II   Events Leading to the Drafting of the Constitution

By 1786, the Confederation of the United States, established in 1781 by the Articles of Confederation, was in danger of dissolution. The national government lacked authority to legislate for the country as a whole in many vital matters and was not empowered to enforce its decisions. Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts and the possibility of intervention by foreign countries gave added weight to the repeated warnings of George Washington and other statesmen that the government of the union, formed during the American Revolution (1775-1783), was in need of drastic revision if the United States were to endure as a nation.

A solution to the problem developed unexpectedly as a result of action taken by a convention of representatives of five states, held in 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, to formulate a uniform code of trade regulations for the 13 states of the Confederation. The Annapolis convention recommended that the states send delegates to another convention "to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union ..." The Congress of the Confederation endorsed the proposal.

III   The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention, which opened in the State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 25, 1787, was one of the most remarkable bodies ever to assemble anywhere. Twelve states were represented by 55 delegates. Rhode Island, fearful that national regulation would injure its lucrative trade, opposed revising the Articles of Confederation and sent no delegates.

George Washington was chosen president of the convention. Among the other delegates were James Madison, George Mason, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia; Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, and Robert and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania; Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut; Rufus King of Massachusetts; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina; John Dickinson of Delaware; Alexander Hamilton of New York; William Paterson of New Jersey; and Luther Martin of Maryland. John Jay, who was U.S. secretary of foreign affairs, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who were out of the country on government missions, did not attend the convention; nor did Patrick Henry or Samuel Adams, both of whom opposed the creation of a strong central government.

Except for brief adjournments the Constitutional Convention was in continuous session until its work was done and approved by "unanimous consent of the States present." On the whole the debates were conducted on a high plane of eloquence and practical statesmanship, but occasionally moments were acrimonious and sessions were stormy. At times the convention was deadlocked. On one occasion a number of delegates withdrew from the convention on the ground that it was exceeding its authority in writing a new constitution. Madison, called the Father of the Constitution, Franklin, then 81 years old, John Dickinson, and Roger Sherman, however, were especially skilled, tactful, and patient in resolving disputed issues during the 16 weeks the convention was in session. All the major issues in dispute were disposed of by compromises that made possible the establishment of a national republic with a government of limited and delegated powers and that did much to determine the fundamental and unique features of the U.S. system of federal and state governments.

The first and most serious conflict in the Constitutional Convention occurred over the plans for a national government introduced by Virginia and New Jersey. Both plans provided for a national government of three independent branches—executive, judicial, and legislative—but they disagreed principally over the character of the legislature. The Virginia Plan, supported by the larger states, provided for a bicameral legislature: a House of Representatives elected by popular vote, and a Senate elected by the House. This would have given the more populous states control of the national legislature. The smaller states, fearful that their interests would suffer by such an arrangement, supported the New Jersey Plan, which provided for a unicameral legislature in which all the states were to have equal representation.

The issue was bitterly fought, and for a time it seemed that the convention would founder. The dispute was finally resolved by the Connecticut, or Great, Compromise, establishing the present arrangement whereby the states are equally represented in the Senate and are represented in the House of Representatives in proportion to their populations. As a precaution against having to assume the financial burdens of the smaller states, the larger states exacted an agreement that revenue bills could originate only in the House, where the more populous states were to have greater representation. The southern states won the point that in enumerating the population of the states, three-fifths of the black slaves within their borders should be added to the total number of white persons within their borders.

Other important issues in the Constitutional Convention involved chiefly sectional economic interests. The southern states, which were not as populous as the northern states, feared that giving Congress the power to regulate trade might adversely affect their economy, based mainly on the export of tobacco, rice, and indigo and on slave trading. They demanded that legislation affecting commerce be enacted only by two-thirds majority votes, but they consented to eliminate this requirement when the northern states agreed to constitutional clauses prohibiting the federal government from levying export taxes and from interfering with the slave trade before 1808. The southern states were further placated by the provision for a decennial census as the basis for apportioning representatives, for they looked on this measure as a way to increase their representation in the House as their populations increased.

In September the convention concluded the writing of the Constitution and gave the completed draft to a committee on style to polish the language. The notable literary quality of the Constitution, an unusual feature in documents of state, is due principally to Gouverneur Morris. On September 17, 1787, 39 delegates, the others being opposed or absent, signed the Constitution and sent it to the Congress of the Confederation. The Convention then adjourned. On September 28, Congress sent the Constitution to the states for ratification.

IV   The Struggle over Ratification of the Constitution

Article VII of the Constitution stipulated that the Constitution could become effective only after conventions in two-thirds of the states had ratified it. This necessary ratification took place after a bitter struggle, in which some opponents condemned the establishment of a strong national government and urged instead the establishment of a confederation of sovereign states. Others objected to the lack of adequate constitutional safeguards of fundamental rights. Although differences of opinion were expressed among the people as a whole, the majority of the merchants, shippers, manufacturers, bondholders, land speculators, lawyers, and ministers were for ratification; and a majority of those opposed were small farmers and artisans.

Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution in December 1787. Georgia and Connecticut followed in January 1788. In Massachusetts, supporters of the Constitution won ratification in February after intense debate by suggesting that, after ratification, Massachusetts propose that the Constitution be amended to include a bill of rights. Maryland and South Carolina ratified the Constitution in April and May, respectively. In June New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, completing the necessary two-thirds majority.

A struggle in the Virginia convention resulted in ratification on June 26. In New York, Alexander Hamilton won ratification in July after threatening to detach New York City from the rest of the state. North Carolina rejected the Constitution in 1788, but ratified it in November 1789, when the U.S. government had already been established. Rhode Island was induced to ratify the Constitution in May 1790, after Congress threatened to regard it as a foreign nation and to impose duties on its exports to the other states.

V   Amendments to the Constitution

When the first U.S. Congress convened on March 4, 1789, before it were 145 amendments to the Constitution submitted by the states and groups within the states, and bills of rights submitted by Virginia and by New York. After deliberation, Congress reduced the amendments to 12, which were submitted to the states. Two failed of ratification; the others were ratified on December 15, 1791, and are known as the Bill of Rights. In general the 10 amendments are sweeping prohibitions against government abridgment or destruction of fundamental rights. The 10th Amendment, reserving to the states, or the people, those powers not delegated or prohibited to the federal government, established a basis for subsequent judicial interpretations of the Constitution, thereby limiting the power of the federal government.

Other amendments were enacted as events demonstrated their desirability or necessity. Thus the Chisholm case led to the enactment of the 11th Amendment (ratified 1795), limiting the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary. The dispute over the election of the president and vice president in 1800 led to the enactment of the 12th Amendment (ratified 1804), changing the method of electing the president and vice president. The victory of the North in the American Civil War (1861-1865) was followed by the enactment of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (ratified 1865, 1868, and 1870, respectively). These are the amendments that abolished slavery; conferred citizenship on the former slaves; and established the principles that a state cannot "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and that the right of U.S. citizens to vote cannot be denied or abridged on account of race or color.

The 16th Amendment (ratified 1913) resulted from a Supreme Court decision holding unconstitutional a federal tax on income derived from property and not apportioned among the states. This amendment gave Congress the power to levy "taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States." Popular demand, extending over many years, resulted in the enactment of the 17th Amendment (ratified 1913), providing for the election of senators by popular vote. The 18th Amendment, the so-called Prohibition Amendment, was ratified in 1919 and was repealed when the 21st Amendment was ratified in 1933. The long agitation for woman suffrage finally culminated in the enactment of the 19th Amendment (ratified 1920), giving women the right to vote.

The 20th, or "Lame Duck," Amendment (ratified 1933) changed the end of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20, and of representatives from March 4 to January 3; and fixed January 3 as the opening date of the annual meeting of Congress, which was empowered to designate another date. The 22nd Amendment, limiting to two the number of terms a president may serve, was ratified in 1951. Residents of the District of Columbia gained the right to vote for president and vice president upon enactment of the 23rd Amendment (ratified 1961). Poll taxes were imposed in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia until 1964, when the 24th Amendment, prohibiting tax payment as a requirement for voting in federal elections, was ratified.

The 25th Amendment (ratified 1967) provides that in case of the removal from office, the death, or the resignation of the president, the vice president shall become president. It also provides for the filling of a vacancy in the office of the vice-presidency. The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, provides for the lowering of the voting age to 18. The 27th Amendment (ratified 1992, 203 years after it was written by James Madison) provides that any pay raise Congress votes itself will not take effect until after an intervening congressional election.