The Framers of the American Constitution were visionary men. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 lasted four months long and was able to construct the most stable written form of government. The fifty-five men who attended the convention in Philadelphia created a document that was the result of dozens of compromises and shaped by the failures of the Unites States under the Articles of Confederation, as well as the failures of all well-known European governments of the time. They sought not only to address the specific challenges facing the nation during their lifetimes, but to establish the foundational principles that would sustain and guide the new nation into an uncertain future. The Framers understood that they were entrusting future generations with the responsibility to draw upon their intelligence, judgment, and experience to give concrete meaning to these broad principles over time. The Constitution of the United States set forth broad principles of freedom and liberty that allowed for interpretation to redefine those principles in an ever-changing society. The principles protected in the Constitution are unchanging, but the application of those principles must evolve with society.
The major challenge that the Framers faced when setting out to write the Constitution was to create a document and a system of government that could be inclusive of all of the perspectives and viewpoints of the delegates and states involved in the convention. The country was a melting-pot of diversity, made up of several different communities who spoke various languages, belonged to multiple religions, and each had their own distinct cultures. For fear of more conflict amongst the states it was necessary to work to create a document that would be a grand compromise of the many competing views. Many of the delegates were afraid of giving a central government too much power, because they believed it would be no different than having a tyrannical king.
The Founding Fathers disagreed upon many issues during the creation of the constitution, but they were most concerned about state representation, creating checks and balances within the centralized government, avoiding giving the central government too much power, and the development of the court system. To create a system of checks and balances, the three governmental branches were created: a judicial branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch. Under the ideas of federalism, the Framers were able to create a new central government that was strong enough to meet the nation’s needs and guard against excessive democracy and, at the same time, preserve the sovereignty of the existing states, while ensuring that no group became dominant. It provided the framework for a government strong enough to protect commerce and weak enough to prevent it from abusing its powers. The states favored this decision granted that the powers not delegated to the national government by the Constitution were reserved for the individual states.
The most prevalent disagreement amongst the Framers was the issue of state representation. This issue could not be solved as quickly as the creation of a checks and balances system had been. Larger state delegates wanted to use population numbers to decide how many people would be chosen as delegates for Congress (Virginia Plan). However, the delegates who were from smaller states felt that they would not be able to make a difference in the legislative branch if the larger states were given too much additional power, so they wanted every state to have an equal representation in Congress (New Jersey Plan). To solve the disagreement of representation in Congress, the Framers decided to create two parts to the legislative branch: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate would permit two delegates from each state regardless of size, while the House of Representatives would have a set number of delegates based on the overall population size in each state. This solution was known as the Great Compromise. Another disagreement that came up was a sectional dispute over slave representation. Most of the population in the South was slave labor. Although plantation owners did not treat their workforce as citizens with any rights, they wanted them to count as such, so that the southern states could have more representation in the House. The Three-Fifths Compromise granted that each slave would count for three-fifths of a person, thus adding to their political representation. The North agreed with this decision, because slaves would also be counted for direct tax assessments made by the new government.
Despite considerable state sovereignty, the Framers also had to provide a national government that was superior to the states. There was economic diversity between the states, from plantations in the South to the merchants in New England. The Framers needed to protect the industries but also provide a united front. The sectional clash first erupted over the power of Congress to regulate commerce. Southerners worried that a northern majority would pass navigation acts favoring northern shippers and drive up the cost of sending southern commodities to Europe. Delegates from the Lower South demanded that a two-thirds majority be required to enact trade legislation. Although southern delegates agreed to a simple majority, they got their way on the issue of slavery. Southern planters agreed that they would join the new Union only if they could continue to import slaves. The new Constitution thus forbade Congress from acting against the slave trade for twenty years and provided that runaway slaves found in free states had to be returned to their masters in the South. This was a major achievement for the slave states.
After settling the question of slavery, the convention had one last piece of business to discuss: the question of the national executive. The delegates created a chief executive office with broad discretionary powers. Once that was decided, determining how to elect the president proved to be problematic. The delegates wanted an independent executive, protected from the opinion of an uninformed public and the interests of the legislature. As a result, they rejected both popular election and election by Congress. The solution they came up with was an “electoral college.” Each state was to decide on its own discretion how it would choose presidential electors. The candidate that received the majority of electoral votes would become president. If no contender received a majority, the election would be turned over to the House of Representatives, where each state would have one vote. This served as a check on the power of the people.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was signed. All thirteen states, except Rhode Island sent delegates to Philadelphia and participated in writing the Constitution of the United States. Fifty-five men of all different backgrounds represented the interests of one nation. The Preamble, beginning with the words “We the People” emphasized the national vision of the Framers and their desire to create a united form of government by identifying the people as the source of authority.