The first national government of the United States was determined by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The Confederation proved to be the wrong type of government for the thirteen states that then comprised the United States of America. The Articles of Confederation was drafted in 1777 and the last state ratified it in 1781. It went out of existence when the Constitution was adopted in 1789. This is one of the first examples of the people using their unalienable rights to alter or abolish government and institute a better one.
In 1887 a convention was called in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. Delegates came from all the states except Rhode Island. Instead of revising the Articles of Confederation, the delegates, under the leadership of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris and George Washington, decided to write a constitution setting up a federal government for the states – a bold idea that no other country had ever tried before in human history. The writing of the Constitution was difficult as there were so many opposing ideas as to what should be done. These ideas were mostly settled by compromise. The document was principally written by Gouverneur Morris, and by July 2, 1788, ten states had ratified the Constitution and it was adopted.
It wasn’t until March 4, 1789, 13 years after the Declaration of Independence, that the Constitution of the United States of America went into effect and became the supreme law of the nation; and it was not until 1790 that all thirteen states had accepted it.
The Constitution is a contract between the federal government and the people of the states. As Abraham Lincoln stated in his Gettysburg Address, it is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Ours is a government by the consent of the people – a government agreed to by the people through a written contract called a constitution. A document of this kind, like any contract, is only as good as the people make it. It must be enforced or it becomes meaningless.
Some of the ways that we, as citizens, can make our Constitution effective are:
By being well informed as to what our government is doing;
By taking an interest in and voting in all elections;
By writing letters expressing our opinions to our elected officials;
By participating in the political debate publicly;
By taking court action against any law that we feel is not constitutional;
By signing petitions – written statements supported by signatures of citizens that are either for or against some action taken or about to be taken by our elected officials.
Ensuring that our government operates in the best interests of all the people of the United States is the responsibility of all citizens. We must accept this responsibility to remain a free people and to enjoy the type of government our Constitution enables us to have.
We are, by and large, willing to obey voluntarily decisions made according to the rules embodied in the written constitution, for instance, laws passed by Congress and signed by the President as prescribed by Articles I and II of the Constitution. This willingness to obey decisions reached by means of accepted procedures is called “legitimacy”. Governmental decisions that are reached according to rules we believe to have been established by the written constitution are vested with legitimacy. The written Constitution shapes and determines our beliefs about what government may legitimately do. Over two centuries of living with the Constitution have produced a “living Constitution”, shaped both by amendments to it, and by our court’s interpretation of it.
In America, we live in an indirect democracy – we elect representatives – people who speak and act for us – to make our wishes known in government. We believe our Constitution to be primary as regards the relationships between human beings and government.
Obviously, everyone cannot be satisfied with government all of the time. We live in an age which has only two powerful political parties, and many of the same powerful groups have a great deal of say in controlling what each major political party can say and do, and keep political power. Individuals, sadly have become lost in this group power dynamic.
Because we are one nation and one people, we have a constitution which guarantees all people, even those whose chosen candidate in an election loses, certain unalienable rights. Elected representatives represent all of the people in their districts, both democrats, republicans, independents, ecologists, and even those who do not vote. Because we believe in peaceful transition from one government to another, we learn to accept that a representative must represent us, even if we hold different beliefs. A person whose candidate loses must wait until the next election to have another chance to try to elect a candidate of his or her choice to public office.
Thus, it is all the more crucial that individual, unalienable rights are respected, whether or not one feels represented by the elected representatives.
First among these unalienable rights is Liberty, which the Constitution has defined as:
Freedom of Religious Belief,
Freedom of Speech,
Freedom of the Press,
Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, and
Freedom to Criticize and Petition the government to set right or remedy our grievances or complaints.
By allowing these freedoms, and by enumerating them as unalienable rights, the Constitution sets forth a plan by which citizens can co-exist peacefully with one another, without violence, and without civil war. Thus, it is critical that these Freedoms never be denied to the people.