Constitution, United States

The United States Constitution created the fundamental law of the government of the United States from 1787 to the present (with some amendments). The Constitution opens with a preamble that declares that the document was written in the name of the “people of the United States” and that the purpose of the document was “to form a more perfect union.” The Constitution established two houses of legislature, a powerful executive, a supreme court, as well as setting up a process for ratification and amendment.

The first article of the Constitution outlines the legislative branch of government. Section 2 concerns the House of Representatives, stipulating that members were elected every two years and that representation was based upon population. Population was to be set by a census every 10 years. To determine representation the government would add to the number of free individuals three-fifths of the total number of “all other persons” (slaves). (The Thirteenth Amendment freed slaves in the United States, and the Fourteenth Amendment defined citizenship to include African Americans.) Members of the House of Representatives had to be at least 25 years old and citizens for seven years. The House of Representative chose its own speaker and had sole responsibility for impeachment. Section 3 deals with the Senate. Each state had two senators serving six-year terms on a rotating basis so that no more than one-third of the Senate came up for election every two years. State legislators chose the senators (this provision was changed by the Seventeenth Amendment). Senators needed to be 30 years old, citizens for nine years, and inhabitants of the states that elected them. The vice president was to be president of the Senate, but the Senate elected all other officers for that body. The Senate would try impeachments; conviction would lead to removal from office. Sections 4-6 elaborate on procedures concerning both houses, allowing the states to set conditions for the election of the legislative branch and requiring annual meetings. Both houses of the legislative branch had control over their own proceedings, and members were paid for their service. They were also immune from most arrests and prevented from holding other civil offices. Section 7 gave the House of Representatives exclusive power to originate revenue measures, but the Senate could offer amendments. This section also allowed the legislative branch to override presidential vetoes with a two-thirds majority. Sections 8 and 9 outlined the broad powers of the Congress to legislate on a host of issues, including declaring war and raising taxes. To ensure that Congress could extend these powers, Congress could “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the government’s other powers. Section 9 began by prohibiting Congress from passing legislation outlawing the international slave trade without using the word slave.

Article 2 is about the executive who was to be called president of the United States. An electoral college comprised of individuals selected by the states—with each state having a total number of electors equal to the number of Senators plus the number of members of the House of Representatives from the state—selected the president every four years. The person with the most number of votes in the Electoral College would become president, and the person with the second most number of votes would become vice president, who was to assume the presidency in the event of death or if some reason the president could not fulfill his obligation as chief executive. If no one received a majority, then the election went to the House of Representatives, which chose the president voting by state delegations. Only those who were natural born citizens, or citizens at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and at least 35 years old and a resident of the United States for 14 years could become president. (The Twelfth Amendment altered electoral procedure to have separate elections for the president and vice president and the Twenty-Second Amendment set a two-term limit on the presidency.) The president had broad powers and was commander in chief of the armed forces. He could make treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate and could appoint officers of the government as determined by future legislation. The president could veto laws passed by Congress—subject to a two-thirds majority override—and could be removed from office by impeachment only for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Article 3 created a Supreme Court and empowered Congress to establish other inferior federal courts. Judges, as stipulated in Article 3, Section 2, were appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate and held office during good behavior and were thus exempt from specific terms or executive removal. The Constitution did not, and still does not, give the Supreme Court the power to decide upon the constitutionality of laws, although some people at the time believed that such a power was implied in the Constitution and the Supreme Court has assumed that duty since the writing of the Constitution. The Constitution gives the Supreme Court jurisdiction over cases that derived from the Constitution, federal laws, and the treaties made by the United States. The Supreme Court also had jurisdiction over maritime law and cases involving states and individuals from different states. Article 3 also defines treason as levying war against the United States or supporting the nation’s enemies.

Article 4 outlined additional powers of the federal government as they related to the states. These measures stipulated that the laws in one state would be respected by the other states. This provision included a fugitive slave clause—using the phrase “person held to service or labor” instead of the word slave—ensuring the return of escaped slaves from one state to another. Article 4 also empowered the federal government to admit new states, guaranteed a republican form of government in each state, and pledged states to protect each other in the event of invasion.

Article 5 set up the means whereby the Constitution could be amended. This provision made it difficult to change the Constitution, but it fell short of the unanimous state requirement under the Articles of Confederation. Amendments needed to be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of the legislature and then ratified by either three-fourths of the state legislatures or, if Congress so deemed, three-fourths of specially called state conventions. A new federal convention to consider amendments needed the approval of two-thirds of the state legislatures.

Article 6 was relatively short, but it included three important provisions. First, it pledged the new government to honor all contracts and debts of the previous government and thus asserted a commitment to deal with the NATIONAL debt. Second, it proclaimed that all laws and treaties of the national government were the supreme law of the land, asserting the supremacy of the national government over the state governments. And finally, Article 6 bound all government officers to an oath of office in support of the Constitution, but it refused to include a religious test as qualification for office. This provision helped to establish the separation of church and state even before the Bill of Rights.

Article 7 set up the procedure by which state conventions would ratify the Constitution and, sidestepping the amendment requirement in the Articles of Confederation, established the new government once nine states had ratified.

Although subsequently amended 27 times since it was written, the basic outlines of the government remain the same as they appeared in 1787.

See also anti-Federalists; Constitution, ratification of the; Constitutional Convention; Federalists.