3.4 The Constitutional Convention, Federalist Debates & the Early Republic

The Constitutional Convention, Federalist Debates & the Early Republic

In May 1787, fifty-five delegates gathered at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. What had been authorized as a meeting to revise the Articles of Confederation transformed into a peaceful constitutional revolution. Over four hot summer months, the delegates engineered a novel federal republic balancing power between national and state governments, separated across three independent branches.

---

The Constitutional Convention (1787): Great Debates & Critical Compromises

The delegates—collectively known as the Framers—were an elite assembly of lawyers, merchants, planters, and statesmen. George Washington was unanimously elected president of the convention, lending his immense personal prestige to the proceedings. James Madison of Virginia served as the intellectual architect, taking meticulous shorthand notes and authoring the working draft that guided discussions.

At the outset, the delegates made a bold, secretive decision: they discarded the Articles of Confederation entirely, determining to draft an entirely new constitution founded on the principles of separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism.

The Great Compromise: Resolving Representation

The fiercest conflict at the convention centered on how states would be represented in the national legislature:

1. The Virginia Plan (Large-State Plan): Drafted by James Madison and presented by Edmund Randolph, it proposed a strong national government with a bicameral legislature. Representation in both houses would be apportioned based on population or monetary contributions to the national government. Populous states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts enthusiastically supported the plan, as it gave them legislative dominance.
2. The New Jersey Plan (Small-State Plan): Presented by William Paterson, it defended the interests of small states (such as New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut). It proposed a unicameral legislature in which each state received one equal vote, preserving the equal state representation of the Articles while expanding congressional powers to tax and regulate commerce.
3. The Great Compromise (The Connecticut Compromise): On July 16, 1787, the convention narrowly adopted a compromise brokered by Roger Sherman of Connecticut that blended both proposals into a bicameral Congress:
   • The House of Representatives: Satisfied the large states. Representation is apportioned according to population. Representatives are directly elected by the people for two-year terms. To protect the public purse, all revenue and tax bills must originate in the House.
   • The Senate: Satisfied the small states. Representation is equal, with each state receiving two senators. Senators served six-year terms and were originally chosen by state legislatures (a mechanism designed to check popular passions, until the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913 instituted direct election).

                    [ THE GREAT COMPROMISE ]
                           /        \
                          /          \
                         v            v
             [ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ]  [ UNITED STATES SENATE ]
             - Proportional Representation - Equal Representation
               (Based on Population)         (2 Senators per State)
             - Satisfied Large States      - Satisfied Small States
             - Initiates Revenue Bills     - Confirms Appointments & Treaties

Compromises Over Chattel Slavery

The moral contradiction of slavery cast a dark shadow over the convention. While northern states had begun passing gradual emancipation acts, southern delegates made clear they would abandon the union if their slaveholding interests were threatened. The resulting compromises institutionalized slavery in the constitutional framework:

• The Three-Fifths Compromise: Southern states wanted enslaved people counted for congressional representation to maximize Southern seats in the House and votes in the Electoral College, but wanted them excluded when calculating direct federal taxes. Northern delegates objected: if slaves were legally considered property without civil rights, why should they generate legislative representation? The delegates compromised by agreeing that three-fifths of all enslaved persons would be counted for both representation and direct taxation. This gave southern slaveholding states disproportionate political dominance in the federal government for the next seventy years.
• The Slave Trade Clause: Northern delegates wished to empower Congress to outlaw the brutal transatlantic slave trade immediately. South Carolina and Georgia delegates fiercely resisted. The compromise prohibited Congress from banning the importation of enslaved persons for twenty years (until 1808), although Congress could impose an import tariff of up to $10 per person. (On January 1, 1808, the very first day permitted by the Constitution, Congress officially abolished the international slave trade).
• The Fugitive Slave Clause: Article IV required that enslaved persons who escaped into free states be returned to their enslavers, establishing that state lines could not extinguish slaveholder property claims.

---

The Ratification Debate: Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

Article VII of the Constitution stipulated that the new framework would take effect upon ratification by conventions in nine of the thirteen states. The publication of the Constitution ignited a fierce national debate:

"The Federalist Papers": Defense of the Extended Republic

To persuade New York delegates to ratify, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay published a brilliant series of eighty-five newspaper essays under the joint pseudonym "Publius," collectively known as The Federalist Papers.

Two essays remain cornerstones of American political philosophy:

• Federalist No. 10 (James Madison): Madison confronted the traditional Montesquieu argument that democratic republics could only survive in small, homogeneous city-states. Madison argued that the greatest threat to a republic was factions—groups of citizens united by a common passion adverse to the rights of others or the community's interests. Madison argued that you cannot eliminate the causes of factions without destroying liberty. Instead, you must control their effects. In an extended republic with a large population and vast territory, a diversity of competing interests, religious groups, and economic classes makes it virtually impossible for an oppressive majority faction to unite and oppress the minority.
• Federalist No. 51 (James Madison): Madison explained how the constitutional structure prevents tyranny through separation of powers and checks and balances. Because human beings are inherently flawed, the internal architecture of government must pit ambitious officials against one another:

"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition... If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

The Anti-Federalist Victory: The Bill of Rights

Anti-Federalists leveled powerful arguments against the Constitution. Patrick Henry declared that the document had "an awful squinting; it squints toward monarchy." They warned that the Elastic Clause ("Necessary and Proper Clause") and the Supremacy Clause would grant Congress unlimited power to extinguish state courts and tax citizens into poverty. Above all, they decried the absence of a Bill of Rights to protect individuals from federal overreach.

Recognizing that ratification was imperiled in key states like Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, the Federalists pledged that a Bill of Rights would be the first order of business for the new Congress. In 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify. In 1789, Representative James Madison drafted twelve amendments based largely on the Virginia Declaration of Rights (written by George Mason). Ten of these were ratified by the states in December 1791, becoming the Bill of Rights:

• First Amendment: Freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition.
• Second & Third Amendments: Right to bear arms and protection against quartering soldiers.
• Fourth through Eighth Amendments: Protections for the accused (unreasonable searches and seizures, grand jury indictments, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, due process, speedy and public trial by jury, prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments).
• Ninth & Tenth Amendments: Clarifying that the enumeration of certain rights does not deny other rights retained by the people (Ninth), and reserving all powers not delegated to the federal government to the states or the people (Tenth).

---

Washington's Administration: Setting Precedents

In April 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the nation's first president on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. Washington was keenly aware that every executive decision would establish long-lasting constitutional precedents:

1. Creation of the Cabinet: Although the Constitution only mentions "executive departments," Washington established regular, collective advisory meetings with his department heads, creating the President's Cabinet:
   • Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson
   • Secretary of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton
   • Secretary of War: Henry Knox
   • Attorney General: Edmund Randolph
2. The Judiciary Act of 1789: Article III of the Constitution established a Supreme Court, but left the creation of lower federal courts to Congress. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created a six-member Supreme Court (appointing John Jay as first Chief Justice), three federal circuit courts of appeal, and thirteen federal district courts. Section 25 empowered the Supreme Court to review state court rulings that involved federal treaties or statutes.
3. Executive Restraint & Two-Term Tradition: Washington rejected aristocratic titles like "His Elective Majesty," insisting on the simple, republican title "Mr. President." By stepping down voluntarily in 1797 after two four-year terms, Washington established a powerful unwritten norm of executive restraint and the peaceful transfer of power that lasted until 1940 and was codified in 1951 by the Twenty-Second Amendment.

---

Hamilton's Financial Program & the First Party System

When Alexander Hamilton assumed office as Treasury Secretary, the United States was deeply in debt, with ruined public credit and an unstable paper currency. Hamilton authored a series of landmark reports to Congress (Report on Public Credit, Report on Manufactures) outlining a comprehensive financial program:

                        [ HAMILTON'S FINANCIAL PROGRAM ]
                               /        |        \
                              /         |         \
                             v          v          v
            [ FUNDING AT PAR & ]  [ REVENUE: TARIFFS ]  [ BANK OF THE ]
            [ DEBT ASSUMPTION  ]  [ & EXCISE TAXES   ]  [ UNITED STATES ]
            - Full face value to   - 1789 Tariff on       - Public-private bank
              restore credit         imports              - Stores federal funds
            - Federal takeover of  - 1791 Excise tax      - Issues sound paper
              state war debts        on whiskey             currency

The Core Components

1. Funding at Par: Hamilton proposed that the federal government pay off all foreign and domestic debts at full face value ($54 million), plus accumulated interest. Critics noted that original holders of debt certificates (Revolutionary War veterans) had sold their bonds to wealthy speculators for pennies on the dollar. Hamilton insisted that honoring commitments at par was essential to establish the nation's creditworthiness.
2. Assumption of State Debts: Hamilton urged the federal government to assume the remaining $25 million in unpaid debts incurred by the states during the war. He argued this would bind wealthy creditors to the national government rather than individual states. Southern states like Virginia and Maryland, which had largely paid their debts, protested. In the Compromise of 1790 (brokered over dinner between Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison), Southern delegates agreed to support assumption in exchange for Hamilton's support in moving the permanent national capital to the South along the Potomac River (Washington, D.C.).
3. Tariffs and Excise Taxes: To generate revenue and encourage domestic manufacturing, Hamilton secured a modest protective tariff on imported goods (1789). In 1791, Congress passed an internal excise tax on distilled whiskey to raise additional revenue.
4. The Bank of the United States (1791): Hamilton proposed a national commercial bank, capitalized at $10 million, with 20% owned by the federal government and 80% by private investors. The Bank of the United States (BUS) would store federal tax deposits, provide loans to the government and businesses, and issue a stable, uniform national paper currency.

The Constitutional Clash: Strict vs. Loose Construction

The national bank ignited a historic constitutional confrontation between Hamilton and Jefferson:

• Thomas Jefferson & Strict Construction: Jefferson argued that the Tenth Amendment reserved all ungranted powers to the states. The Constitution nowhere explicitly authorized Congress to charter a bank. Charters were a state power; allowing Congress to create a corporation was unconstitutional.
• Alexander Hamilton & Loose Construction: Hamilton pointed to Article I, Section 8, Clause 18—the "Necessary and Proper Clause" (the Elastic Clause)—which authorizes Congress to "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers." Hamilton argued that Congress possessed implied powers derived from its enumerated powers: because Congress was explicitly empowered to collect taxes, borrow money, and coin currency, chartering a bank was a necessary and proper means to achieve those constitutional ends.

President Washington agreed with Hamilton and signed the bank charter into law in 1791. This fundamental ideological schism birthed the First Party System:

• The Federalists (led by Hamilton and John Adams): Favored a strong national government, loose constitutional construction, a diversified commercial and industrial economy, national banking, and pro-British foreign policy. Supported primarily in New England and northern commercial centers.
• The Democratic-Republicans (led by Jefferson and Madison): Favored states' rights, strict constitutional construction, an agrarian republic of independent yeoman farmers, state banks, and pro-French foreign policy. Supported primarily in the rural South and western frontier.

---

The Whiskey Rebellion (1794) & Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

The Whiskey Rebellion (1794): Federal Enforcement Proved

In western Pennsylvania, Hamilton's excise tax struck small farmers hard. Transporting bulky grain over Appalachian mountain trails was economically impractical, so farmers distilled corn and rye into whiskey, which served as a lightweight, valuable currency. Farmers terrorized federal tax collectors, tarred and feathered revenue agents, and threatened to march on Pittsburgh.

Unlike the Confederation's helplessness during Shays' Rebellion, Washington responded with overwhelming force. Invoking the Militia Act of 1792, Washington federalized 12,950 militia troops from four states and rode out in uniform at the head of the army alongside Hamilton. Confronted by this massive force, the rebellion collapsed without a single shot fired. Washington pardoned the captured ringleaders.

The suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion was a monumental constitutional milestone: it decisively proved that under the new Constitution, the federal government had both the legal authority and the physical power to enforce national laws and maintain domestic peace. Political opposition, Washington demonstrated, had to be pursued through the ballot box and peaceful constitutional avenues, not through armed insurrection.

Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

In September 1796, having declined a third term, Washington published his Farewell Address in a Philadelphia newspaper, co-authored with Alexander Hamilton. Washington offered profound warnings that guided American statecraft for generations:

1. Warning Against Political Factions: Washington cautioned that political parties would inevitably divide the nation into hostile tribes, encourage geographical rivalries, distract public councils, and eventually open the door to demagogues who would seize absolute power.
2. Warning Against Permanent Foreign Alliances: As war raged between Revolutionary France and Great Britain, Washington urged the nation to preserve strict neutrality. He advised the United States to extend commercial ties with all nations while avoiding "permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." Washington's counsel established the core principle of American foreign policy (isolationism) that endured until World War II.
3. Preservation of the Union and Public Credit: Washington reminded Americans that national unity was the bedrock of collective liberty, urged citizens to maintain public credit by avoiding the accumulation of unnecessary national debt, and stressed that morality and religion were indispensable supports of republican self-governance.