Those
even marginally familiar with the United States Constitution and the process of
its creation understand that is a document of compromises. Some of the
compromises are famous, or perhaps infamous; two that come instantly to mind
are the 3/5 compromise and the “Great Compromise”, the latter being the
agreement that gave us our two-house legislative branch structured as it is,
and selected as it was before the 17th Amendment.
What
many do not completely understand is the reason for all of these compromises in
a more specific sense than simply chocking it all up to “politics”, and the
first step in gaining that understanding is to become aware of the structure
and circumstances of the United States of America at the time of the
Constitutional Convention. That
structure was not of a nation at all, but rather of thirteen nations loosely
banded together to win a war for independence that was now four years behind
them and no longer providing the epoxy mixed of danger and patriotism that had
held them together, however imperfectly.
The glue was cracking along sectional seams, with New England, the
Middle States, and the Southern States showing signs of creating three separate
alliances. Everyone knew that such an
arrangement would inevitably lead to war, and to make the situation even more
perilous the major European powers were hovering and hoping for exactly such
conflict so they could sweep in and divide up the continent.
With
these political realities in mind, and with the blessing of the Continental
Congress, most of the States agreed to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia
to shore up the anemic Articles of Confederation, the formal document that
defined the weak social compact that existed between the States. But while some of the delegates were thinking
new Constitution, the State Assemblies that sent them to Philadelphia were
not. Only very slight additional powers
for the Continental Congress, such as a limited power to levy taxes from the
States, was what almost everyone had in mind.
The former colonies were newly independent, loosely confederated nation
states whose citizens had no desire to create a central government in America
with any powers comparable to the British government they had so recently cast
off at the price of much blood, treasure and turmoil. And this sentiment was most acute in the
smaller states that feared being politically overwhelmed by their larger, more
populous, neighbors; tiny Rhode Island actually refused to send delegates to
the Convention and was the last to ratify the Constitution, doing so only when
the hand-writing on the wall was undeniable.
When it
became clear at the Convention that a new constitution was actually the goal,
there was universal agreement that the government would be in the form of a constitutional
republic; theocracy was never considered and democracy universally shunned as
both impractical and undesirable. But
the exact form of the republic was not easy to agree upon; nearly four months
were spent hammering out compromises.
It was
generally understood that a majority of the States in each of the three regions
must agree to the new Constitution in order for it to be viable. New England and the Middle States agreeing
while excluding the South would not do; the Middle States and the South
agreeing without New England would fail as well. Compromises acceptable to at least a majority
of the states from each region were absolutely necessary or the result would be
disunion and inevitable war. Slavery was
tolerated by delegates who generally found it intolerable; delegates who wanted
the central government to have almost no power agreed to give it more than they
were comfortable with; delegates who wanted the voice of “The People” at large
to speak through the power of a strong central government agreed to retain a
significant portion of State sovereignty. Everyone compromised.
Each of
the three regions had large, populous States, but each also had many low
population States and these had to be accommodated. These smaller States were being asked to give
up One State, One Vote equality under the Articles of Confederation, and they
were not about to agree to a formula of representation based purely on
population that would completely subordinate them to the big States. The “Great Compromise” gave small States equal
representation in the U.S. Senate and allowed that the Senators be selected by
the State legislatures, while members of the House of Representatives were made
proportional to State populations and directly elected by the people of each
State. Each State’s allotment of
delegates to the Electoral College that selects the President was made equal in
number to the State’s representatives in The House of Representatives plus the
two Senators from each State. This
formula gives slightly disproportionate representation in the selection of the
President to the smaller States. The
larger States did not agree to these compromises lightly, but they were
absolutely necessary to bring the small States on board, a necessity because
there was still to be a One State, One Vote election, and that was for
ratification of the new Constitution. It
was agreed that nine of the thirteen States must ratify before the Constitution
would be adopted, and further understood that unanimous ratification was highly
desirable.
In what
might be called a “pure republic” every citizen would be equally represented in
the bodies that make the laws and select the executive. This is not the case in the government
created by the United States Constitution, and not all of the deviations from “pure
republic” were arrived at by hard fought compromise; some were more universally
accepted and deemed desirable by most of the delegates. They were very aware of what John Adams would
call “Tyranny of the Majority”, and specifically designed a constitution that
would protect minorities – in a sense that’s what the Constitutional is all
about.
During
the ratification process and beyond, constitutional cheerleaders like Madison
and Hamilton put positive spin onto every article and section of the Constitution,
the unavoidable compromises no less so than the well designed safeguards. In
some cases it’s difficult for us to know which features of the Constitution
fall into which category, but the result is what has been called “filtered
democracy” meaning that The People were in charge, but not directly so. In addition to the basic representative
nature of the government, various cleverly designed “filters” removed the
choosing of some officials and the making of law from the momentary whims or
knee jerk reactions of The People. Many
of these filters have already been briefly mentioned: Senators were chosen by State legislatures,
not directly by the people; the President was chosen by “Electors” who were
elected by The People, but would presumably vote their consciences and were not
constitutionally bound to vote for The People’s choice. Constitutional
amendment or State laws have eliminated these particular filters.
Among
the filters that remain are those that provide slightly disproportionate clout
to the smaller States in Congress and in the Electoral College. The smaller States are also protected in the constitutional
amendment process which requires three-fourths of the State legislatures to
agree before any amendment to the Constitution is adopted, with the small
States having an equal vote. It might be argued that such filters should go
the way of the 3/5 compromise that is obviously not relevant in 21st century
America, but it must be remembered that the purpose of these filters, whether
arrived at by bitter compromise or by judicious philosophical agreement, and of
the Constitution itself, is to protect minorities from the Tyranny of the
Majority. This nation would not be viable if dominated by the political
philosophies of its major population centers. To rural America it would be, or at least appear, the exact situation
that so many early Americans feared, a tyrannical, corrupt government no better
than the British monarchy. What’s truly amazing is that more than two centuries
and 37 States of all sizes later, the delicate balance created in a chaos of
desperate compromise between big, medium, and small States remains intact with
no region or demography consistently dominating.
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