Historians sometimes talk about the constitutional convention of 1787 as “the miracle of Philadelphia.” Why? This is Part SEVEN of the answer.
The new Constitution would divide authority between the national government and the states, but what limits would it establish on federal authority?
Anti-federalists passionate about states’ rights were forced to accept the “federal supremacy clause” insisted upon both by large state nationalists like Madison and Hamilton, but also by small state delegates who wanted a strong national government to check the power of larger states to oppress them. But the anti-federalists did not give up the fight. Southerners succeeded in limiting federal power over slavery and the slave trade. Other anti-federalists insisted that these new federal powers had to be expressly limited to those stated in the new constitution. So, instead of Madison’s original proposal that Congress be authorized to legislate “in all cases for the general interests of the Union,” the constitution specifically enumerates a long list of the powers of Congress, limiting it to those listed and those others “which shall be necessary and proper” to their execution. All three branches of government continue to this day contesting over the extent of what acts are “necessary and proper,” and which go beyond the power of the government.
But this did not satisfy some delegates, especially Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia. They demanded a bill of rights be added to the document to further limit the power of the national government, and they were the only delegates to vote against the final draft and refuse to sign it, when the rest of the convention, tired by a long summer of debates, adopted it as the best they could do and left Philadelphia for home, postponing debate on a bill of rights for another day. When asked as he left the final session what sort of government it had produced, Benjamin Franklin replied “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”
“History of Our Freedoms” is produced by KEDT-FM in Corpus Christi. Dr. Bill Chriss is a historian and legal scholar. For more on history and the constitution, check out his blog at DrBillChriss.substack.com.
