Free The Genius of America by Eric Lane Page A

the details in telling ways, as we shall see (for example, shifting the selection of senators from the House of Representatives to state legislatures). On June 19, after several days of debating the New Jersey Plan, the delegates agreed with Madison’s view that the New Jersey Plan “contained no remedy for [the] dreadful class of evils” which had brought America to the precipice of chaos, and rejected it 7–3 in favor of considering in detail the Virginia Plan. This vote cleared the way for the discussion of the new government.
    The Virginia Plan, which, under Madison’s guidance, Randolph had presented on May 29, with many small changes, but only a few very substantial ones, became the Constitution of the United States.
    It is worth lingering for a time on those substantial changes, because their achievement illustrates the very philosophy and values that Americans would call on throughout their history to maintain the Republic and protect the Constitution. The power of Madison’s proposed new government, although divided, was expansive. In many ways, it is remarkable how easily the delegates embraced the fundamentals of Madison’s plan, given its sharp break from anything they, or anyone else, had known. But there was fierce debate and dissension. And two things stand out. First, that in each case a compromise was found. And these compromises, at least in retrospect, reinforced Madison’s larger theory of dividing power to foster liberty, although Madison himself didn’t necessarily see it that way at the time.
    T HE S HARPEST D EBATES
    The sharpest debates among the framers revolved around two questions, both relating to the division of political power: Would the states continue to have a meaningful independent role as a balance to federal power, and would the president be independent enough to keep a check on the new Congress? The delegates would answer yes to both of these questions, changing Madison’s Virginia Plan, before its ink was truly dry. But these changes would not come easily. Madison and his allies would resist, exhibiting the same fierce pursuit of self-interest their proposed government was meant to modulate. But in the end they would compromise and move on, exhibiting the conduct that their proposed government demanded of its participants for progress. Madison’s principles would remain intact, but the details of the plan would change to accommodate the variety of interests that would be expressed by the delegates.
    The debate over state power was the most difficult. Madison and many of the like-minded delegates were disgusted with the state legislatures. As a result, the Virginia Plan as Randolph presented it envisioned near total federal dominance over the states. Congress would be authorized to legislate on all national matters and even say no to all state laws that it, Congress, determined to be contrary to the proposed Constitution.
    But the convention would not go that far. Over the weeks, the delegates rolled Madison’s plan back and increased the power of the states, creating a dual sovereignty (federal and state) that is one of the distinctive features of American government.
    First, the convention quickly killed the idea that the Congress could negate state laws. Next it decided that the powers of the federal government would be limited to those explicitly granted, such as the regulation of national and international commerce, foreign relations and the declaration and management of war.
    But then there was the question of whether states would be equally represented in the Congress, regardless of their population, which is how the Continental Congress worked under the Articles of Confederation. The subject nearly destroyed the convention, and might have, had it not been for a former shopkeeper from the little state of Connecticut.
    In Madison’s plan, there were two houses in Congress, to keep an eye on each other, but in each house