496. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787.—In May, 1787, delegates from every state except Rhode Island came together in Philadelphia to consider "means necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union."
Early in the session Edmund Randolph introduced what has been called the Virginia plan. This called for an abandonment of the Articles of Confederation and demanded the establishment of a strong national government. The Virginia plan favored the larger and more populous states by providing a national Congress of two houses, in both of which representation was to be on the basis of population.
Of the several other plans put before the Convention the most notable was that proposed by William Paterson of New Jersey. The adherents of this plan wished to retain the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were to be revised so as to give greater powers to the central government, but in most practical concerns the states were to continue sovereign. The New Jersey plan opposed the idea of a two-chambered legislature in which the states were to be represented on the basis of population. If representation in both houses of Congress were on the basis of population, it was declared, the larger and more populous states would be able to dominate the National government and the rights of the smaller states would be inadequately safeguarded.
After a long debate a compromise plan was adopted. It was agreed that there should be established a strong national government, but one sufficiently checked by constitutional provisions to safeguard the rights of the states. The national legislature was to consist of two houses. In the upper house the states were to be represented equally, while in the lower chamber representation was to be on the basis of population.
497. THE NEW GOVERNMENT.—The Convention completed the Constitution on September 17, 1787, and the document was immediately placed before the states. By the summer of 1788 the necessary number of states had ratified the Constitution, and on April 30, 1789, the new government was put to work under George Washington as first President.
The English statesman Gladstone has implied that our Constitution was an original creation, "struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." But as a matter of fact the Constitution was not so much the result of political originality as it was a careful selection from British and colonial experience. The trial of the Confederation government had proved especially valuable, and in drawing up the Federal Constitution, the members of the Constitutional Convention were careful to avoid the defects of the Articles of Confederation. The most fundamental difference between the Confederation government and the new Federal government was that the Federal Constitution provided for an adequate executive and judiciary to enforce the Federal laws directly upon the individual. The Confederation government, it will be remembered, had been obliged to rely upon the states for the enforcement of all laws.
B. FRAMEWORK OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
498. THE THEORY OF LIMITED GOVERNMENT.—The new Constitution created a system of Federal government which retains the advantages of local self-government for the states, but at the same time secures the strength which results from union. The government of the United States is a compromise between centralization and decentralization, the balance between these two extremes being maintained by a rather elaborate system of checks, balances, and limitations.
These checks, balances, and limitations we may consider under five heads: first, private rights under the Federal Constitution; second, the threefold division of powers in the Federal government; third, the division of powers between Federal and state governments; fourth, interstate relations; and fifth, the supremacy of Federal law.
499. PRIVATE RIGHTS UNDER THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. [Footnote: For the prohibitions upon the states in favor of private rights, see Chapter XLV.]—The constitutional limitations upon the Federal government in behalf of private rights fall into two groups: those designed to protect personal liberty, [Footnote: Some of the limitations in favor of personal liberty enumerated in this section are contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, adopted in a body in 1791.] and those designed to protect property rights.