See politics today)

As will be evident, there most important skill was the art of compromise. They were political and legislative geniuses but that all came down to being able to compromise toward something that their state could live with.

The preliminary decisions

The first decision that may have become the most influential was to make the conduct all proceedings in secret with no public discussion allowed. This made the delegates free to make non-political decisions and not worry about their constituency. This also meant that they had to keep the windows closed in the middle of this heat wave because reporters were trying to sneak under the windows to hear the proceedings.

George Washington was unanimously elected President of the proceedings.

A majority representation had to be present to conduct official business.

Each State delegation received one vote.

The meeting becomes the Constitutional Congress

The intention of the convention was to take measures to strengthen the Articles of Confederation. After four days of meeting, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia introduced a resolution to create a new strong federal government with a Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. This changed these men historically from the delegates of the Philadelphia Convention to The Framers of the Constitution and the Convention became the Constitutional Convention.

Framing the Constitution

With the articles no longer a concern, the next step was to construct a Constitution. This required 55 men to agree on a political philosophy and governmental structure. They all had philosophical common ground but they were as different as Benjamin Franklin being a strict democrat to Hamilton and his aristocratic beliefs.

Franklin believed that the most powerful governmental voice should be given to the people

Hamilton would have had a virtually elected Monarchy. He held this belief even though he would never be eligible to be president because he was not a natural born citizen of the United States.

The decision to have a Representative Democracy or a Republic came quick and the idea of a congress was also easy but how congress would be organized was shaping up to be a highly contested issue. How States would be represented was the most debated issue.

It was becoming a contest of the small states against the big states with New Jersey leading the way for the small states and Virginia for the large states.

The New Jersey Plan

The New Jersey plan, introduced by William Paterson of New Jersey, called for a Unicameral Congress with equal representation by each state in congress. It had a Parliamentary system for selecting multiple Executives who could be removed by a majority vote of the Governors of the States. The Judiciary would be appointed by the executive and would be a single federal court.

The Virginia Plan

The Virginia Plan called for three separate branches of government. Congress would be Bicameral with both houses representation based on a State’s size or the amount of money it gives the Federal Government. Under the Virginia plan Congress would choose the Executive branch and the Judiciary. They would settle disputes between the states.

Compromises (Congress)

Most of the friction between the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan came from representation in Congress. The small States wanted Equal and the larger States wanted representation based on population.

The Great Compromise

The two sides were at a virtual stand still. It did not look like the convention was going to be able to solve the differences between the NJ plan and the Va. Plan when the members from Connecticut can up with a compromise. They offered a plan with a Senate with equal representation and a House with participation based on population. This compromise did not even come close to making everyone happy but it made one of the informal leaders, Ben Franklin, happy and the larger states were worn down so it allowed the process to move forward. The small states were Happy.

Three-fifths Compromise

Another problem was how to determine a states’ population. If slaves were to be counted for the purpose of representation then the south would have control of Congress. The Northern states would not allow that. The compromise was to count each free person as one and “all other people as 3/5’s a person. The compromise was that the south paid Federal tax for the same number. This gave the south 47% of the house. Not enough for control but plenty to satisfy their needs.

The Commerce and Slave trade Compromise

The southern States would not agree Federal power over trade without including some exclusion. They were fearful that the powerful Northern states would try to fund the new government by taxing exports such as cotton and tobacco that were strictly southern crops. They were also afraid that they might try to end slavery thus throwing the south into immediate economic turmoil. The compromise:

The federal government could not tax exports.

They could not end slavery for twenty years.

Other Compromises

There were many more compromises. Almost any issue that brought about debate had to be settled by some kind of compromise. These issues were large and small but they needed to be addressed and settled. That was what the framers did. They were all experienced in some way with law and politics so they were able to see possible issues ahead of time. This kind of for shadowing and attention to detail made was partially responsible for the documents ability to last as long as it has. We will see, however, that the true secret of longevity is the documents ability to evolve.

The Executive

One person was agreed on but how they were to be selected and for how long were highly debated. Still remembering Shay’s Rebellion, they were hesitant to let the common man vote directly for the highest office in the land. However the smaller states thought selection by Congress gave too much power to the larger states. They decided on an electoral college that would be voted on to select the president. This would be a group of individuals that could vote with the people or in an extreme case vote against the will of the people, for the good of the country. The term was to be four years with no term limits specified. This would last until 1951 when the 22nd Amendment limited the term of the President to two terms. The Framers were terrified of the executive office. They knew that this could be the most powerful position in the United States government. They were careful to include a provision for removal of the President. The House of Representatives could vote for impeachment, with a simple majority. This would send the President to the Senate for a trial. If convicted The Chief Executive would be removed from office.

What Now?

With the main issues of debate finished the only thing left was to write the document. It was now September, nearly four months after they had arrived in Philadelphia and they still had to compose the document. A committee was formed to put the ideas to words. The committee was to be called the Committee of Style and Arrangement and its members were, William Samuel Johnson, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, and Rufus King. Madison remembered the group, as the perfect for the job that they were assigned. Johnson was quickly named chairman. He was not only the steadiest man of the group, respected by both the Northern and Southern States, but he did not miss a day of the proceedings during the four months. The others were intelligent, talented writers, and brilliant politicians but might have broken into debate without the steady guidance of Johnson.

They came back with a version that has lasted over 200 years.