Struggle for National Government

Constitutional Convention.

Congress had failed in its last resort—a proposal that the States should grant it the impost power alone; New York's veto had put an end to this last hope. Confessing its helplessness, Congress approved the call for a second convention; 12 of the States (all but Rhode Island) chose delegates; and the convention met at Philadelphia (May 25, 1787) with an abler body of men than had been seen in Congress since the first two Continental Congresses. Among others, Vir ginia sent Washington, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, George Mason and George Wythe ; Pennsylvania : Franklin, Robert, Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson; Massachusetts: Rufus King, Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong ; Connecticut : William S. Johnson, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth; New York: Alexander Hamilton; New Jersey: William Paterson; and South Carolina the two Pinckneys and John Rutledge. With hardly an exception the 55 delegates were clear-headed, moderate men, with positive views of their own and firm purpose, but with a willingness to compromise.

The Virginia Plan.

Washington was chosen to preside, and the convention began the formation of a new Constitution, in stead of proposing changes in the old one. Two parties were formed at once. The Virginia delegates offered a plan proposing a Congress, of two houses, having power to legislate on national subjects, and to compel the States to fulfil their obligations. This was a "large-State" plan, proposed by those States which had or hoped for a large population. It meant to base representation in both houses on population, so that the large States could control both of them, and it left the appointment of the president or other executive and the Federal judges to Congress—so that the whole administration of the new government would fall under large-State control.

The New Jersey Plan.

On behalf of the "small States" Pat erson of New Jersey brought in another plan. It continued the old Confederation, with its single house and equal State vote, but added the power to regulate commerce and raise a revenue, and to compel the States to obey requisitions. The large States had a general majority of six to five, but the constant dropping off of one or more votes, on minor features, from their side to that of the small States prevented the hasty adoption of any radical measures. Nevertheless, the final collision could not be evaded; the basis of the two plans was in the question of one or two houses, of equal or proportionate State votes, of large-State supremacy or of State equality. In July the large States began to show a dis position to force their plan through, and the small States began to threaten a concerted withdrawal from the convention.

The Compromise.

The Connecticut delegates, from their first appearance in the convention, had favoured a compromise. They had been trained under the New England system, in which the assemblies were made up of two houses, one representing the people of the whole State, according to population, and the other giving an equal representation to the towns. They proposed that

the new Congress should be made up of two houses, one repre senting the States in proportion to their population, the other giving an equal vote to each State. At a deadlock the convention referred the proposition to a committee, and it reported in favour of the Connecticut compromise. Connecticut had been voting in the large-State list, and the votes of her delegates could not be spared from their slender majority; now another of the large States, North Carolina, came over to Connecticut's proposal, and it was adopted. Thus the first great struggle of the convention resulted in a compromise, which took shape in an important fea ture of the Constitution, the Senate.

The small States were still anxious, in every new question, to throw as much power as possible into the hands of their special representative, the Senate ; and that body thus obtained its power to act as an executive council as a restraint on the Presi dent in appointments and treaties. This was the only survival of the first alignment of parties; but new divisions arose on almost every proposal introduced. The election of the President was given at various times to Congress and to electors chosen by the State legislatures; and the final mode of choice, by electors chosen by the States, was settled only two weeks before the end of the convention, the office of vice president coming in with it. The opponents and supporters of the slave trade compromised by agreeing not to prohibit it for 20 years. Another compromise included three-fifths of the slaves in enumerating population for representation. This provision gave the slave-holders abnormal power as the number of slaves increased.

Any explanation of the system introduced by the Constitution must start with the historical fact that, while the national Gov ernment was practically suspended, from 1776 until 1789, the only power to which political privileges had been given by the people was the States, and that the State legislatures were, when the convention met, politically omnipotent, with the exception of the few limitations imposed on them by the early State con stitutions. The general rule, then, is that the Federal Govern ment has only the powers granted to it by the Federal Constitu tion, while the State has all governmental powers not forbidden to it by the State or the Federal Constitution. But the phrase defining the Federal Government's powers is no longer "ex pressly granted," as in the Articles of Confederation, but merely "granted," so that powers necessary to the execution of granted powers belong to the Federal Government, even though not di rectly named in the Constitution. This question of the interpre tation or "construction" of the Constitution is at the bottom of real national politics in the United States.