Constitutional Principles
The U.S. Constitution is a revolutionary document, based on an existing working system from British Parliament. The Philadelphia Convention that resulted in the ratification of the Constitution, began out of necessity in an effort to improve the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution’s main principles include the prospect of federalism, the separation of powers, and the rule of law; the Constitution stands as a blueprint for both a democratic and a federal republic, securing and assuring the individual sovereignty of the people against monarchal tyranny.
Federalism was an idea emphasized by delegates such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, who wrote and published 85 essays under the pseudonym “The Letters of Pacificus,”and the “Letters of Helvidius,” all signed as “Publius” in New York Newspapers (Federalist, 561). These essays, known as The Federalist Papers, proposed creating a strong national government, omitting any prospect of human rights, instead focusing on securing an effective and lasting government. Federalism did not cede the rights of States to a nationalized central power; instead, it allowed provisions for each state to bear accountability to national interests. The States also hold obligations to other states; the Full Faith and Credit Clause demands that States recognize and uphold the ruling from other States’ Court judgments. In the same respect, Section 2 Article IV prevents discrimination of out-of-state citizens, yet provides assurance of extradition for the return of State fugitives that have crossed State lines. The colonists’ development of Federalism divided the government’s rights between National and State jurisdiction; this gave provision for a separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, and ensured government would not impede the interests of its citizens.
Breaking down the Constitution, there are specific powers divided between the national government and the States; national powers, known as Exclusive Powers, give the national government precedence over the States; while State powers, known as Reserved Powers hold authority over national rule. Shared authority between both national and State governments are known as Concurrent Powers.
The exclusive rights of the national government were to include military and diplomatic affairs, while reserved State rights were to remain sovereign in the interests of the community and its people’s needs. (McClellan, 297). Federalism required that States hold obligations to the national government, while the national government holds its own obligations to the States; it also ensured continuity and consensus would exist between States (Article IV Section 1). These principles were bound by Constitution, forming the world’s first federal republic. The Constitution’s Article IV Section 4 guarantees “to every State in this Union, a Republican form of government,” and vows to “protect each of them against invasion.” James McClellan reminds us that the Supreme Court has never defined “republicanism,” and has designated Congress to determine if a State is “republican” in character (McClellan, 308).
Federalism brought discourse among many supporters of State Rights, resulting in numerous essays, known as the Anti-Federalist Papers. Writers included Melancton Smith, Patrick Henry, and others who viewed the American revolution as, “a virtuous society with robust local governments,” fearing that the Federalist position would “ruin the cause of America,” (Kidd, 95). Anti-Federalists the idea of division of powers from British parliament; Robert Coram, an Anti-Federalist, and editor of the Delaware Gazette, wrote in 1791 that “all men are by nature equal was once a fashionable phrase of the times… as we have copied the English in our form of federal government, we ought to imitate them in the establishment of a nobility also.” Coram, among other Anti-Federalists, believed that the Constitution would create a despotic division in class, pitting the people beneath tyrannic governance; adding that “[i]n the dark ages of the world it was necessary that the people should believe their rulers to be a superior race of beings to themselves, in order that they should obey the absurd laws of their tryants without “scrutinizing too nicely into the reasons of making them.”
The Separation of Powers split the government into three distinct branches; this division allowed the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch special powers; yet ensured distinct vulnerabilities and specific prohibitions. No matter this separation, all branches fall subject to the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause; Article VI’s Supremacy Clause is the Constitution’s “key provision,” and designates the U.S. Constitution as the “supreme law of the land,” borrowing the phrase “law of the land” from British Parliament (Plucknett, T.F.T., 136). State Laws, State Constitutions, Federal Laws, and Judges were (and remain) subject to abide by this provision, creating a tiered system of compliance that would not impede the rights of the individual. The Constitution’s further separation of powers also restricts states from being created from pre-existing states, without consent from the state legislatures and Congress; forming States through another’s jurisdiction has occurred five times in national history: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maine, and West Virginia, (McClellan, J, 308).
Rule of Law was inherited from medieval England, its principles were declared to be “a government of laws, not of men,” (McClellan, J., 2017); historically authorities would hold obedience to God and to Law. Instead of falling under the authority of a human beings’s innovative ambitions, America’s Constitution was crafted in the image of God, from a position of victory, built on His objective moral foundation; simultaneously borrowing objective principles from the British Parliament, and observing the morals gained through carefully documented experience, accumulated from centuries of previous rule. America’s legal system maintains inherited recognition, (and in some cases prohibition), of British Statutes, Common Law, the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Attainder, Ex-Post Facto, and other Inherited Powers from British rule. The Founders built a decentralized system of power similar to British Parliament, leaving behind the outdated and ineffective aspects deemed unfit in the modern colonial age. James Wilson, associate Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote on municipal law in 1804 that “[t]he British parliament consists of three distinct branches; the king, the house of lords, and the house of commons. To that species of English law, which is called a statute, the assent of all the three branches is necessary. When it has received the assent of all the three, it becomes a law and is obligatory upon the nation; but it is obligatory upon different parts of it for different reasons.” His words revealed the working conditions of a decentralized government, and the tribulations encountered in a class-based society that held allegiance to the King.
Alexander Addison, ‘a judge in the Pennsylvania courts for more than a decade,’ equally supported this evidence in an analysis on the Report of the Committee of the Virginia Assembly in 1800, where he reported that, “before the confederation, which gave the power, Congress formed treaties; by a sort of common law, which gave to Congress, as the only general organ, the authority usually annexed to such a government.” Addison refuted the reports that suggested law was radically birthed during the convention, declaring that “[i]t was born long before; ‘in a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.’ The colonists brought it with them from their native land, with their other possessions, for their common protection against murderers, against thieves, and against libellers; for the recovery of their debts, the execution of their contracts, and the redress of their wrongs.” Judge Addison perceived the longevity of the Constitution, just thirteen years after its ratification; on the subject of inherited laws Addison wrote that “[t]he people of every state modify it according to their several circumstances; and, so modified, it has been constantly preserved, and will be forever preserved as a rule of right, and standard of action.” Judge Addison reveals that the U.S. Constitution was not the first iteration of law; speaking on the origin of State Constitutions in America he wrote that “[t]here never was a time in any society or government, in which a common law did not exist: it is incidental to the constitution of every regular state, and inseparable from its existence.”
These Constitutional principles relate to each other by restraining collective government power, while simultaneously declaring the individual rights of each branch. The Constitution’s goal was not to appropriate the rights of civilians but to limit the boundaries of government rule; this created a system of checks and balances. The Constitution’s principles can be found in it’s preamble, that states its declaration “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.” To achieve this a system of enumerated, delegated, implied, prohibited, and inherited powers was written and ratified; this formed an exceptional national Constitution capable of adaptation through amendments (Article V).
The objectives sought by each Constitutional principle included the division and distribution of rights between the federal government and the states; known as enumerated, delegated, implied, prohibited, and inherited powers (McClellan, 305). Enumerated powers are ones that are directly mentioned, such as Article I Section 8, which directly names powers of Congress. Delegated powers were ones that originated in the States, and were delegated to the national government; most enumerated powers are delegated from the States, (McClellan, 303). Implied powers, like the Elastic Clause, are to be interpreted through its context without these rights being directly named. Prohibited powers include Article 1 Section 10. Prohibited Powers separated American law from British rule; Article I Section 9 prevents acts such as the suspending the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, invoking Bills of Attainder, ex post facto laws, or Capitation Tax from occurring anywhere in America. Prohibited Powers filtered ineffective despotic governance experienced by the Colonists from occurring on sovereign American land. Inherited powers are ones that did arrive along with the Colonists; these powers derived directly from British Parliament, and may not be specifically named in the Constitution.
Conclusion
The Founding Fathers took the best aspects of the British Parliament into account when they developed the Constitution of the United States of America; yet this Union required compromise, and provision for assurance to ensure the liberty of the people through a rigorous system of checks and balances. The Constitution’s Exclusive federal powers, those only Reserved to the State, and the Concurrent balance of these powers have led to a historically unrivaled system of governance; it represents the longest-standing unchanged Constitution in existence. The delegation of powers may have been influenced by the British Parliament’s three branches, but the Founders warranted the prohibition of any branch of America’s government from unlawful attacks upon its citizens by demanding consistent accountability of constituent representation while holding an omnipotent observance to God. The Constitution’s construction reveals that it isn’t power that makes a lasting form of government, but the distribution and delegation of that power in response to the needs of its people that gives America its exemplary stature.
–July 31st, 2023
Bibliography
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Plucknett, T.F.T., (1929, 1956). A Concise History of the Common Law. https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-concise-history-of-the-common-law/id637155865
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