Constitution of United States of America

The Constitution’s Preamble reads:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

From the outset, the Framers intended to secure civil liberties, or freedoms for “the People,” while creating a strong federal government that is bounded, or constrained, by constitutional law.

The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation that were drafted when the United States was formed. The Articles emphasized the states’ liberty and democracy, but some of the Framers, like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, known as the Federalists, wanted a stronger federal government. They held that the Articles empowered the people too much, contributing to fears about tyranny from below, mob rule, and demagoguery. A stronger national government was widely desired for other reasons, too. Supporters of a strong federal government thought that it was necessary to lead the nation and coordinate the states. Anti-Federalist opponents of a strong centralized government typically came from farming states with smaller, more rural populations. Federalist proponents, by contrast, typically came from mercantile states with larger, more urban populations.

The Framers thus sought to strike a balance between the states’ freedom and government constraint. Finding such a balance, however, proved no easy feat and generated much debate during the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. For instance, Madison proposed his “Virginia Plan,” which would create a bicameral legislature with the number of legislators in each house determined by states’ populations. Delegates from small states worried that such a system would silence their voices since they would have fewer members of Congress. The “New Jersey Plan,” alternatively advocated for a unicameral Congress. States would each have a single vote. These competing plans resulted in the “Connecticut Compromise” that appears in the Constitution. This compromise created two houses of Congress: a Senate, comprised of two delegates from each state and chosen by state legislatures, and a House of Representatives, voted for directly. The Framers also viewed the bicameral legislature as a way of balancing power between the commoners (represented in the House) and elites (represented by the Senate). The Framers’ intent was to balance power, protect individual liberties, and judiciously constrain the federal government.

Another example of this intent to protect individual liberty, constrain government, and secure states’ rights appears in Article 3 outlining the powers and limitations of the judiciary. The Constitution guarantees criminal trial by jury (except for impeachment) and ensures the accused is prosecuted in the state where the crime occurred. The Constitution thus enshrines the authority of the states to prosecute and the right of the accused to be tried in a democratic fashion.

Despite the Framers’ efforts, many anti-Federalists critics still worried that the Constitution did not adequately protect individual rights. This tension between Federalists and anti-Federalists led Madison to agree to draft the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments added to the Constitution in 1789. The Bill of Rights guarantees civil liberties like freedom of the press, the right to due process, freedom of religion, and protection from “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The Framers’ definition of “the people” is vague and ultimately limited. Enslaved people and Indigenous Americans are clearly excluded from population counts in the census clause, for example. Enslaved Americans are dehumanized by their counting as “three-fifths” of a full person. Moreover, the Constitution dictates that enslaved people who flee their enslavers by crossing state lines are property to be returned to an owner. They have no voice in the republic, according to the Constitution. Furthermore, the Constitution consistently uses the pronoun “he,” thus excluding women from public political life. Black men could not legally vote until the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1865, the same year that slavery became illegal, and women’s suffrage was established under the 19th Amendment in 1920.

These exclusions have had a lasting effect on American political life. Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress in 1917, 130 years after the Constitution’s ratification. The first Indigenous American, Charles Curtis, won election to Congress in 1907, and the first Black American to serve in Congress, Hiram Rhodes, was elected in 1870. Article 1 also gives state legislatures the ability to establish who votes in Congressional elections so that when the Constitution became law, states primarily restricted voting to white, tax-paying or property-owning men. Constitutional law has therefore historically limited the “liberty” secured for “the people” to specific groups.