3.8: A Practical Constitution

The Founders who crafted the Constitution were among the cleverest political theorists of their era and perhaps any era. Yet their creation was not a purely theoretical document. Rather, it was shaped by the political, economic, and social conditions of the time. To succeed, it needed support throughout the new nation. In other words, it needed to please large states and small states, Northern states and Southern states, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, all while maintaining its functionality.

Despite these limitations, the Constitution has remained in effect to the present day. America has changed in many ways the Founders did not and could not predict, but it is still governed according to a plan first put to parchment in Philadelphia over 200 years ago. That plan has been amended 27 times since its ratification, but its underlying structure—three branches, each with distinct powers and the ability to check the other two—persists.

Americans take a great deal of pride in their constitution. At times they exhibit reverence for it, exalting the delegates to the Constitutional Convention as almost mythical figures and using the words constitutional and unconstitutional as though they were synonyms for good and evil. Yet the Founders were mortals, constrained by political realities. The 27 amendments testify to the fact that their handiwork was not perfect, even though Americans still disagree on whether all of those amendments were necessary or good.

One area where the Constitution has not aged well is on the topic of slavery. The Founders tiptoed delicately around the issue. The words slave and slavery did not appear in the original Constitution, and compromises were made to prevent Southern states from walking out of the Constitutional Convention and fracturing the young nation. Today, the idea of compromising on slavery strikes most people as morally reprehensible. Perhaps Northern delegates could have persuaded Southern delegates to accept terms less favorable to slavery. Perhaps refusing to compromise would have split the Union from the very beginning, resulting in an independent South where slavery would have lasted much longer. There is no way to know for sure.

Ultimately, the best approach to the Constitution is neither excessive deference nor rash revisionism. Constitutions sometimes need to change, and America’s is no exception. The fact that things have been done a certain way since 1789 does not prove that they should continue to be done the same way going forward. At the same time, constitutions are hard to change for a reason. The durability of the Constitution should give us users pause before we clamor for amending it anew. Tinkering with intricate machines, though often justified, can lead to unpredictable outcomes that may even be worse than the original problems. Every word in the Constitution was put there for a reason, and we should always endeavor to understand why the Constitution is the way it is before attempting to change it.