The US Constitution Answers the Question Who’s In Charge Here?

 

We read last time about the importance of learning the US Constitution. It’s a theme that will repeat going forward.

I have been using the original text of the US Constitution as it has been downloaded from Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5/pg5-images.html).

Revisiting the last post we have:

Article 1

Section 1.  All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Here again, our first order of business is to confer all legislative powers to Congress, defining that body as both a Senate and a House of Representatives. Going further into the next section we read:

Section 2.  The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

This section indicates who is, and who is not, qualified to be a member of the House of Representatives. According to Findlaw (2023), this section “…lays out the organization of the House of Representatives, including the time frame for elections and how the number of representatives for each state is established.”

The Annenberg Classroom says this: “Article I, Section 2, specifies that the House of Representatives be composed of members who are chosen every two years by the people of the states. There are only three qualifications: a representative must be at least 25 years old, have been a citizen of the United States for at least seven years, and must live in the state from which he or she is chosen. Efforts in Congress and the states to add requirements for office, such as durational residency rules or loyalty oaths, have been rejected by Congress and the courts.” (2024).

The next segment deals with some stuff that we don’t deal with anymore, thanks in part to the ability of Congress to amend parts of the Constitution that don’t seem to fit the times. Here is a case in point:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.  The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by law Direct.  The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

The majority of the items mentioned in the preceding paragraph have been revised by amendments throughout the years, Referring back to Findlaw, “namely, the characterization of enslaved people as ‘three-fifths’ of a person for the purposes of the population count.” (2024).

What this paragraph does reveal, however, is our country’s origins in the genocide of the existing Indigenous population (“Indians”), and the enslavement and subjugation of African Americans. Findlaw’s website says that the “Constitution was originally written by, and for, white men who owned property.” (2024).

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution puts the power of the legislature (making the laws) in the purview of Congress. It also states that the members of Congress are selected by election of the people.

Well, some of the people.

The National Constitution Center says that when the Constitution was ratified in 1787 the only people who had the right to vote were the aforementioned White property owners. “Article I, Section 2 made the qualifications for voting in U.S. House elections the same as those for voting in the larger branch of the state legislature. That effectively excluded women, as well as many free African Americans and Native Americans. It also excluded some white men, who were barred from voting by property ownership requirements that were the norm in 1787.” (Smith & Tokaji, 2024).

Going back to the National Constitution Center, “…to ensure that House members were accountable to the people, Article I, Section 2 provided for relatively frequent elections, to take place every two years.” As the most important document in our country’s history, the Constitution has been subject to amendment and interpretation several times. Defining the right of the people to vote has seen its share of time on the Congressional floor. (2024).

The 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote in 1870. But many couldn’t exercise this right. Some states used literacy tests and other barriers to make it harder to vote. (USA.gov, 2024).

Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote. (2024).

The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, eliminated poll taxes. The tax had been used in some states to keep African Americans from voting in federal elections. (2024).

In 1971, the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age for all elections to 18. (2024).

In addition to that are all the other amendments and resolutions that affect all of our lives on a regular basis.

We are almost done here. One thing must be said, the Founders of this nation and the Framers of this document, the Constitution, had fought a war to wrest themselves of the rule of a distant monarchy. They had a vision of a country ruled by laws that demanded popular elected leadership, both in its executive powers, in a Presidential Administration, and its legislative authorities, or Congress. The system has been amended many times to ensure its citizens willingly participate in this process. Congress has done this because of its intention to make this system do the best job it can at governing its people as fairly as possible.

This blog will ask you to do a lot of things.

If you are 18 years of age or older, make sure to register to vote in your state before the next election rolls by. There is nothing more satisfying than to participate in our country’s democracy.

Look at some of the references left at the bottom of these articles to educate yourself on the US Constitution.

Check out other websites, such as Congressman Jamie Raskin’s Democracy Summer. (https://jamieraskin.com/democracy-summer/).

Finally, if you keep cryptocurrency and feel so inclined, please donate to one of the crypto addresses listed below:

Findlaw (2023). Retrieved from https://constitution.findlaw.com/article1/annotation06.html#:~:text=Article%20I%2C%20Section%202%20lays,for%20each%20state%20is%20established.

Annenberg (2024). Retrieved from https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/article-i-section-2/

Smith & Tokaji (2024). Retrieved from https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/article-i/clauses/762

USA.gov. (2024). Retrieved from https://www.usa.gov/voting-rights

References.