This blog is part of a series celebrating Constitution Week (September 17 through 23). It's brought to you by Jon M., Career Support Librarian in the Community Engagement Office.
Many people might be able, with the help of either Schoolhouse Rock! or what may be the worst episode of the original run of Star Trek, to quote The Preamble to the Constitution. Many others can quote some portions of the Bill of Rights, which are Amendments to The Constitution. But how many can quote some portion of the body of The Constitution itself? Do they know that it has seven articles? Do they know what each is about?
Let's start with the Preamble. It’s a sort of mission statement:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
It’s a framework, a set of goals, seeking to secure Justice, Tranquility, Welfare, and Liberty for Posterity. Not just the things themselves, but the concepts thereof. That’s the reason for the capitalization: these things matter. It’s meant to inspire. It’s a strong opening!
And then it gets right into it with Article One: The Legislative Branch. We have the House, apportioned by population. And we get the Senate, with an equal number of members for each and every State. There are still arguments about whether we’re a democracy or a constitutional republic, and they were there at the start of this country and will almost certainly persist. Additionally, it lists what the Legislative Branch can do, with mentions of Money and Commerce and Armies and a Navy. Militias are also mentioned, and this is likely a reaction to Shays’ Rebellion, which strengthened Federalist claims that there needed to be more centralized control of money as well as armed reactions to angry mobs. The Federalists argued that the rebellion was both caused and elongated by built-in weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation.
Also in reaction to such a rebellion, there is a section concerning what the Legislative Branch cannot do. For instance, Congress can’t suspend Habeas Corpus unless there’s a rebellion or a war going on. Habeas Corpus is the right for someone getting arrested or jailed to have the government convince a judge why that person should be held. Of all the liberties, this one is so fundamental it’s almost essential for any nation claiming to be a free country. Additionally, there’s a ban on titles of nobility and of government officers from taking gifts or titles from foreign states.
Next, the Constitution moves on to the Executive Branch, with the President and Vice-President. One of the oddities to modern-day readers is that the Vice-President was originally the one with the most Electoral Votes after the President was chosen. This led to some political issues that were obvious in hindsight, but the plan was not to have political parties or factions. That didn't work out.
The power of organization was stronger than even the best-intended hopes that Federalists and Anti-Federalists (and the parties that arose, morphed, and developed from this early political conflict) would come to agreements. The Twelfth Amendment arrived early in the 19th century to make Presidents and Vice-Presidents be voted on in separate Electoral Votes, making it extremely unlikely that they’d be chosen from different political parties. Another Constitutional Amendment, the Seventeenth, changed the choosing of Senators from a decision made by State legislatures to one made by popular elections in the States. Democracy’s trend in this country is toward inclusiveness. Sure, it has been a slow trend. But a trend nonetheless.
The Constitution continues with Article Three and the Judicial Branch, which could be called a sketch more than a framework. Article Four concerns laws and their portability from state to state and even how new states can be admitted. Article Five concerns how Amendments can be made and ratified. Article Six largely focuses on how the Constitution doesn’t dispel debts or obligations made under the Articles of Confederation, and it also says upon ratification government officials will be required to make an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution. The last, Article Seven, identified how—on September 17, 1787—the Constitution would go to the States to be ratified and become law of the land, superseding the Articles of Confederation and becoming the second founding document of The United States of America.
What sets the US Constitution apart from others of its day was a reliance on checks and balances between branches of government. A population-based legislative body and one where each State gets equal representation must agree on laws to be passed to an executive, who could be overruled by two-thirds of each of those legislative bodies. There’s a lot of frustration built into a system like that, but there’s also a great deal of stability. Change being slow is painful for many, yet once change happens it tends to stick. Change is always too fast for some, not fast enough for others, and devastatingly slow for some. A nation full of such lofty ideals, compromised either for necessity or just that consensus has not been obtained yet, was not “a more perfect Union” at its start. It’s not even there yet. But it has lasted, been tested, triumphed, faltered, experimented, aspired, and even inspired millions if not billions of people all over the world. As well it should, because it’s truly remarkable.
