Question/Problem 4: In what ways was the United States Constitution of 1787 a document of compromise, balance and flexibility?

Objectives

Description of lesson/activity

Resources

1. explain the reasons why the Constitutional Convention took place.

2. identify important leaders of the Convention.

3. use evidence to show that the Constitution is a document of compromise (representation, slavery).

4. use evidence to show that the Constitution is a document of balance (federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances).

5. use evidence to show that the Constitution is a document of flexibility (adding new states, amendments, necessary-and-proper or elastic clause).

6. read and interpret parts of the Constitution.

1. From Question/Problem 2 students will have an understanding of the American Revolution and its impact on different groups of people. That lesson emphasized the social and economic changes brought about by the Revolution. Question/Problem 3 enabled students to investigate the constitutional changes that took place during and after the Revolutionary War, the first American constitutional system (1776-1788). The goal of question/problem 4 is to have students understand the "revolutionary nature" of the Constitution of 1787, the second American constitutional system, and the qualities of the Constitution that have enabled it to endure more than 200 years.

2. Many resources are available to teachers regarding the Constitutional Convention and the Constitution itself. (See the list of books and films at the end of this unit.) In spite of the wealth of information available on this topic, teachers still find the Constitution difficult to teach. These teacher notes are designed to provide a framework for teaching the essential aspects of the Constitution to middle-school students.

3. The concluding activity of Question/Problem 3 provides an introduction to Question/Problem 4 on the Constitution. As students evaluate the Articles of Confederation, they will be assessing the strengths and weaknesses of confederation as a form of government. It was the perceived inability of that government and the states to solve national problems that led to the call for a convention. The teacher should provide background on the Convention and also the framers of the Constitution. Students also need to understand the "revolutionary nature" of the Constitution.

4. The teacher should provide students with the question/problem In what ways was the United States Constitution of 1787 a document of compromise, balance and flexibility? Students will investigate each of the characteristics of compromise, balance, and flexibility in turn.

5. The Constitution as a document of compromise. Without compromise, there never would have been a new constitution for the United States. The framers spent four months debating, arguing, and compromising before adopting the Constitution. Teachers should make sure that students understand that compromise is not a negative form of behavior, but that there can be both negative and positive ways of practicing compromise.

Key points to stress:

• Representation. The framers instantly agreed that there should be a national government of three branches. They could not initially agree on how the states should be represented in the government. Students could research the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan and debate the merits of each. Students can then explain how the Great Compromise satisfied both small and large states.

• Slavery. Slavery had existed in America from early colonial days. Was slavery consistent with the Declaration of Independence? Was slavery to be continued in the United States? Were slaves to count toward representation in the new government? With an understanding of slavery in the context of the 1700s, students can evaluate the so-called "Three-Fifths Compromise" (Article I, section 2). Students do need to understand that this compromise reduced the number of slaves by three-fifths for certain purposes. It did not make slaves three-fifths of a free person.

6. The Constitution as a document of balance. The framers of the Constitution wanted to create a government that would balance the ambitions of its leaders, the interests of geographic sections, and the perspectives of local, state, and national constituencies. Political power in the Constitution is distributed and balanced in a number of ways.

Key points to stress:

• Federalism. Many Americans feared the very idea of national government, so the framers took care to provide a balance of power between individual states and the new national government. To illustrate the concept of federalism, students could compare the supremacy clause of Article VI with the reserved powers clause in the Tenth Amendment.
  • "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." (supremacy clause)

  • "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." (reserved powers clause)

• Separation of Powers. Students can research the powers given to the executive,legislative, and judicial branches of government.

• Checks. Students can list powers each branch has to keep the other branches from becoming too powerful. Separation of powers and checks can be listed in a three-by-three table with three columns (one for each branch) and three rows (one for each function of government). The three functions are law making, law implementation, and law adjudication.

• Balances. Students can list how Congress and the president incorporate and balance local, state, and national constituencies.

7. The Constitution as a document of flexibility. The framers of the Constitution wanted the government to last a long time. Their experiences with the Articles of Confederation taught them that governments need to adapt in order to survive. This would enable the national government to solve new problems more easily.

Key points to stress:

• Admission of new states. The framers provided a means by which the nation could grow _democratically_ over time. Territories acquired by conquest, discovery, or purchase could become free and republican states as soon as the citizens of the territory and the members of Congress approved.

• Amendments. The amendment procedure adopted by the framers ensured that the Constitution itself would be flexible and able to change over time. Student could research some of the amendments and explain how they changed the Constitution itself. The key to flexibility in the amendment process was the defeat of the unanimity requirement under the Articles of Confederation.

• Necessary-and-Proper Clause. The framers knew that the government they created would not provide a remedy for all future problems of the nation. The necessary±and±proper clause (sometimes referred to as the elastic clause) gives Congress the power to "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper" for the nation. Students can explain how this provides flexibility and explore some of the controversial issues regarding the federal use of this clause. The first controversial use of this clause was the National Bank; many others followed.

  The crux of the necessary-and-proper clause is not elasticity, but a means-ends relationship in which the enumerated powers are ends. A list of means would have been too cumbersome. The question was not how can Congress get away with stretching the Constitution, but whether Congress can justify a desired law as a means necessary and proper to the accomplishment of one or more enumerated ends. This is the point that should be communicated. Students could hunt through Article 1, Section 8 for ends to justify the Bank. If students cannot understand exactly what makes the amendment process and the necessary-and-proper clause so "flexible," then they will fail to grasp the idea of flexibility.

8. There are many other significant topics related to the Constitution that are not mentioned above. The electoral college and how a bill becomes a law are examples. The teacher should feel free to supplement this unit with topics of interest. It is hoped that the above information will provide a framework for middle school students to learn the most essential aspects of the Constitution of the United States. As a concluding activity teachers should ask the original question/problem and have students give one example of each characteristic of compromise, balance, and flexibility.

Perhaps the greatest commemoration and legacy of the bicentennial of the United States Constitution was the wealth of teaching resources developed prior to and during the five-year celebration. Materials were created by teachers, institutions, commissions, commercial enterprises, etc. This is a recommended list of materials used by the authors of this curriculum.

BOOKS

Bailyn, Bernard, editor. The Debate on the Constitution, Parts I and II. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1993. The most complete and recent collection of documents on the ratification debates.

Bernstein, Richard B., with Kym S. Rice. Are We To Be A Nation?: The Making of the Constitution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988, this is a must for any teacher of the period.

Meltzer, Milton, editor. The American Revolutionaries: A History in Their Own Words 1750- 1800. New York: Crowell, 1987. For young adults.

Schechter, Stephen L., editor. Roots of the Republic. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1990. A unique collection of American founding documents containing the original text of the documents with teacher-friendly annotations and commentaries.

Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1993. Landmark study that shows the Revolution as more than a political break from England.

FILMS

An Empire of Reason. Produced by the New York State Bicentennial Commission and the New York State Bar Association, 1987. Aired nationally on public television, this informative yet entertaining film on the New York ratification debates convincingly portrays the ratification process as if it were a debate cast in today's television format. Shown periodically on PBS and available for purchase from commercial vendors.