The Constitutional Convention

The Constitution was a product of compromise. Understanding those compromises helps explain why our government works the way it does.

The Setting

Philadelphia, summer 1787. Fifty-five delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island boycotted) met in secret to revise the Articles of Confederation. They quickly exceeded their mandate and wrote an entirely new constitution.

The secrecy was intentional. Delegates wanted to deliberate freely without public pressure. Windows were nailed shut. Guards stood at the doors. We only know what happened because James Madison took detailed notes, published after his death.

The Great Compromises

The Great (Connecticut) Compromise

The problem: How should states be represented in the national legislature?

Large state position (Virginia Plan): Representation based on population. Larger states should have more votes because they have more people.

Small state position (New Jersey Plan): Equal representation for all states. Each state is sovereign and deserves an equal voice.

The compromise: A bicameral (two-house) legislature.

• House of Representatives: Representation based on population (satisfies large states)
• Senate: Two senators per state, regardless of population (satisfies small states)

This is why California (40 million people) and Wyoming (580,000 people) both have two senators. It’s not an oversight. It was the price of union.

The Three-Fifths Compromise

The problem: Should enslaved people be counted for representation purposes?

Southern position: Yes, count them. This increases our representation in the House and the Electoral College.

Northern position: No. You deny them citizenship, you can’t count them for political power. (Also, if they’re counted, the North loses relative power.)

The compromise: Enslaved people counted as three-fifths of a person for apportionment purposes.

This was morally indefensible. It gave slaveholding states extra political power, entrenching slavery. It took a civil war to undo it. The 14th Amendment (1868) finally established that all persons (not three-fifths) are counted.

The Electoral College

The problem: How should the president be elected?

Option 1: Direct popular election. But delegates feared mob rule and worried that voters wouldn’t know candidates from other states.

Option 2: Election by Congress. But this would make the president dependent on the legislature, undermining separation of powers.

The compromise: The Electoral College. Each state gets electors equal to its congressional delegation (House seats + 2 senators). Electors vote for president. Originally, electors were expected to deliberate, but they quickly became rubber stamps for popular vote results within each state.

Slave Trade Compromise

The problem: Should the Constitution ban the Atlantic slave trade?

The compromise: Congress could not ban the importation of enslaved persons until 1808 (twenty years after ratification). After that, Congress was free to act. (It did, banning the trade in 1808.)

Commerce Compromise

The problem: Who controls trade?

Northern position: Give Congress power to regulate commerce. We need uniform trade policy.

Southern position: Concerned that Congress would tax exports (hurting agricultural South) or restrict slave trade.

The compromise: Congress can regulate interstate and foreign commerce but cannot tax exports.

Key Structural Decisions

Separation of Powers

The Constitution divides government into three branches:

• Legislative (Article I): Congress makes laws
• Executive (Article II): President enforces laws
• Judicial (Article III): Courts interpret laws

Each branch has distinct powers. No person can serve in more than one branch simultaneously.

Checks and Balances

Powers overlap to prevent any branch from dominating:

The Amendment Process

The problem: The Articles required unanimous consent for amendments. This made change impossible.

The solution: Article V creates a two-stage process:

1. Proposal: Two-thirds of both houses of Congress OR a convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures
2. Ratification: Three-fourths of state legislatures OR ratifying conventions in three-fourths of states

This is hard but not impossible. We’ve amended the Constitution 27 times. The first ten (Bill of Rights) came quickly. The other 17 took over two centuries.

Unresolved Issues

The Constitution left some matters deliberately ambiguous:

Slavery: The word never appears in the document, but multiple provisions protected it. This compromise held the union together temporarily but guaranteed future conflict.

Federal vs. state power: The necessary and proper clause (Congress can make laws “necessary and proper” for executing its powers) and the supremacy clause (federal law trumps state law) gave the federal government room to expand. The 10th Amendment (powers not delegated are reserved to states) tried to limit this. Courts have been defining the boundary ever since.

Individual rights: The original Constitution had few explicit rights protections. The Bill of Rights addressed this, but questions remain about the scope of rights like due process and equal protection.

Ratification

The Constitution needed nine states to take effect. The debate was intense:

• Delaware ratified first (December 1787)
• Large states like Virginia and New York were battlegrounds
• The Federalist Papers were written to persuade New York voters
• New Hampshire became the ninth state (June 1788), making the Constitution operative
• Virginia and New York followed shortly after
• North Carolina and Rhode Island held out until 1789-1790

The promise to add a Bill of Rights was crucial for securing ratification in wavering states.

Contemporary Relevance

The compromises of 1787 still shape politics today:

Equal state representation in the Senate: Small states remain overrepresented. Wyoming’s senators represent 290,000 people each; California’s represent 20 million each.

The Electoral College: A candidate can win the presidency while losing the popular vote (2000, 2016). This reflects the original design favoring state-based representation.

The amendment process: High thresholds make constitutional change rare. This preserves stability but can lock in outdated provisions.

Debates about federal power: The tension between national authority and states’ rights continues in every major policy debate, from healthcare to education to environmental regulation.

The Takeaway

The Constitution was a political document born from political necessity. The founders weren’t saints handing down timeless wisdom. They were politicians making deals.

Some of those deals were brilliant (separation of powers, bicameralism). Some were shameful (the three-fifths compromise). All of them reflected the reality that creating a nation required persuading people with different interests to agree.

Understanding the compromises helps you understand American government. It’s not designed for efficiency. It’s designed to prevent any single faction from dominating, even if that means gridlock. The founders feared tyranny more than they feared inaction.