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2001 Knight Second Place Essay |
A LIVING CONSTITUTION
The U.S. Constitution: Does it stand the test of time?
By Mr. Samuel H. Wedes
In 1835, less than half a century after
the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Alexis de TocqueviUe observed in his
famous book, Democracy in America, "...The social state of America is a very
strange phenomenon. Men there are nearer equality in wealth and mental
endowments ... than in any other country of the world or in any other age or
recorded history."1 Indeed, by Tocqueville's time, America had already begun to
live up to the legacy that the Founding Fathers had ardently expressed in the
Constitution: that America be the exemplar of freedom and equality. Today,
America continues to grow and prosper from these ideals of democratic
governance. And in so doing, the Constitution lives on as it regulates and
adapts to new generations and new ideas.
Much of the Constitution's flexibility can be attributed to the elastic
clause (Article I, Section 8), which gives Congress the power to make all laws
that are "necessary and proper" to carry out the laws explicitly listed in the
Constitution. Such implied powers allow Congress not to be limited solely to the
expressed powers of the Constitution and have been used throughout history as a
means to adapt to a rapidly changing culture. For example, in the landmark case,
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the controversy regarding whether Congress had the
power to charter a bank was brought to the forefront.2 Albeit the Constitution
made no explicit reference to a national bank, Marshall declared that chartering
a bank was among the implied powers of Congress "necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the foregoing powers [such as taxation borrowing money,
and regulating commerce],"3 thus allowing the Constitution to evolve along with
the changing needs of the nation.
Another means by which the Constitution lives through today is the amendment
process. As James Madison explained, "It guards equally against that extreme
facility which would render the Constitution too mutable; and that extreme
difficulty which might perpetuate its discovered faults."4 The first ten
amendments are known as the Bill of Rights, which were added to the Constitution
to "reassure the people that the vastly strengthened federal government would
not oppress them and to secure individual rights for the long term."5 For
example, Amendment I guarantees the freedoms of religion, speech, press,
assembly, and petition. Other amendments include the abolition of slavery
(Amendment XIII); the rights of citizens, including due process of law and equal
protection under the law (Amendment XIV); and women's suffrage (Amendment XIX).
Some amendments reflect issues unheard of at the time that the Constitution was
ratified, but that became prominent as the country and society progressed. For
example, Amendment XXVI, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18
after people complained during Vietnam that if they could be drafted into the
army at age 18, then they should also be able to vote. Throughout the course of
American history, the Constitution has been amended 27 times, allowing it to
become one with the ever-changing American identity.
Lastly, the Constitution remains as America's ideological underpinning simply
because of the timeless democratic governance that it defines and expresses. As
George Bancroft noted, 'The Constitution establishes nothing that interferes
with equality and individuality .... It leaves the individual alongside of the
individual.... As the sea is made up of drops, American society is composed of
separate, free, and constantly moving atoms, ever in reciprocal action ... so
that the institutions and laws of the country rise out of the masses of
individual thought, which, like the waters of the ocean are rolling evermore."6
Within the Constitution's first three words - "We, the People" - the concept of
popular sovereignty is manifest: that power, indeed, comes from the people.7 To
ensure the people's power, the Constitution limits the power of the central
government by reserving some power for the states. In addition, the central
government is separated into three branches - legislative, executive, and
judicial - each branch having checks on the other two to balance the power. On
the necessity of the checks and balances system, Madison commented, "...Unless
these departments be so far connected and blended, as to give to each a
constitutional controul [sic] over the others, the degree of separation which
the maxim requires as essential to a free government, can never in practice, be
duly maintained."8 So long as power remains in check, the people retain their
sovereignty, and the Constitution lives on alongside the glory of democracy.
For over two centuries, the Constitution has stood as the archetype of
democracy. Over the years, shifting ideologies and perspectives amid an ever
growing and changing people have resulted in amendments to the Constitution.
Those, in addition to the elasticity from implied powers, allow the Constitution
to always live as one with the people and the times. Although interpretations
and opinions vary, the quintessence of the Constitution remains forever
unchanged: freedom, justice, and equality for all. For the Constitution is not
solely about laws and regulations; it is also about people. As Alexis de
Tocqueville explained, "The people reign over the American political world as
God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of all things;
everything rises out of it and is absorbed back into it."9
1 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence, ed. J. P.
Mayer (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 56.
2 Theodore J. Lowi and Benjamin Ginsberg, American Government: Freedom and
Power, 6th ed. (New York: Norton, 2000), 76.
3 Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, with
an introduction by Garry Wills (New York: Bantam Books, 1982), 456.
4 Ibid., 223.
5 Helen E. Veit Kenneth R. Bowling, and Charlene Bangs Bickford, eds., Creating
the Bill of rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress
(Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1991), ix.
6 George Bancroft, History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United
States of America, Vol. 2 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1882), 324.
7 Margaret Moran and W. Frances Holder, AP Success: U.S. History (Lawrenceville,
NJ: Peterson's, 2000),137.
8 Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, The Federalist Papers, 250.
9 Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 60
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bancroft, George. History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United
States of America. Vol. 2. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1882.
Hamillton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. With
an introduction by Garry Wills. New York: Bantam Books, 1982.
Lowi Theodore J., and Benjamin Ginsberg. American Government: Freedom and Power,
6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000.
Moran, Margaret, and W. Frances Holder. AP Success: U.S. History. Lawrenceville,
NJ: Peterson's, 2000.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Translated by George Lawrence.
Edited by J. P. Mayer. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1969.
Veit, Helen E., Kenneth R. Bowling, and Charlene Bangs Bickford, eds. Creating
the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress.
Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1991.
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