SECTION I: The Constitutional Convention
The Articles of Confederation under which the United States was originally organized were inadequate
to the needs of raising revenue and maintaining the civil order. At the insistent urging of James
Madison, a convention of states was called in Philadelphia in the sweltering summer of 1787 for the stated
purpose of
addressing those inadequacies.
Other sections of KTBB Constitution Minute:
Prologue: Articles of Confederation || Section 1: Constitutional Covention
|| Section 2: Ratification || Section 3: Creating the Bill of
Rights || Section 4: The Ammendments || Section 5: The
Courts and the Landmark Decisions || Section 6: The Present Day ||
Section 7: The Founding
Fathers
Episode 1: Three Very Different Men
James Madison, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were very different in age, temperament, physical stature and outlook. Yet they came together at a critical moment in the history of the United States of America. Listen to Episode 1
Episode 2: A Total Alteration of the System
The original premise for calling a convention of states in Philadelphia was the need to modify the existing Articles of Confederation. It would quickly become clear that much more was going to happen. Listen to Episode 2
Episode 3: The Role of the Executive
The job of the President of the United States seems obvious to us today. But defining that role proved to be one of the most difficult tasks to face the authors of our Constitution. Listen to Episode 3
Episode 4: The Virginia Plan
There were dozens of ideas as to how best to organize a central United States government, but it was James Madison of Virginia who proposed a plan consisting of three co-equal branches. Listen to Episode 4
Episode 5: We the People
How would members of the proposed two-house Congress be chosen? Was it to be by “We the People,” or by "We the States?" Listen to Episode 5
Episode 6: Unhappy Memories of George
For most of the Constitutional Convention, delegates wrestled with the question of how much power to give to the executive, whom we now call the president. Unhappy memories of George III of England haunted those deliberations. Listen to Episode 6
Episode 7: Sweltering Debate
As temperatures outside the Philadelphia State House rose during the hot summer of 1787, temperatures inside rose as well, as contentious debate broke out over the subject of representation in Congress. Listen to Episode 7
Episode 8: Ben Franklin's Compromise
Benjamin Franklin was 82 years old in 1787 and was too feeble to participate significantly at the Constitutional Convention. But during a convention recess taken to celebrate the Fourth of July, Franklin made a critical contribution to the eventual creation of a new constitution. Listen to Episode 8
Episode 9: Representation of Whom?
Ben Franklin proposed that representation of the states in the House of Representatives be proportional. But proportional to what, or to whom? Property? Population? Listen to Episode 9
Episode 10: Three Fifths
The existence of slavery in some, but not all, of the states led to what is perhaps the most misunderstood clause in the Constitution. Listen to Episode 10
Episode 11: The Connecticut Compromise
Convention delegates Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth and William Samuel Johnson, all from Connecticut, put for the proposal that at last settled the subject of representation in Congress. Listen to Episode 11
Episode 12: Enumerated Powers
Exactly how much power should the federal government have? That question was addressed by limiting the government to only those powers specifically set forth in the Constitution. Listen to Episode 12
Episode 13: Revisiting the Executive
How was a chief executive to be chosen? Was he to be chosen by the people or by the states? That subject would haunt most of the summer for delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Listen to Episode 13
Episode 14: Creating the Judiciary
There was general agreement among the delegates that a national judiciary was necessary. But how and by whom would judges be appointed? Listen to Episode 14
Episode 15: Resolving the Presidency
Many questions as to the powers of the legislative and the judiciary could not be resolved until the subject of the powers of the executive were resolved. Listen to Episode 15
Episode 16: The Committee of Detail
Where agreement in principle had been reached, there emerged the need to reduce those agreements to writing so that a constitutional document could be drafted. That job fell to a newly appointed Committee of Detail. Listen to Episode 16
Episode 17: Property Ownership\the Right
to Vote
Which citizens would have the right to vote? Was there a minimum qualification - such as being a property owner? Listen to Episode 17
Episode 18: The Power to Spend
Delegates wrestled at times vigorously over the question of which house of Congress would have the power to authorize the spending of money. Listen to Episode 18
Episode
19: The Seat of Government
Among the more hotly contested items at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was the question of where to locate the seat of the federal government. Listen to Episode 19
Episode 20: Paying Congress
Who is to pay members of Congress for their service, the federal treasury or the states? Should members of Congress be paid at all? Listen to Episode 20
Episode 21: Bring the Business to an End
By mid-August 1787, weeks of debate in the sweltering heat of Philadelphia had taken their toll. The increasingly grumpy delegates to the Constitutional Convention were becoming anxious to wrap things up. Listen to Episode 21
Episode 22: Electing the President
By late August 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention could put off the subject of the presidency no longer. The biggest single issue? How is he to be elected? Listen to Episode 22
Episode 23: The Most Insignificant Office
One of the issues attendant to sorting out the subject of the presidency was the question of providing for an orderly succession of power should the president be unable to complete his term. Listen to Episode 23
Episode 24: The Means of Amendment
One of the most critical flaws of the Articles of Confederation that a new constitution was to replace was the absence of a workable method for amendment. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention took up that subject in early September 1787. Listen to Episode 24
Episode 25: How to Ratify?
As work at the Constitutional Convention drew near the end, an important question arose. By what mechanism was the new constitution to be ratified and put into effect? Listen to Episode 25
Episode 26: The Want of a Bill of Rights
By late September 1787, weary delegates to the Constitutional Convention were not happy when George Mason of Virginia called for a Bill of Rights to preface the document. But once the idea was floated, it would eventually take on a life of its own. Listen to Episode 26
Episode 27: Morris's Preamble
As the final draft of a new constitution was taking shape, New York's Gouverneur Morris took it upon himself to rewrite the preamble. Listen to Episode 27
Episode 28: Article II: The Presidency
The U.S. Constitution has, since its inception, been praised for its clear and concise language. But the subject of electing the president, which had tormented convention delegates for nearly the entirety of the summer of 1787, resulted in the most convoluted language in the document. Listen to Episode 28
Episode 29: Roaring Drunk
With a final draft of a new constitution agreed upon, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia treated themselves to rip-roaring night on the town. Listen to Episode 29
Episode 30: Letter of Transmittal
Mindful of the fact that the Constitutional Convention’s hard work was subject to being second guessed by the Continental Congress, whose approval the document required in order to go into effect, New York's Gouverneur Morris drafted a letter of transmittal to the state congressional delegations. Listen to Episode 30
Episode 31: Conciliation
As the moment drew near to vote to approve the work they had done, some members of the Constitutional Convention were still not satisfied. At that critical moment, it fell to Benjamin Franklin to speak words of conciliation. Listen to Episode 31
Episode
32: Signing Day
September 17, 1787, a Monday that year, is little noted in the American History textbooks in our schools. But it is, nevertheless, a very important day in the history of the United States. Listen to Episode 32
Episode 104: The Electoral College is Born
James Madison's original vision for the chief of the executive branch was that a president would be elected by the Congress. But as the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia wore on, the delegates, including Madison himself, came to believe that the president as a creature of the Congress would negatively impact the separation of power among the branches. Thus Madison was moved to propose what would come to be called the Electoral College. Listen to Episode 104
Episode 105: The Electoral College & Federalism
It was the belief of James Madison, together with Alexander Hamilton, that a new constitution should provide for a mixture of state-based and population-based government. The delegates came to call the concept, “federalism.” Madison's belief is well reflected in the language of Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, which sets forth what we now call the Electoral College. Listen to Episode 105
Episode 106: The General Welfare
A bit more than two weeks before the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia came to an end, the delegates voted unanimously to add a phrase to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution containing two words that would have a profound impact on the size, scope and role of the federal government. Listen to Episode 106
Episode 113: Article 4, Section 4
Although the rule of Great Britain's King George III over the American colonies had been fully overthrown concurrent with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, fear of monarchial rule was still very much alive in the hearts and minds of the American people and the Founding Fathers. Also very much alive was fear of invasion by foreign forces. Those fears informed the language of Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution. Listen to Episode 113
Episode 116: The Supremacy Clause
How much power the states should cede to a national government was at the core of the debate at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. But early in that debate, it was recognized that if a national government was to function at all, its laws could not be constantly subject to preemption by state laws. Listen to Episode 116
Episode 127 - The Father of the Presidency
What power to give a chief executive and what to call him was one of the most difficult topics to confront the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Clarity on the subject began to emerge as James Wilson of Pennsylvania took the floor of the convention on June 1, 1787. Listen to Episode 127
Episode 128 - The Electoral College
The subject of the presidency was the last issue to be resolved at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In the midst of sometimes heated disagreement as to how the president was to be elected, James Madison sat down and put pen to paper and created the Electoral College. Listen to Episode 128