What led to class tensions after the American Revolution? How did the drafting of the US Constitution aim to balance power among different classes in society?
The formation of the United States in 1776, following the expulsion of Britain, resulted in persistent class tensions. The US Constitution, drafted by elite white men, aimed to protect their interests and restrict democratic influence, favoring elite control.
Read more to get Howard Zinn’s take on the formation of the United States.
Forming the United States
After the colonists—aided in large part by the French—forced Britain to withdraw, they formally established the US in 1776. However, when it became clear there weren’t going to be major changes to the distribution of wealth, the same pre-war class tensions returned. Zinn explains that failures to pay Revolutionary War veterans their due wages, new taxes on the poor, and a weak government caused uprisings that threatened to destroy the power of the American elite.
The formation of the United States came about in this context. A group of almost entirely white elite men came together to draft the US Constitution. They designed the document to secure their own class position while conceding just enough power to the middle class to create a broader base of support. The Constitution did this through a number of systems. For example, it created a Supreme Court of justices appointed for life by the president instead of being elected. This ensured they didn’t have to be accountable to the electorate. In addition, the US Constitution distributed Senators equally among states rather than by population, which skewed power away from majority rule.
(Shortform note: Many authors of the US Constitution freely admitted they didn’t want the nation to be too democratic. Authors like Alexander Hamilton openly voiced his distrust of the public at large, believing they were too irrational and shiftless to run the country and that a class of elites needed to keep them in check. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison argued that the US Constitution needed to prevent majority factions from gaining too much power, fearing they would use it to infringe upon the rights of a minority—specifically citing the example of the poor infringing on the property rights of the rich by using the government to redistribute wealth.)
