Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About®) (21 page)

Hamilton’s suggestion was turned down, but the Constitution did not provide for direct elections, except for the House of Representatives, where it was still left to the states to determine who voted. Property ownership was the key qualification in almost every state. And of course, women, Indians, and blacks—free or slave—had no vote. It is simple to dismiss even that basic decision as the result of sexism and racism. But, again, the temper of the times must be considered. In a period in which class differences were so clearly delineated, though less so in America than in Europe, it may have been inconceivable for these men to consider allowing just anyone to vote. They took as an article of faith that to participate responsibly in a democracy required education and the measure of property that would allow one the leisure to read and think. That said, however, they also did everything they could to make sure that women, Indians, blacks, and the white poor would be excluded from obtaining such education and property.

The final form of the Constitution, prepared by New York’s Gouverneur Morris, was put to a vote on September 17, 1787. Thirty-nine of the delegates present voted in favor; three were opposed. Another thirteen of the principals were absent, but seven of these were believed to favor the Constitution. It was sent on to Congress, which decided to submit the document to the states for ratification, with the approval of nine states needed for passage.

A
MERICAN
V
OICES

Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.

For any and all of the Constitution’s flaws—as well as those of the men who wrote it—this document was, and remains, a remarkable achievement. As Leonard W. Levy argues in
Original Intent and the Framers’ Constitution
, “The Constitution lacks the eloquence and passion of the Declaration of Independence, although the opening of the Preamble, ‘We the People,’ summons forth the still radically democratic idea that the government of the United States exists to serve the people, not the people to serve the government. That is fundamental to the Framers’ original intent, as is the related idea that government in the United States cannot tell us what to think or believe about politics, religion, art, science, literature or anything else; American citizens have the duty as well as the right to keep the government from falling into error, not the other way around.”

What are checks and balances?

This has nothing to do with monthly bank statements. Whether out of wisdom or fear, the Constitution’s architects created a fundamental principle underlying the strength and tension of the federal government. The fear was obvious; no one wanted anyone else to become too powerful. So for almost every power they granted to one branch of government, they created an equal power of control for the other two. The legislature could “check” the power of the president, the Supreme Court could “check” the power of Congress, and so on, maintaining a careful symmetry, or “balance,” among the three branches.

BASIC POWERS AND CHECKS

E
XECUTIVE
P
OWERS
(P
RESIDENT
)

• Approves or vetoes federal bills.

• Carries out federal laws.

• Appoints judges and other high officials.

• Makes foreign treaties.

• Can grant pardons and reprieves to federal offenders.

• Acts as commander-in-chief of armed forces.

C
HECKS
ON
E
XECUTIVE
P
OWERS

• Congress can override vetoes by two-thirds vote.

• Senate can refuse to confirm appointments or ratify treaties.

• Congress can impeach and remove the president.

• Congress can declare war.

• Supreme Court can declare executive acts unconstitutional.

L
EGISLATIVE
P
OWERS
(C
ONGRESS
)

• Passes federal laws.

• Establishes lower federal courts and the number of federal judges.

• Can override the president’s veto with two-thirds vote.

C
HECKS
ON
L
EGISLATIVE
P
OWERS

• Presidential veto of federal bills.

• Supreme Court can rule laws unconstitutional.

• Both houses of Congress must vote to pass laws, checking power within the legislature.

J
UDICIAL
P
OWERS

• Interprets and applies the law by trying federal cases.

• Can declare laws passed by Congress and executive actions unconstitutional.

C
HECKS
ON
J
UDICIAL
P
OWERS

• Congress can propose constitutional amendments to overturn judicial decisions. (These require two-thirds majority in both houses, and ratification by three-quarters of states.)

• Congress can impeach and remove federal judges.

• The president appoints judges (who must be confirmed by the Senate).

What three-letter word is not in the Constitution?

There is an American political drama that has been played out in recent years during the Democratic convention. Someone, usually a conservative Republican with ties to the Christian right, blasts away at the Democratic Party’s platform because it doesn’t mention God. Then, if all goes according to form, a Democratic Party spokesperson will fire back that the United States Constitution doesn’t mention God, either. In this case, the Democrats have it right.

Unlike the Declaration of Independence, which tiptoed around the question of a deity with euphemisms like “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge of the World,” and “Divine Providence,” the Constitution makes no such nods to divine intervention. Instead, the Constitution calls the nation the creation of the will of the people. In a country in which the role of religion is constantly debated and politicians routinely point to America’s “Judeo-Christian heritage” and “the faith of our fathers,” the question of the missing deity in the Constitution raises a larger point: What did the Founding Fathers believe? Few questions have generated as many myths or misconceptions.

In fact, eighteenth-century America was predominantly Christian—and overwhelmingly Protestant. But that was a big tent, covering a large crowd whose faith was far from monolithic. New England was dominated by Congregationalism, derived from the Pilgrim and Puritan tradition, and Congregational churches received government support in some states. But the Protestants of the South leaned toward the Episcopal, aligned with the very Church of England from which the Puritans had separated themselves. In Virginia, the Anglican, or Episcopal, church also received state money. In Maryland, founded as a refuge for Catholics, the Roman Catholic presence was larger than in other states, but many Americans regarded Roman Catholics, or “Papists,” with suspicion—or worse. Nonetheless, Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration and the richest man in Maryland and quite possibly the whole nation, was a devout Roman Catholic. His faith was one of the reasons that Carroll would later have such disdain for Thomas Jefferson, who, by 1800, was being denounced as an atheist. There was also a whole slew of other Protestant sects and denominations, including the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Quakers, each group finding fertile ground in the new American landscape.

This was, after all, the Age of Enlightenment when science and reason were elevated above both church and king. The work of scientists like Newton in upsetting the status quo of belief had spilled over into politics. By proving that the universe was governed by mathematically proven laws of nature in the late 1600s, Sir Isaac Newton helped Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke (1632–1704) shake political thought free from the past. Locke wrote, “A government is not free to do as it pleases. The law of nature, as revealed by Newton, stands as an eternal rule to all men.” Locke’s ideas, in turn, profoundly influenced Jefferson.

During this period of extraordinary intellectual, political, and religious ferment, many of the Founding Fathers—most of them educated, wealthy, and aristocratic—rejected the orthodoxy of religion, just as they had rejected the divinity of the English throne. What many of the Founding Fathers believed in was deism, which had replaced the highly personal God of Judeo-Christian biblical tradition with “Providence,” an amorphous force that George Washington once referred to as “it.” A survey of a handful of the most influential Founding Fathers is useful in assessing what these men did believe:

• Benjamin Franklin: During the colonial religious revival known as the Great Awakening (see Chapter 2), Franklin befriended George Whitefield, one of the most prominent leaders of the Awakening. Though Franklin supported Whitefield’s good works, he “drew the line short of his own conversion,” as Franklin biographer H. W. Brands put it in
The First American
.

Along with Jefferson probably the best example of the American Enlightenment Man, Franklin was skeptical of organized religion. Describing Franklin’s spiritual thought, Brands writes, “As the deists did, Franklin measured the immensity of the universe against the minisculity of the earth and the inhabitants thereof and concluded from this that it was ‘great vanity in me to suppose that the Supremely Perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man.’ Moreover, this Supremely Perfect had absolutely no need to be worshipped by humans; He was infinitely above such sentiments or actions.”

Proponents of America as a “Christian nation” and those who favor public prayer often cite Franklin’s entreaty that the constitutional convention open its meetings with a prayer. What they conveniently leave out is what actually happened following that suggestion. Alexander Hamilton first argued that if the people knew that the convention was resorting to prayer at such a late date, it might be viewed as an act of desperation. Nonetheless, Franklin’s motion was seconded. But then Hugh Williamson of North Carolina pointed out that the convention lacked funds to pay a chaplain, and then the proposition died. Franklin later noted, “The convention, except three or four persons,
thought prayers unnecessary
” (emphasis added).

Late in his life, Franklin wrote what could almost pass for a modern New Age statement of faith:

“Here is my creed. I believe in one God, creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. . . . That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. . . . As to Jesus of Nazareth. I think the system of morals and his religion . . . the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have . . . some doubts as to his divinity.” He added, “I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments. . . . I hope to go out of the world in peace with all of them.”

• George Washington: The image of Washington on his knees at prayer in Valley Forge is an American icon. And like many Washington images, it is largely mythical. While Washington prayed regularly and fervently, he was never seen doing it in the snows of Pennsylvania.

Clearly a believer who often resorted to calls to “Providence,” the father of the country regularly attended the Episcopal church, whether at home in Virginia, at the Philadelphia conventions, or in New York as president. But as Thomas Fleming notes in
Duel
, “Washington usually left before the communion service, pointedly if silently stating his disbelief in this central ceremony of the Christian faith.”

But Washington was certainly a Christian and in his 1796 Farewell Address expressed his belief that religion and morality were “pillars of human happiness,” then adding, “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”