American Political History, Topic 4: The United States Constitution and Jefferson to Madison (1787)

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1 Background: The United States Constitution is the God-inspired rubber-and-metal vehicle that carries the American ideals of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, equality, justice, and republican government to each household in the nation. It is a means to apply the vision for America expressed by the Declaration of Independence and a blueprint for federal government based on just and holy principles that the Lord has said should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh. God raised up wise men to create a document that would protect moral agency because it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another (see D&C 101:77-80). Depending on the criteria used for measurement, the Constitution could be seen as the first written constitution in the world, the oldest written Constitution still in use, and the most successful federal charter of all time: one that many have called America s greatest export because it has had a large influence on the creation of written constitutions in almost every nation in the world. George Washington called it a miracle, Bernard Bailyn called it the final and climactic expression of the ideology of the American Revolution, and President J. Reuben Clark called it part of my religion, though he was quick to point out that we believe it must grow and develop to meet the changing needs of an advancing world. Indeed, its ability to have unchanging bedrock principles and mechanisms while also being malleable enough to respond to new challenges in every age is a large part of its inspired longevity. Where its predecessor the Articles of Confederation lacked the power to tax and raise armies, it could do both. Where the Articles lacked executive and judicial branches, it had both. Its source of power came from a federalism between the states and national government; the Articles s came only from individual states. It could be amended by three-fourths of the states; the Articles required the unanimous consent of each state. Where the Articles had equal representation of states in a unicameral congress, the Constitution struck an inspired balance: equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House. As Jack P. Greene stated, To save the republic and provide adequate protection for the liberty and property for which the Revolution had been fought required strong medicine in the form of an energetic central government that could check the popular excesses of the states. The Constitution provided such protection for the hard-won gains of the War of American Independence. It has been so useful for so long in protecting the ideals of the Revolution because of the great fundamentals upon which it is based. At the Philadelphia Convention from May to September 1787, 55 men from 12 states (Rhode Island sent no delegates) debated the Virginia Plan s and the New Jersey Plan s respective ideas about representation, the North s and the South s respective views on slavery, and James Wilson s and Alexander Hamilton s respective views on the executive, as well as a host of other issues ranging from interstate commerce to foreign affairs. The product of their dialogues and votes was, according to British statesman William Gladstone, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man : a living document that hinged on sovereignty being located in the people not representatives, not judges, and not a president or king. Thus, in the words of Gordon Wood,

2 government was only a temporary and limited agency of the people power on loan. The people would be the masters of the American government, not the other way around. With the people as the heart and soul of the government of the nation, the Constitution was designed to work for only a moral and religious people and would be wholly inadequate to the government of any other (John Adams). Nevertheless, James Madison knew that, since men are not angels, experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions to provide the people with a governmental framework in which self-interest would counter selfinterest. Agency would be honored, but it would have structural guidelines within which to work in order to give the people and the nation the greatest chance at success. Some of these structural guidelines include original consent, periodic consent, and filters of consent; a three-way separation of powers (legislative, executive, and judicial) and a three-way relationship of checks and balances in which each branch has some independent power, each branch has some power to check the other two branches, and each branch has power that is checked by the other two branches; a federalism of shared but separated, checked, and balanced powers among national government and state governments; and an extended republic in which the number and interests of factions in the nation would increase to the point where they would make majority tyranny difficult. These great fundamentals of the Constitution made it satisfactory enough to the majority of Americans that, after being sent to the states for ratification in September 1787, it would achieve the necessary nine approving states (with New Hampshire s vote for ratification on 21 June 1788 being the ninth) less than a year later. Government under the Constitution began operation on 4 March 1789, and, on 30 April 1789, Washington took the oath of office as its first president. On 15 December 1791, one of the major issues that had been debated during the ratification conventions a written bill of rights being added to the Constitution was finally resolved with the first ten amendments, which protected, among other things, the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, rights regarding trials and imprisonment, and the right of states to have all power not specifically delegated to the national government by the Constitution. History has shown the wisdom of adding a bill of rights, for as the anonymous Federal Farmer said during the ratification debates, until there was a written bill of rights, we are totally insecure in all of them, and no man can promise himself with any degree of certainty that his posterity will enjoy the inestimable blessings of liberty without depending on the will and pleasure of [his] rulers. Indeed, as Elder Dallin H. Oaks asserted, The United States Constitution s closest approach to scriptural stature is in the phrasing of our Bill of Rights. It was, after all, these rights that allowed America to fulfill its promise of providing a nation in which the Restoration could occur and spread to all the world. Questions to Consider as You Read: What does Jefferson like about the proposed Constitution? What does Jefferson not like about the proposed Constitution?

3 What does Jefferson say about the people and the preservation of liberty? Research: Jefferson to Madison on Ratifying the Constitution (20 December 1787) As you read, don t forget to mark and annotate main ideas, key terms, confusing concepts, unknown vocabulary, cause/effect relationships, examples, etc. I like very much the idea of framing a government, which should go on of itself, peaceably, without needing continual recurrence to the State legislatures. I like the organization of the government into legislative, judiciary and executive. I like the power given to the legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely, I approve of the greater House being chosen by the people directly. For though I think a House so chosen, will be very far inferior to the present Congress, will be very illy qualified to legislate for the Union, for foreign nations, etc., yet this evil does not weigh against the good, of preserving inviolate the fundamental principle, that the people are not to be taxed but by representatives chosen immediately by themselves. I am captivated by the compromise of the opposite claims of the great and little States, of the latter to equal, and the former to proportional influence. I am much pleased too, with the substitution of the method of voting by person, instead of that of voting by States, and I like the negative given to the Executive, conjointly with a third of either House; though I should have liked it better, had the judiciary been associated for that purpose, or invested separately with a similar power. There are other good things of less moment. I will now tell you what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly, and without the aid of sophism, for the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land, and not by the laws of nations. I have a right to nothing, which another has a right to take away. A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. The second feature I dislike, and strongly dislike, is the abandonment, in every instance, of the principle of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of the President. Reason and experience tell us, that the first magistrate will always be reelected if he may be reelected. He is then an officer for life. This once observed, it becomes of so much consequence to certain nations, to have a friend or a foe at the head of our affairs, that they will interfere with money and with arms. Smaller objections are, the appeals on matters of fact as well as laws; and the binding all persons, legislative, executive and judiciary by oath, to maintain that constitution. Whether by adopting it, in hopes of future amendment; or after it shall have been duly weighed and canvassed by the people say to them, We see now what you wish. You are willing to give to your federal government such and such powers; but you wish, at the same time, to have such and such fundamental rights secured to you, and certain sources of convulsion taken away. Be it so. Send together deputies again.

4 I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. It places the governors indeed more at their ease, as the expense of the people. The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm, than I think it should have done. No country should be so long without one. Say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the government, or information to the people. This last is the most certain, and the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. After all, it is my principle that the will of the majority should prevail. If they approve the proposed constitution in all its parts, I shall concur in it cheerfully, in hopes they will amend it, whenever they shall find it works wrong. This reliance cannot deceive us, as long as we remain virtuous; and I think we shall be so, as long as agriculture is our principal object, which will be the case, while there remains vacant lands in any part of America. When we get piled upon on another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe. 1 Notebook Questions: Reason and Record What does Jefferson like about the proposed Constitution? What does Jefferson not like about the proposed Constitution? What does Jefferson say about the people and the preservation of liberty? Notebook Questions: Relate and Record How does the document relate to FACE Principle #5: The Christian Form of Our Government: The divine flow of spiritual power and force through self-governing individuals whose God-given rights are protected by laws established by their elected representatives. Proper government requires a balance of internal power and its external form as seen in the separation of powers and its dual form with checks and balances? 1 SOURCE: Washington, Henry Augustine, ed. Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2. New York: John C. Riker, 1853.

5 How does the document relate to Doctrine and Covenants 134:1-5? Record Activity: Multiple Choice Comprehension Check 1. Background: Which one of the following is not true about the Constitution? a. It is a means to apply the vision for America expressed by the Declaration of Independence. b. It is a blueprint for federal government based on just and holy principles for the rights and protection of all flesh. c. It can be seen as the first written constitution, the oldest written constitution still in use, and the most successful federal charter of all time. d. It is America s greatest export. e. It is a miracle, the final expression of the American Revolution, and part of the LDS religion. f. Since its authors worried about government becoming too oppressive, it gave less power to the national government than the Articles of Confederation did. 2. Background: Which of the following is true about auxiliary precautions? a. They allow government to succeed without the people being virtuous, moral, or religious. b. They replace agency as the foundational principle of government. c. They become the locus of sovereignty when the people are not angels. d. The provide structural guidelines such as types of consent, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and an extended republic that allow self-interest to counter self-interest. e. On 15 December 1791, the first ten of them would be added by amendment to the Constitution.

6 3. Source: Jefferson says all of the following about the preservation of liberty except which one? a. A very energetic government is a threat to it. b. Frequent rebellions might actually encourage it. c. An informed people is better than a powerful government for achieving it. d. The people are the only sure reliance for it. e. Government by the majority consent of a virtuous people will achieve it. f. The creation of prosperous, well-ordered cities, which become centers for the free market, encourage it.