American Democracy and the Promise of Justice

Topic One

Foundations of Our Democracy--18th century

The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. The Declaration of Independence states that “the nature of a fair government is to recognize that people are born with certain rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that a government is formed to protect these rights.”³

In May 1787, fifty-five delegates from all 13 states (except Rhode Island) met in Philadelphia. George Washington served as President of the convention. James Madison took detailed notes of the meetings. The delegates at the convention decided to write a new constitution. Four months later, the document was completed. The constitution they created is the highest law of the United States. "It provides for citizens to elect the officials that govern them. It establishes that power is shared between the national government and the state governments."⁴ In the federal government, there is the legislative branch (Congress) that makes the laws; an executive branch, headed by the president that carries out the laws; and a judicial branch, headed by the Supreme Court that decides if the laws are constitutional or applied correctly. The power of each branch can be controlled by the other two. This is the system of checks and balances. No single branch of government can act without input from another, and each office has the power to “check” the other, as well as balance other branches’ powers.⁵

Even though the U.S. Constitution was ratified, many people feared the central government would have too much power. It was a very political process to build the coalition to get the Constitution ratified. Our founders did not want to have a monarchy, and the solution to this was the separation of power.

The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution after opponents of the Constitution convinced the nation that a strong central government without safeguards for the people was a danger to liberty. The Bill of Rights consists of ten amendments, or additions, to the Constitution. It guarantees basic liberties, such as freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion.

The Federalist Papers are a collection of essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay in 1788. The Federalist Papers revolutionized the way people thought about democracy. The essays urged the ratification of the United States Constitution, which had been debated and drafted at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. “The Federalist Papers are widely considered to be the most significant American contributions to the field of political philosophy and theory and are still widely considered to be the most authoritative source for determining the original intent of the framers of the US Constitution.”⁶ The essays were aimed at convincing opponents of the U.S. Constitution to ratify it so that it would take effect as the nation’s fundamental governing document.

During the debate on the U.S. Constitution, a disagreement arose between the Northern and Southern states involving voting rights and how slaves should be counted when determining a state’s quota of representatives. In the South, large numbers of slaves were commonly used to run plantations. Delegates wanted slaves to be counted in the population to determine the number of representatives in each state but not counted to determine the amount of taxes the states would pay. The northern states wanted exactly the opposite arrangement.

The final decision was to count three-fifths of the slave population both for tax purposes and to determine representation. This was called the Three-Fifths Compromise. The Three-Fifths Compromise is found in Article 1, Section 2, and Clause 3 of the United States Constitution of 1787 and is often misinterpreted to mean that African Americans as individuals are considered three-fifths of a person or that they are three-fifths of a citizen of the United States. The three-fifths clause in fact declared that for purposes of representation in Congress enslaved blacks in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state.⁷ 

The three-fifths clause was part of a series of compromises enacted by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The most notable other clauses prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories and ended U.S. participation in the international slave trade in 1807. "Although the Three-Fifths Compromise and others regarding slavery helped hold this new fragile union of states together, many on both sides of the issue were opposed. James Madison and Edmund Randolph of Virginia used the phrase ‘Quotas of contribution’ to argue that slaves should be fully counted, one for one, and opposed the compromise."⁸ The three-fifths clause remained in place "until the post-Civil War 13th Amendment freed all enslaved people in the United States, the 14th amendment gave them full citizenship, and the 15th Amendment granted black men the right to vote."⁹

Electoral College

Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. The Founding Fathers always intended that the states and not the people select the president. Under the Electoral College system, it is possible for a presidential candidate to lose the nationwide popular vote yet be elected President of the United States by winning in only a handful of key states. "They created the Electoral College system as a process to ‘insulate the selection of the president from the whims of the public.’”¹⁰ “The Founding Fathers also felt the Electoral College system would enforce the concept of federalism, the division and sharing of power between the state and national governments.”¹¹ Any change to the way America chooses its president will require a constitutional amendment.

For example, even when Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, Republican Donald Trump still won the election in the Electoral College. Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote back in 2000, but after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the vote recounts in Florida, Republican George W. Bush was awarded the state’s 25 electoral votes and won the presidency through a 271 to 266 vote margin in the Electoral College. In 1888, Republican Benjamin Harrison won the electoral votes, but Democrat Grover Cleveland won the popular vote. In 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral votes, but Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote. “It remains highly unlikely that the Electoral College system would be changed or repealed."¹² Getting rid of the Electoral College would strengthen the power of the president and would strengthen their power at the cost of the legislature.