Founding Conflict, Compromise, and Constitutional Institutions

National Power vs. State Power: Balancing federal authority over previously sovereign states against powers reserved to the states.
Liberty vs. Law and Order: Determining the balance between individual freedom and institutional control.
Democracy vs. Tyranny of the Majority: Founders feared mob rule and a tyrannical majority of the working class threatening the wealthy owning class.
Large States vs. Small States: Disagreements driven by economic differences between large agricultural slave states and smaller, more industrial northern states.
The Institution of Slavery: Conflicts regarding the expansion of slavery and how enslaved populations would be counted for representation and taxation.

Institutions as Power Controls: Framers designated institutions (such as Congress and the Electoral College system for the presidency) rather than direct popular decision-making to control power and guard against tyranny of the majority.
Formal Power: On paper, the Constitution distributes power broadly and establishes checks and balances among Congress, the President, and the court system.
Effective Power: In practice, political participation was originally restricted primarily to white male property owners, excluding women, Native Americans, enslaved people, and non-property owners.

Virginia Plan (Large State Plan):
- Proposed a powerful national government with executive and judicial branches, alongside a bicameral Congress.
- Representation in both chambers was based on state population and wealth (contributions to federal revenue).
- Members of both chambers were to be elected directly by the people.
- Granted the national government authority to veto any state law.
New Jersey Plan (Small State Plan):
- Proposed revising the Articles of Confederation while maintaining a unicameral Congress with equal state representation (one state, one vote).
- Granted the federal government power to tax the people and regulate interstate and overseas trade.
- Preserved state sovereignty except in military, foreign, and Indian affairs.

The Great Compromise:
- Established a bicameral legislature.
- Senate: Equal vote for every state, assigning two representatives per state (e.g., California with $40,000,000$ people and North Dakota with half a million people both have two senators).
- House of Representatives: Representation allocated based on state population.
The Three-Fifths Compromise:
- Determined congressional apportionment by counting all free population (including free African Americans) and $60\%$ (three-fifths) of the enslaved population.
- Granted slave-owning states a third more representation in the House of Representatives without granting rights or citizenship to enslaved individuals.
- Addressed prior conflicts from the Revolutionary War where slave populations were excluded from calculations to lower tax burdens but demanded for representation benefits.

Article I: Postponed the potential abolition of the foreign slave trade until 1808 (20 years after the Constitution was written) and placed no restrictions on the domestic slave trade.
Article IV: Included additional protections and authority for slave-owning states over the institution of slavery to secure support for the Constitution from larger, wealthier slave states.

Formal vs. Practical Execution: Formally created coequal branches with checks and balances between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Institutional Power Shifts: Over time, effective power shifted, with the executive branch expanding authority and the Supreme Court (nine unelected people serving for life) holding significant power, while the legislative branch often yielded oversight and war-declaring authority.