The Us Constitution And Its Compromises Essay Examples

The US Constitution is a simple document in its content although it has a number of compromises in it which were brought about after periods of long discussion and also reflection. To begin with, one must note that the British left the colonies in North America in a benign state of neglect, but notwithstanding that the actual colonies grew to be quite independent.
The French and Indian War changed the sphere of British influence as it brought the French into the picture, so much so that the British actually left the colonies to rot away and they had to fend for themselves in this respect. This attitude actually resulted in the colonists winning the French and Indian war which eventually resulted in drastic new laws and restrictions which were eventually imposed on the colonies themselves.
This led to the famous Boston Tea Party revolt and the American War of Independence. Obviously the first Constitutional Convention which met in Philadelphia in 1776 came up with a first draft for the Constitution which was not very strong but which had a number of interesting points. Still, there was no power to tax, no executive system and worse still no judicial system. This eventually led to the thinking that a new government was required to bridge the gap. This was followed by Shay’s Rebellion and a lack of unity among the drafters of the Constitution.
Generally one may argue that the Constitutional Convention was a series of compromises which were made to balance the interests of the various states with the strength of a new central government. How effective that was remains to be seen as even today problems still arise.
The constitution was actually a rather interesting compromise in creating a balance between what the smaller and larger states wanted. Initially in the Virginia Plan it became apparent that the large states wanted more representation but this was also tempered by what the smaller states wanted for themselves too. James Madison also came up with the splendid idea of suggesting a bicameral parliament with a Congress or House of Representatives and the Senate which was to be made up by two representatives from each state thus guaranteeing that even the smaller states were equally represented in government’s highest body. According to the 1790 Census, larger states were initially favoured however whilst according to the New Jersey Plan, the smaller states wanted representation to be equal amongst the states themselves. Patterson then suggested a single house of congress for each state thus giving rise to local representation and each state was to receive one vote but this idea was then abandoned. After much argument and ado it was eventually decided that the Senate would be composed of two representatives from each state whilst the House would base its voting system on population and elect members to Congress according to the size of that population with each state split into Congressional districts.
Thus, the Great Compromise balanced the needs of small states and large states and created an effective system of representation for a powerful central government. Still that remains a thorny issue as states’ rights often impinge on central government rights which at the end of the day are just as important but the system of checks and balances imbued in the Constitution makes life slightly easier.
However the Constitution also compromised on the issue of slavery which was later to come to a head in the Civil War. With the Southern states wanting that slaves were to be counted as two fifths of the population, there was a sticking point as the North had a much smaller number of slaves and was not intrinsically interested in unbalancing its population quotas and thus its power.
Additionally, the North wanted to count the population for representation and direct taxation so the slaves would not come into the equation. This led to the South to insist that it wanted to retain the slave trade and control all its commerce with a compromise eventually reached that the slave tr on exports although the central government could continue to tax imports. These compromises retained slavery in those areas where it was economically necessary and continued to solidify the central government’s power to regulate taxation and trade.
However the states continued to demand power with most of them running under the Articles of confederation much like smaller countries. In this respect they did not want to give up their independence to a new central government so taxation was intrinsically necessary here as many now realized that it was important to have a strong central government.
The Constitution split its powers up by branches to ensure that no part of government became too powerful with states being left to their own devices to regulate affairs and with its own system of checks and balances, the Constitution continued moving forward in this respect. It was also important to ensure that there was a strong central government to control against any form of rebellion and to deal with foreign powers.
However there was still difficulty in ratifying the Constitution as there were the Federalists which supported the ratification while the anti-Federalists were hesitant to do so as they feared that the central government ahd too much power. However with the passing of the Bill of Rights, all fell into place as this guaranteed both personal liberties and the rights of the states.