This page is still in the development stage, and should not be regarded as finished or complete until this message is removed.
Article One of the Constitution creates the legislative branch, and gives the power to legislate for the United States to Congress, which is made up of an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the House of Representatives (often referred to simply as "the House").
The choice of a bicameral structure resulted in part from observation of other countries' instutitions (e.g., the Parliament in Britain, with its House of Lords and House of Commons), and partly from a need to compromise between the demands and requirements of the states represented at the Constitutional Convention in 1787: the states with large populations (notably New York and Virginia at the time) called for representation in proportion to population, while the small states (e.g., Vermont, Delaware, etc.) wanted each state to be represented equally, so that they could avoid being dominated and crushed by their larger neighbors. It was finally decided that both solutions could be adopted, one in each house. The debate itself as well as the solution adopted are both examples of the influence and importance of the states as entities central to the functioning of government in the United States, i.e., of federalism *.
The Senate represents the states as individual entities, independently of size, wealth, population, or any other consideration. Each state has two Senators, however big or small, rich or poor, etc. (At the present, this means, of course, that there are 100 Senators, since there are fifty states). Senators are elected for six-year terms, but only one-third of the Senate is elected every two years, so that the Senate can never be entirely replaced at one time. In the system of checks and balances, the Senate plays a very important role, since it is the Senate that confirms Presidential appointments and ratifies treaties, and that tries the President, in case of impeachment.
The House of Representatives represents the states in proportion to their population, with the proviso that each state must have at least one. There are a total of 435 Representatives (this number is established by law). Representatives are elected for two-year terms, so that changes in public opinion should, in theory, quickly be reflected in the composition of the House. One reason that so much is known about the population of the US, and population distribution, is that the Constitution calls for a census every ten years, and a corresponding redistribution of Representatives, to insure that representation really is proportional.
One of the problems the authors of the Constitution had to deal with was how to balance the powers of the new federal government they were creating with the powers of the already existing states, whose legislatures had sent them to Philadelphia.** They wished, in particular, to limit the powers of the federal government, in order to preserve as much autonomy and sovereignty as possible for the federated states. To accomplish this, they established what was apparently intended to be an exhaustive list of powers for the federal government, the so-called "enumerated powers". The areas of authority of the new government were thus circumscribed, and all other governmental powers remained with the states.
The economic and social status of the authors is readily apparent in the powers they gave the central government. Apart from powers that seem essential to any national government, such as exclusive authority to treat with foreign countries or to wage war, the main area of jurisdiction of the federal government is the economic arena. The authors of the Constitution were all men, all white, and all members of the economic elite: lawyers, planters and merchants, who had a direct interest in promoting and facilitating trade between the states. They thus gave the central government exclusive power to create a currency, regulate trade between the states and create a Post Office. In doing so, they created a sort of "free-trade zone", having eliminated the obstacles of customs barriers and currency exchange and instituted a system of communication and transportation.
__________
* One of the ways in which the doctrines of federalism are present in the federal government is that only states are represented in Congress, whether in the House or the Senate. This leads to the interesting paradox that the inhabitants of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the US, are not represented in Congress, since the District of Columbia is not a state. [back to text].
** The states had, in fact, sent their delegates not to write a new Constitution, but to settle on proposals for amendments to the existing "Constitution", called the Articles of Confederation. [back to text]