Amending the Constitution
Amending the Constitution
It is a measure of the success of the Constitution’s drafters that after the adoption in 1791 of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights, the original document has been changed only seventeen times.
Only six of those amendments have dealt with the structure of government. With the exception of Prohibition and its revocation, the main thrust of the other amendments has been to protect or expand the rights already guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Over the years, there have been many proposals to alter the Constitution. These include an 1808 proposal by a Connecticut Senator that the nation choose its president through an annual random drawing from a list of retiring senators to a 1923 proposal for an amendment to guarantee equal rights for women.
If the Constitution has rarely been amended, it is in no small part because its authors made it difficult to tamper with. Amendments must follow one of two routes. Under the one followed by all amendments to date, two-thirds majorities of each house of Congress vote their approval and three-quarters of the state legislatures add their ratification. Under the second route, two-thirds of the states may vote to call a constitutional convention, whose proposed amendments must be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures.
The first ten amendments were added in 1791 and later amendments introduced such far-reaching changes as ending slavery, creating national guarantees of due process and individual rights, granting women the vote, and providing for direct popular election of senators.
In 1793, the Supreme Court angered states by accepting jurisdiction in a case where an individual sued the state of Georgia. To ensure that did not happen again, Congress and the states added the 11th Amendment in 1798.
The 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, had electors vote separately for president and vice president. Until then, the candidate with the most Electoral College votes became president, and the runner up, vice president.
Slavery generated three amendments. The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 to protect the civil rights of former slaves. It granted citizenship to all people born in the United States. Two years later, the 15th Amendment declared that the right to vote shall not be abridged on account of race or previous condition of servitude.
The 16th Amendment (1913) authorized an income tax, which the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional in 1895.
The 17th Amendment required direct election of senators.
In 1919, the states approved the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. In 1933, Congress proposed an amendment to repeal Prohibition. The 21st Amendment was ratified in just 286 days.
The 19th Amendment extended the vote to women.
The 20th Amendment reduced the time between the election of national officials and their assumption of office.
The 22nd Amendment, adopted in 1951, limited presidents to two terms.
The 23rd Amendment, enacted in 1961, allowed residents of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections.
The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited a poll tax in federal elections.
The 25th Amendment (1967) provided a system for selecting a new vice president after the death or resignation of a president. It also established a system to deal with the possibility that a president might become disabled.
The 26th Amendment, adopted in 1971, extended the vote to 18-year-olds.
The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, prevents Congress from giving itself an immediate pay increase. It says that a change in pay can only go into effect after the next congressional election.
Why Has the Constitution Survived?
At the end of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington said, “I do not expect the Constitution to last for more than twenty years.” Today, the United States has the oldest written constitution in the world. Why has the Constitution survived?
The framers of the Constitution established the broad structure of government but also left the system flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions. A document of less than 8,000 words, the Constitution is not overly detailed. Over the years, Congresses, presidents, and the courts have reinterpreted the document to meet the needs of the moment.
How Has the Constitution System Changed?
When the Constitution was ratified, the states were dominant. Since then, the national government has gradually become dominant. When George Washington became president, he had just five cabinet officers: Secretaries of State, War, and Treasury, an Attorney General, and a Post-Master General. Since then, the presidency has accumulated more and more authority. Today, there are fourteen executive departments and 2.7 million civilian federal employees.
The framers of the Constitution expected Congress to be the dominant branch of government. In the early years of the republic, presidential candidates were usually nominated by a caucus system centered in the House of Representatives. Today, Congress is less inclined to initiate policy than to let the president set the legislative agenda. Today, Congress has about 290 committees and subcommittees. More than 10,000 people work for the 535 members of Congress.
Especially in the twentieth century, the Supreme Court has become a powerful vehicle for making public policy as it interprets the law.
Political parties, which are not mentioned in the Constitution, would become an integral part of the American political system. They remain the means through which political officeholders are nominated and elected.
The Constitution as a Living Document
Less than 8,000 words long, including the amendments, the U.S. Constitution is one of the world’s shortest constitutions. Despite its brevity, however, it has provided the country’s basic framework of government for over two centuries. Indeed, the Constitution’s concision has allowed it to adapt to shifting circumstances.
The U.S. Constitution is a living entity whose meaning has been repeatedly debated and contested. Conceptions of citizenship, liberty, government’s proper role, and the proper relationship between the federal and state governments all have been repeatedly debated and contested.
Religion and the Constitution
Article VI of the Constitution states: “No religious Test shall ever be required as Qualification” for federal office holders. The 1st Amendment affirms that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Article VI and the First Amendment were intended to prohibit the government from establishing a national religion, preventing discrimination against particular religious sects, and restricting an individual’s religious practice. Yet, the very first Congress set a day of thanksgiving to God and created chaplaincies. For nearly a century, Congress routinely appropriated public money to support sectarian Indian education carried on by religious organizations.
This raises the question, “Did the Constitution’s framers intend to build the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state?”
The “wall of separation” phrase was coined by Thomas Jefferson in an 1802 letter. Jefferson argued that religious beliefs should be solely matters of individual conscience and completely immune from any interference by the state. Moreover, religious activity of any sort should be wholly voluntary. Not only did he oppose taxing people to support an established church, but also objected to forcing people to pay taxes even for their own church. As Jefferson put it in a letter to Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should `make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all of his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
Did the Founders believe that there should be a high wall of separation keeping church and state apart? The answer is complicated.
The American colonies were settled by people of deep religious convictions who crossed the Atlantic to practice their faith freely. New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were founded for religious reasons.
The Great Awakening of the 1730s and ‘40s, the first event shared by all the colonists, promoted the growth of the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches. Religion contributed greatly to the Revolution. Many clergy pictured the Church of England as a dangerous, almost diabolical, enemy of American freedom and argued that resistance to tyranny was a Christian duty.
Both the central and state governments were convinced that morality and national survival depended upon religion. But there was also a growing belief that government and the churches should be separate. Intense debate erupted over the propriety of government providing tax support to an established church or indeed to any churches.
The ultimate result was the American system of religious pluralism. Government would not promote any specific religious sect. In turn, many religious denominations worked together to ensure that the United States remained a godly nation. Through camp meetings, religious revivals, and moral reform, revivalists and reformers sought to save souls and save the republic.