3.4: The Constitution of the United States

The U.S. Constitution departed from the Articles of Confederation in several key ways. One major change involved the balance of power between national and state governments: the confederal system which existed under the Articles was replaced with a federal system which increased the national government’s power over the states. The purpose of this change was to make America less like a loose league of feuding countries and more like a unified nation — or, as the Founders put it in the Preamble to the Constitution, “to form a more perfect Union.”

Under the new constitution, Congress would have two chambers instead of one: a House of Representatives and a Senate. This change resolved a dispute between large states and small states at the convention. Delegates from large states wanted congressional representation to be proportional to each state’s population, arguing that it was only fair for more populous states to have more influence in Congress, because they had more citizens who would be subject to Congress’s laws. Small-state delegates wanted to preserve the equal representation for states as outlined in the Articles, fearful of being constantly outvoted by larger states and forced to accept laws that went against their interests. To settle the disagreement, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth proposed the Great Compromise (sometimes called the Connecticut Compromise, as Sherman and Ellsworth were delegates from Connecticut), under which the House would be proportional according to population and the Senate would be equal, with each state electing two senators.

Because representation in the House of Representatives would be determined by population, the Founders needed to establish how each state’s population would be counted. This seemingly simple process was complicated by the issue of slavery, as demonstrated in Figure 3.1 below. Delegates from Southern states wanted to count slaves when determining population, because doing so would increase their number of votes in the House of Representatives (even though slaves themselves would not have the right to vote). Delegates from Northern states hoped that not counting slaves would hasten the end of slavery by reducing Southern states’ power in Congress. This dispute was resolved by the Three-Fifths Compromise, which established that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for determining each state’s representation in the House.

The Three-Fifths Compromise is sometimes misunderstood as an attempt to dehumanize slaves by declaring them to be worth 40% less than free persons. This myth falls apart upon closer inspection: the more slaves counted for in states’ populations, the more influence Southern states would have in Congress to perpetuate the institution of slavery. The Three-Fifths Compromise had nothing to do with a slave’s “worth” relative to a free person and everything to do with the states jockeying for power. In this contest, slaves were merely mathematical pawns.

Another change from the Articles was that the new Congress had lower thresholds for passing laws and amendments. Although laws would now need to be passed by two chambers instead of one, they would only require majority support in each chamber to pass. The amendment process was also made easier. Unanimous consent was no longer needed to pass an amendment; instead, amendments only required the support of two thirds of Congress (or of a national constitutional convention) and three fourths of all states. This ensured that no single state’s opposition could block constitutional reform (the flaw which had made the Articles virtually unamendable). Congress would also be empowered to make all laws deemed “necessary and proper” for carrying out its duties, according to the necessary and proper clause in Article I.

Figure 3.1: Populations of the original 13 states, 1790 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Besides changing Congress, the Constitution also added an independent chief executive — the president — and an independent Supreme Court. Unlike the weak executives under the Articles of Confederation who were chosen by Congress and wielded only the powers Congress decided to give them, the new presidents would be chosen by an Electoral College and have a set of powers granted by the Constitution. Likewise, the Supreme Court would consist of judges appointed for life with the authority to settle disputes between the states. Both the presidency and the Supreme Court were included to prevent the problems under the Articles that had been caused by Congress’s inability to enforce its laws, respond quickly to crises, and pacify squabbling states.