The Constitution: Elites and the People / Protecting Property and Order Flashcards
Shay’s Rebellion
- Recovering from the revolution, every state was in debt
- Gov’t responded by raising taxes on land ownership, not owned wealth; disproportionately affected farmers, and favoring Urban Elites
- Had tried protest and petition but to no avail; farmer resistance in MA transformed into an outright rebellion against the state gov
- Seized local courts (similar tactic used against coercive acts); MA had asked Congress for help, but Congress recognized their lack of ability to force another state into assisting… set into motion the Constitutional Convention
Constitutional Convention
- 55 elites gathered from 12 states (RI was the exception) in order to develop a constitution
- Concerned with personal interest (protecting property) and maintaining order (see Shay’s Rebellion)
- No one at the convention represented the poor, women, or the enslaved
- Significant attendees:
James Madison
Benjamin Franklin
GW
Alexander Hamilton
Two primary questions:
1. What sort of government do we, the elites, want?
2. What sort of government will the people accept?
- Madison proposes state legislature where power is determined by population
- Virginia Plan: political power based on population / small states would not give up 1:1 voting under the Articles of Confed.
“Great Compromise”
- Created a national legislature that had two distinct bodies: one based on population and another with an equal share for every state
- House of Reps (population) / Senate (two per state)
- Resolved the conflict between large and small states
The National Legislature
Senate: equal power for every state; the constitution at this time said that senators would be appointed by each state’s legislature, in other words, no direct democracy for the Senate. Voters had no direct say–changed in 1913
- This was done on purpose; the men at the convention generally feared the people; thought they were ignorant, easily manipulated, and prone to corruption
- If this if your view of voters, you’re not going to create a gov’t that puts power into their hands
- Rather, they wanted power to lie in the men who already controlled the state legislatures
- Hope was that the Senate would always be held by the rich; envisioned the House would be much more raucous
- 6-year term and no limit for term
House:
- Federal gov’t needs to know the exact population of every state; issue a census to be performed every 10 years
- According to the census, the gov’t would reapportion # of delegates in the house (happens every 10 years)
- Each state gets split up into several districts based on population; aimed to be roughly equal; each voter gets to vote in one district
What are the national legislatures’ powers?
1. Power to tax
2. Borrow money on credit from US
3. Regulate international trade, intrastate trade, and trade with Native peoples
- Does not give power to regulate trade within states
4. Congress makes the rules of naturalization (citizenship)
5. To declare war
6. Raise & support an army and navy; size and funding
7. Congress will be able to create a district that holds the seat of the government; wanted to ensure that the federal gov’t was not in any one state
Last provision: “Necessary and proper” clause; the document gives the illusion of limited power for the legislature
Electoral College and the Presidency
- Still needed an executive branch; a method to enforce the law
- Move to designing an executive branch to enforce the laws; reject the idea of the King… instead, they decide on a “President” who would be the executive; system was designed knowing the position would be held by GW
- Process of determining the President:
1. Each state receives a number of electoral votes based on #H reps + # S reps
2. Each state has discretion to pick the delegates however it chooses; often, electoral voters were selected by the state legislature (in other words, removing the people from the process)
3. Each voter casts two votes for President; one of the two has to be a candidate from another state - if someone receives majority, they become president (2nd place is VP)
4. If no one receives a majority, the house can pick the president from the top-5 finishers
Main powers of the Presidency:
1. Commander-in-chief of the military
2. President has power to veto a bill passed by Congress
3. Power to pardon
4. Power to make treaties
5. Power to appoint foreign ambassadors
3/5ths Compromise
- Compromise aimed to bridge the conflict between SC and GA (states who want slaves to be counted towards population) and other members of the convention who aimed to form a union
- the northern and southern delegates agreed to count each slave as 3/5ths of a free person in the census
- Effect is to give slave states more representation in the house and the electoral college (H+S)
- Made this country a slave nation
Federalists and the Anti-Federalists
- Federalists: support the ratification of the constitution; included primarily the elite, but also the press, veterans… not a majority
- Anti-Federalists: do not support ratification of the constitution; disorganized and in disagreement… represented the majority
- Primary concern was deep fear of a strong, centralized government
The Bill of Rights
- Drafted by James Madison, who is elected to speaker of the house
- 1st 10 amendments to the constitution to protect the people’s rights from the federal gov’t
- Protects five freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly, petition
- Right to bear arms
- Right to privacy
- Rights when accused of a crime
- Defines due process: FSPLJT (Fair, Speedy, Public, Local, Jury, Trial)
- Forbids excessive bail, fines, or cruel & unusual punishment
- People have other rights not explicitly listed here
- Any power not explicitly given to the federal gov’t, is instead the purview of the state (in competition with the elastic clause)
