⚖️The United States Constitution

Signed September 17, 1787 — Ratified 1788

The United States Constitution is the oldest written national constitution still in active use. Drafted over a single sweltering summer in Philadelphia in 1787, ratified the following year, and amended only 27 times since, it established a federal republic with three branches of government, a system of checks and balances, and — through the Bill of Rights added in 1791 — a set of protections for individual liberties that have shaped constitutional law ever since.

Why the Articles Failed

Before the Constitution, the United States was governed under the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781. Under the Articles, the central government had no power to tax, no executive, no national court system, and no authority to regulate interstate commerce. It could not even respond effectively to Shays's Rebellion, a 1786–87 uprising by debt-burdened farmers in western Massachusetts. Leaders including Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton concluded that the Articles were fatally weak and called for a convention to revise them.

The Philadelphia Convention

Fifty-five delegates from twelve states — Rhode Island stayed away — met at the Pennsylvania State House from May to September 1787. George Washington was elected to preside. The delegates quickly abandoned the idea of revising the Articles and set out to write a new frame of government from scratch. Debates were held under a rule of secrecy so that delegates could change their minds without political cost. Madison took detailed notes that remain the principal record of the deliberations.

Compromises

The convention had to reconcile deep differences between large and small states, and between northern and southern states. The Great Compromise, proposed by Connecticut delegates, created a bicameral Congress — a House of Representatives apportioned by population and a Senate with equal representation for each state. The Three-Fifths Compromise, a moral failure that the country would pay for in blood, counted each enslaved person as three-fifths of a person for purposes of both representation and taxation. An agreement on the slave trade allowed it to continue until at least 1808, when Congress could outlaw it (and did).

Structure of Government

The Constitution establishes three branches: Congress (Article I) to make laws, the President (Article II) to execute them, and the Supreme Court (Article III) to interpret them. Each branch has powers to check the others. Congress can override a presidential veto, remove the president through impeachment, and control federal spending. The president nominates federal judges, vetoes bills, and commands the armed forces. The Supreme Court can strike down laws as unconstitutional — a power asserted definitively in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

The Bill of Rights

Several state ratification conventions approved the Constitution only on the understanding that a bill of rights would be added. James Madison drafted a set of amendments in the First Congress, and twelve were sent to the states. Ten were ratified in 1791 as the Bill of Rights: freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition (First); right to bear arms (Second); no quartering of troops (Third); protection from unreasonable search and seizure (Fourth); due process and protection against self-incrimination (Fifth); speedy public trial by jury (Sixth); jury trial in civil cases (Seventh); no cruel and unusual punishment (Eighth); rights not listed are retained by the people (Ninth); and powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the states or the people (Tenth).

Later Amendments

Seventeen additional amendments have been ratified since 1791. The Reconstruction amendments (13th, 14th, 15th) abolished slavery, established equal protection and due process at the state level, and guaranteed the vote regardless of race. The 19th Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote. The 22nd Amendment (1951) limited the president to two terms. The most recent amendment, the 27th — which delays congressional pay raises until after the next election — was originally proposed in 1789 and was finally ratified in 1992.

Constitution Trivia

• The Constitution begins with "We the People of the United States" — a deliberate assertion of popular sovereignty rather than state sovereignty.
• Benjamin Franklin, at 81, was the oldest delegate and had to be carried into the hall some days.
• Rhode Island was the only state not to send delegates and the last to ratify — in May 1790, by a margin of two votes.
• The document is 4,543 words long including the signatures. The Bill of Rights adds another 462.
• The Supreme Court first declared a federal law unconstitutional in Marbury v. Madison (1803), cementing the power of judicial review.