Issues at the Constitutional Convention

1. How much power to give to central government?

Weak areas of A of C:

taxation

foreign trade

trade between states (interstate)

no executive branch

no judicial branch

The government is given much more power under the Constitution…..

But it has “safety brakes” designed to prevent it from becoming too powerful:

• “Safety brakes”:

• Separation of powers• Checks and balances• People have input on officials (but limited)• Bill of Rights (not part of original plan)• Federalism

2. How much democracy?

• Fears of the “Founding Fathers”

“Good God! We are far gone in everything that is ignoble and bad!”

• Limits on Democracy in the Constitution– States set voting requirements– Electoral College– Senators chosen by state legislatures– Federal Judges appointed by President

3. What to do about slavery?• The deal breaker• Issue of property rights• Government interference in economic livelihood• What would be done with black population if

slavery abolished?• Contradiction of slavery and natural rights –

– Hypocrisy made slavery “unmentionable” in Const.

a. Slavery and Representation

• “Representatives shall be apportioned among the States…according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, those bound to service for a term of years,… and three-fifths of all other persons.”

b. The Importation of Slaves

• “The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808.”

c. Runaway Slaves

• “No person held to service or labor in one State, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.”

“Liberty and Slavery – opposite as Heaven and Hell – are both in the Constitution… The man that swears support to it vows allegiance to two masters – so opposite, that fidelity to one is, necessarily treachery to the other. If we adopt the preamble with Liberty and Justice, we must repudiate the enacting clauses, with Kidnapping and Slaveholding.”

Frederick Douglass, 1850

4. Representation in Congress

• Problem with A of C:Virginia 747, 610Pennsylvania 434,373Massachusetts 378,787

Georgia 82,548Rhode Island 68,825Delaware 59,096

• Proposed plans:– The Virginia Plan

– The New Jersey Plan

• Solution: The Connecticut Compromise• The Great Compromise