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Good morning.

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Today's lesson will focus on the
Philadelphia Convention and the

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government it put in place.

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The Philadelphia Convention,
which took place in 1787,

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gathered 55 delegates from 12 of
the 13 former British colonies.

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Rhode Island did not participate.

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Edmund Randolph presented what
was called the Virginia Plan to

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the Constitutional Convention.

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That plan had been drafted by Madison.

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It described the main features
of what would become the U.S.

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Constitution.

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Under that plan, the national
government was given more power,

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a stronger executive was established,
as well as a bicameral legislature

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and an un-elected judiciary.

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Anti-Federalists strongly opposed it.

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As a consequence, the final text
of the Constitution reflects a

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series of compromises.

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The first two of them came from
a common issue:

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the distribution of the population
among the states was very different.

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To give you two examples,
the Census Data Bureau estimates

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that in July 1776, there were 59,094

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people in Delaware, while there
were 747,810 people in Virginia.

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The first problem was that of
representation in the legislative body,

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which led to what is called the
Great Compromise.

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Under the Constitution,
the legislature is bicameral.

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That is, there are two houses,
the House of Representatives and

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the Senate.

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The Representatives are considered
to represent the people of the State,

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while the Senators represent the
interests of the States themselves

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in Congress.

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The so-called Congressional
Apportionment Amendment,

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which was first known as Article
I and was introduced in 1789,

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but never ratified by enough states
so that it is still pending before

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them, was about the very number
of Representatives in the U.S.

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Congress, which shows how important
that issue was and is.

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Two different methods are used
to determine the number of

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congresspersons in each house.

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Today, there are 435 Representatives.

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It has not always been the case,
but this number was fixed in 1913,

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pursuant to the Apportionment Act
of 1911.

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What has changed and regularly changes,
though, is the number of

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Representatives per state.

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How is this number decided?

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Every 10 years, there is a census
of all the American population,

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which serves as a basis to determine
the number of Representatives per

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State.

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The last census was organized in 2020.

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The number of Representatives in
a given State is based on the number

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of people, residents
and non-residents, living in that State.

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In the U.S., residence is linked
to citizenship.

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You are allowed to have only one
residence, even if you have several

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houses in several States.

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So, in the census, what is counted
is simply the people living in

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the State, even if they do not
reside in it.

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There is at least one Representative
per state, as in Wyoming,

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and a maximum of 53,
as in California.

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However, California will lose a
Representative when the results

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of the last census are applied,
that is for the 2024 presidential

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election, because the population
in that State has not grown as

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much as before, as we will see
in lesson four.

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Compared to that evolving situation,
the number of Senators does not vary,

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as it is, and has always been,
two per State.

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This situation is the result of
compromise, the Great Gompromise,

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between supporters of States' rights
and advocates of proportional

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representation of the People.

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The second problem, which led to
another compromise, resulted from

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that very apportionment system
that we have just described.

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Indeed, the question was,
who should be counted as living

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in a State?

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Only voters?

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The free population?

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The southern States,
where a lot of slaves lived,

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wanted them to be included into
the census.

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While the northern States did not,
as it would have given too much

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weight to the South,
to the detriment of the North.

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Once again, a compromise was reached,
but only for counting purposes.

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It was decided that one slave would
count as three-fifths of a person.

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This was therefore called the
Three-Fifths Compromise.

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Today, even illegal immigrants
are counted since they live in


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the State.

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Be careful, though.

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Keep in mind that slaves still
did not have any right,

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and most importantly,
they did not vote, and neither

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did women at that time.

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They were only taken into consideration
as part of the population of a State,

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to calculate the number of US
Representatives in that State.

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The third issue raised by
Anti-Federalists was the protection

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of individual rights against
interference from the Federal

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Government, as a consequence of
which a Bill of Rights was ratified

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in 1791, comprising the first ten
amendments to the US Constitution.

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Bills of rights already existed
at State level, and the federal

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one borrowed, among others,
from the Massachusetts Body of

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Liberties (1641), the Northwest
Ordinance (1787), and the Virginia

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Declaration of Rights 
(1776), which had been written by

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George Mason, who himself drew
inspiration from different English

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texts, like Magna Carta (1215),
the Petition of Rights

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(1628), and the English Bill of Rights,
(1689).

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Now, if we look at what the
Constitution is founded upon,

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its core principles are federalism,
which will be studied in more detail

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over the next two weeks,
the separation of powers,

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and checks and balances.

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Let us examine the principles of
separation of powers and checks

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and balances.

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There are three branches in the
Federal Government.

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The legislative branch,
described in Article 1,

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the executive branch,
established under Article 2,

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and the judicial branch,
also called the judiciary,

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set up in Article 3.

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Each branch is separated from the
others.

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It has powers that the others do
not have, and is selected in a

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specific way at a particular time
that will be studied in the unit

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on Congress.

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Why did framers build that system?

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The problem they faced was that
of the force, and especially the

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coercive force, of the Government.

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Force is at the same time a necessity
and a danger.

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It is a necessity because it allows
the Government to defend citizens

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against opponents, against lawless
elements, but it is also a danger

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because it can be used against
the citizens themselves,

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against their freedoms.

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Madison bemoaned that situation
in a letter to Washington,

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in which he reflected it was a
pity that "Liberty should

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be equally exposed to danger whether
the government has too much or

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too little power".

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The idea of separation of powers
was first proposed by Montesquieu,

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and it had already been put in
place in the States when the US

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Constitution was drafted.

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For the Framers, though,
separating powers was not enough.

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Indeed, it could not,
on its own, prevent what Madison

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called "factions", that is, groups
of people, from taking control

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over one branch of power,
if not all the branches.

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So only dividing the Government along
strictly institutional lines would

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not be sufficient.

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What they designed was therefore
a system in which force can be

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applied by the Federal Government
only if the three branches agree to it.

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To act, each branch needs the agreement
of the other two, or at least that

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the other two do not prevent it
from doing what it intends to do.

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Each branch has been granted the
power to check what the others

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do and is checked by the others.

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That is the system of checks and
balances, which was established

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on top of the system of separation
of powers, and I will leave you

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discover how exactly it works in
the exercises.