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The U.S. Constitution and the “Tyranny of the Majority”
Most people know that figures like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison helped shape the U.S. Constitution to strengthen the federal government. But the Constitutional Convention delegates had another, less familiar concern: what they saw as an “excess of democracy” in the new state governments created during the American Revolution.
Hamilton, Massachusetts delegate Elbridge Gerry, and others worried that state legislatures were too responsive to popular demands, sometimes giving voters what they wanted rather than what the delegates believed were fair and responsible policies. One goal of the Constitution, therefore, was to limit the economic and political power of state governments and create a national government that would be less directly responsive to shifting public opinion.
In this virtual session, we’ll explore how concerns about majority rule shaped the Constitution, including the roles of the House of Representatives, Senate, presidency, and Supreme Court, and consider what these debates can teach us about democracy today. Join us for Constitution Day as we explore these ideas and discover strategies for marking Constitution Day in your classroom!
Woody Holton is Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. His 2009 book, Abigail Adams, which he wrote on a Guggenheim Fellowship, won the Bancroft Prize. Holton is also the author of Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2007), which was a finalist for the National Book Award. His first book, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999), won the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award (presented by the New York Sons of the Revolution) and the Merle Curti Award (presented by the Organization of American Historians). His books are required reading on more than 200 college campuses, and his work has been widely anthologized and also translated into German and Arabic. He is currently writing a comprehensive history of the American Revolutionary era.