and it would, therefore, have greater power. In the Senate each state would have two Senatorseach state would have equal power. Each House, however, would have equal rights in making the laws.

The new Congress would have authority to make laws governing all matters of national interest. It would have power to levy and collect taxes, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, spend money for common defense, and spend money for the general welfare. These were matters which would be of interest to all the states as a nation.

Each of the young 13 states would have to share much of its power with the new United States of America.

Checks and Balances in the

Constitution

The delegates created a Constitution which was strong enough to bind the states together as a nation but which also left power in the hands of the people.

By dividing power among three branches of government,

no one branch could control the government. By having two Houses in Congress,

no single group could make the laws. By having the members of the House of Representatives elected according to the population of a state,

the larger states would have more power in the House.

By having two Senators elected from each state, each state would have equal representation and power in the Senate.

By having a President with power to veto laws of Congress,

unwise laws would be sent back to Congress to be studied again.

By creating the Supreme Court with final authority in law,

the will of one high court would be final, rather than the clashing wills of the 13 states. These are some of the checks and balances which were carefully written into the Constitution.

Signing and Ratifying the

Constitution

Their work finally completed, on September 17, 1787, the delegates signed the Constitution. Of the 55 delegates attending the convention, only 39 actually signed the Constitution. It then had to be sent to the 13 states to be ratified. Approval by nine states was necessary before it would become the law of the land.

Before the end of June 1788, nine states had ratified the Constitution. Some states felt that it was incomplete because it did not provide for all the rights and freedoms of individuals. When

these states were promised that the Constitution would be amended to add these rights, they accepted the document. The two large states of Virginia and New York at first were undecided. By the end of July 1788, however, these states approved the Constitution. North Carolina ratified it in November 1789, and Rhode Island followed with its approval in the spring of 1790.

The United States of America began to function under the Constitution in 1789. It was the first country in the world which began life with a written Constitution assuring freedom to each of its citizens.

The year was 1619. The place was Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Twenty-two men, two elected by the people of each of Virginia's 11 boroughs, met in an assembly called the House of Burgesses. These delegates met to make laws for all the people of Virginia. Representative government had begun in America.

A year later a meeting much like the one at Jamestown was held aboard a little ship named the Mayflower, which brought the Pilgrims to America. The leaders of this little band of Pilgrims had asked all the men aboard the ship to help frame an agreement stating how the new colony at Plymouth would be governed. The agreement, called the Mayflower Compact, said that the men would make and obey "just and equal laws" for the good of their colony.

As shown here, self-government was part of the very beginning of English settlement in the New World.

In this chapter you will learn how our representative government received its power to delegate authority.

DISCUSS:

What is the meaning of representative government?

MEETING NEW WORDS:

ballot: A system of secret voting by the use of a printed form or a machine; the printed form itself basically: Fundamentally; of first importance