The Amendments in History
The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)
Proposed September 25, 1789; Adopted December 15, 1791
The Bill of Rights
It's almost impossible to imagine the United States (U.S.)
Constitution without having a Bill of Rights, but when it was first being drafted, a majority of the Founding
Fathers didn't think it was necessary.
However, there were a few men who believed it was so significant that they
refused to sign the Constitution because it didn't have one. Three famous refusers were George Mason of Virginia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia.
As it turned out, these three were not the only ones who thought this was
an issue. When State ratification messages started arriving with their
own commentary and suggestions for individual rights, Congress began to
consider the idea of a "Bill of Rights."
James Madison was responsible for drafting the document, and originally wrote 17 sections.
This number was whittled down to 12, but only ten of which were ratified
by a majority of the States.
These final ten became the first ten Amendments to the United States (U.S.)
Constitution.
Sovereign Immunity of States (Amendment 11)
Proposed March 4, 1794; Adopted February 7, 1795
The
Eleventh Amendment
to the United States Constitution was written as a direct response to the
1793 Supreme Court case known as Chisholm v. Georgia in which a citizen from South Carolina, Alexander Chisholm
attempted to sue the state of Georgia over finances. Georgia
refused to show up in court, as the leaders felt its being sued in the
first place was a violation of its state sovereignty. Despite the
complaints of Georgia, the Court ruled in favor of Chisholm.
This amendment clarified Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution and
removed federal jurisdiction in cases where citizens of one state or of
foreign countries attempt to sue another state.
Of Presidents, Senators, and Members of Congress
(Amendments 12,
17, 20, 22, 25, & 27)
The Twelfth Amendment (Proposed December 9, 1803; Adopted June 15, 1804) changed the way the President and the Vice President were elected. Previously,
according to Article I, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution, the individual at the end of the election with the
most electoral votes became president, and the first runner up became Vice
President. Well, this logic worked excellently until the election year
of 1796 when Federalist candidate John Adams was chosen
as second President of the United States, and his rival, Thomas Jefferson, became Vice President.
Because Congress feared this sort of development would inspire future "coups" where a Vice President would rise against the President so that he
could take his place, the clause was amended. Instead of casting two
ballots for the office of the President, electors now cast a single
ballot for the President and another for the Vice President. It was a
better solution for everybody.
William Jennings Bryan
Amendment Seventeen (Proposed May 13, 1912; Adopted
April 8, 1913) established the direct election of senators by popular
vote, thanks to the efforts of Progressives like William Jennings Bryan. Previously, in Article
I, Section 3, Clauses 1-2 of the United States Constitution, Senators
were elected by the legislatures of their states. The Progressives
argued that this setup was leading to "legislative corruption" and "electoral deadlocks."
What these reformers were drawing attention to was the rising tendency
of Senatorial elections to be "bought and sold," instead of being awarded
for merit and competency (an issue brought to the silver screen by director
Frank Capra in the film "Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington.") Bribery, surprisingly enough, was not uncommon in early
twentieth century politics.
The other issue, electoral deadlock, arose because the legislature simply
couldn't agree on who to choose. The original method presupposed that they
would able to agree on a candidate, but as the history of politics demonstrates,
this wasn't likely. Even now, politicians rarely agree on anything. However,
thanks to Amendment Seventeen, they no longer have to.
In the last part of the Eighteenth century and the early part of the Nineteenth century, this allowed for new leaders to have enough time to prepare for a complete alteration in their lifestyle. As time went on, and transportation and technology became more readily accessible, this lapse of time was no longer entirely necessary. Instead, it became restrictive, as seen in the cases of Abraham Lincoln at the outbreak of the Civil War and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early days of the Great Depression.
Thus, Amendment Twenty reduced the frequency of "lame duck" issues in the Presidential, Vice Presidential, and Congressional Offices, and allowed new incumbents to handle any rising crises in a much faster than was before possible after the start of a new term.
In the last part of the Eighteenth century and the early part of the Nineteenth century, this allowed for new leaders to have enough time to prepare for a complete alteration in their lifestyle. As time went on, and transportation and technology became more readily accessible, this lapse of time was no longer entirely necessary. Instead, it became restrictive, as seen in the cases of Abraham Lincoln at the outbreak of the Civil War and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early days of the Great Depression.
Few presidents sought out a third term, and those who did (Ulysses Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, e.g.) were unsuccessful. It wasn't until Franklin D. Roosevelt that the United States had a president who would serve three terms. He had been elected to a fourth, but died in office before its completion. Amendment Twenty-two made it impossible for this to ever happen again.
Amendment Twenty-Five (Proposed July 6, 1965; Adopted February 10, 1967) handles the matter of succession to the Presidency and to the office of the Vice President. Although the issues of successeion had already been settled several times in practice (i.e. The "Tyler Precedent"), Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 remained unclear. The matter had been sitting on the table in Congress for some time, but as more instances of Presidential and Vice Presidential vacancies happened, the issue became a higher priority. Before the new amendment, the office of Vice President had been vacant sixteen times due to the death or resignation of either the President or Vice President, which is no small amount.
The Twenty-Seventh Amendment (proposed September 25, 1789; Adopted May 7, 1992) was one of the earliest Amendments to be proposed, but is the very last to be adopted. James Madison was the one who first proposed the amendment, but since the document had no "expiration date" the States could ultimately ratify it at any point, which eventually they did.
This rationale was backed by the decision of the 1939 case Coleman v. Miller which decided that unless a proposed amendment specified a ratification deadline, it would be open inevitably. Thus, Amendment Twenty-Seven, clarifying that Congressional salaries would not go into effect until the beginning of the next set of terms, was enacted 203 years after it was first proposed.
Civil War Reconstruction (Amendments 13, 14, & 15)
The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery in the United States. Although President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation, freed slaves in the Confederate States during the war, it did not go as far as to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude entirely. Until the amendment was enacted, they weren't yet free men and women.
When Amendment Thirteen was adopted, making slavery illegal in the United States, it became the first new Amendment to be adopted in 60 years. However, it didn't end the issues in the states, a series of "Black Codes" were introduced, mainly in the South, forcing Congress to add two more amendments.
Amendment Fourteen (Proposed June 13, 1866; Adopted July 9, 1868) was the second of the three Reconstruction Amendments and came in three parts: The Citizenship Clause, The Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause.
The Fourteenth Amendment was enacted as a direct response to the serious issues free black men and women were facing under the "Black Codes." The decision of the 1857 Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v. Sandford stated that slaves were neither protected by the Constitution, nor were they U.S. citizens. As it turned out, this historic case went down in history as the worst Supreme Court decision ever made, and the Citizenship Clause reversed the Dred Scott Decision declaring that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, regardless of race or ethnicity, would be citizens.
The Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause were in the same vein, protecting the rights of life, liberty, and property of all United States citizens. Under the Black Codes, newly free men and women had no guarantee that their property wouldn't be seized or that they would not be arrested on arbitrary grounds. The Due Process Clause gave them the confidence that they too were protected by the Constitution, and the Equal Protection Clause ensured equal protection under the laws of the state.
The last of the Reconstruction Amendments, The Fifteenth Amendment (Proposed February 26, 1869; Adopted February 3, 1870) gave all male citizens of the United States, regardless of "race, color, or previous condition" of servitude the right to vote.
Women would not have the right to vote until 50 years later.
Income Tax (Amendment 16)
Proposed July 12, 1909; Adopted February 3, 1913
The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States (U.S.) Constitution gave Congress the right to collect income tax without basing it on population. This Amendment has been the target of a great deal of criticism over the last 100 years, but these objections haven't stood up in court. So, the Sixteenth Amendment will most likely be around for many years to come.
The Short Reign of Prohibition (Amendments 18 & 21)
It all started with the efforts of organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League. These groups managed to convince the federal government of the "corruption" of the sale of alcohol, explaining it as a cause of the rise of domestic violence and saloon inspired political corruption. Support for Prohibition was strongest in the South, where conservative Christianity played a large role.
Even after the Amendment was enacted in 1919, along with the Volstead Act in October of that same year, the alcohol industry didn't stop. Instead, it just went underground. Rumor has it that anywhere between 30,000 and 100,000 speakeasies open up in New York City alone. Chicago was another hot spot for the underground manufacture and sale of alcohol, which was overseen by the famous gangster Al Capone.
With crime getting out of hand, and police authorities unable to gain control over the situation, Congress proposed and adopted the Twenty-First Amendment (Proposed February 30, 1933; Adopted December 5, 1933). This amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and the Prohibition of Alcohol, becoming the first amendment, and the only one to date, to repeal a previous amendment.
Voting Rights and Restrictions (Amendments 19, 23, 24, and 26)
Amendment Twenty Three (Proposed June 16, 1960; Adopted March 29, 1961) address the voting rights of a different group of people, namely the residents of the nation's capitol: the District of Columbia. Before the enactment of this amendment, people living in Washington D.C. were forbidden to vote for the President or Vice President, as they had no representation in the electorate. Now, like the state with the smallest population, Wyoming, each election D.C. residents have three electoral representatives.
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Proposed September 14, 1962; Adopted January 23, 1964) further protects the votes of free men and women by forbidding Congress and the States from charging poll tax for voting. Similar to the Black Codes of the Reconstruction era, Poll Taxes were commonly used to keep black Americans from voting. The timing of Amendment Twenty-Four's adoption coincides with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, when attention was on the unequal treatment of black American citizens in many of the Southern states.
The final act of Congress to date regarding voting rights and restriction is the adoption of Amendment Twenty-Six (Proposed March 23, 1971; Adopted July 1, 1971). At that time, massive protest movements against the Vietnam War had swept the nation's colleges and universities. Prior to the adoption of this amendment, men were being drafted into service before they were even legal to vote. They were risking their lives without having any bearing on the actions of the men sending them to do so. Thus, the amendment set the voting age at 18, forbidding Congress or the States to set it any higher.
*All Images are courtesy of Wikipedia commons - licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License 3.0.
