FEDERALISM FORGES ON: WHEN CONSIDERING WHERE AMERICAN FEDERALISM IS TODAY, IT'S HELPFUL TO REMEMBER WHERE IT ALL BEGAN.

AuthorBehlke, Max
PositionFEDERALISM

Everyone's got their limits. The federal government and the states have been testing each other's ever since the ink dried on the Constitution.

The state-federal relationship has been both challenged and strengthened recently by important U.S. Supreme Court decisions and by congressional and executive actions, proving once again that our system is strong yet pliable--and that it's come a long way from the steamy summer of 1787.

That's when 55 men met in Philadelphia to draft a framework for the new nation: a constitution. Their months of debate culminated in the creation of a document that changed our country and the course of human history.

Of the world's roughly 160 national constitutions, the U.S. Constitution is now the oldest written one; nearly all the others borrow from the work created in Independence Hall. The longevity, durability and near universal support of our Constitution is a testament to its genius. But when it was first made public, Americans were skeptical.

States, and their citizens, had fought for the principle of state sovereignty during the Revolutionary War and were understandably hesitant to replace a king with another dictator in the form of a dominant federal government.

However, the Articles of Confederation under which they were living weren't working. The national government couldn't levy taxes and was chronically underfunded. With little enforcement power, it was unable to address conflicts between the states. And because it took unanimous state support to amend the articles, change was nearly impossible.

Something New Was Needed

The obvious need for a new national framework is what led to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. During that hot, muggy summer in Philadelphia, state delegates vigorously debated, compromised and, ultimately, agreed to the new national framework.

Convincing nine of the 13 state legislatures to ratify it, however, was no small task. Supporters and opponents alike penned letters to newspapers, praising or condemning the document. Many felt that the Constitution usurped their state's authority to self-govern. That's where the genius of Alexander Hamilton comes in. His essays, along with those by James Madison and John Jay (known collectively as "The Federalist Papers"), on the virtues of the new Constitution's system of governance, won over the skeptics.

American federalism--where democracy rules and the power to govern is shared among the states and the federal government--has evolved...

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