The Constitution - Article I

I quoted the entirety of the preamble because it's short, but it won't be practical to do that for the articles. I am looking at the document at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html and https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-110hdoc50/pdf/CDOC-110hdoc50.pdf. 

Article One goes over Congress. Although we will be treating each article separately, it is helpful to know that the first three articles each cover one branch of government, and this branch is legislative. There are two concepts that come into focus here.

One is the separation of powers doctrine, which invests different powers within different bodies. Even though the British Empire had its parliament and not everything was determined by the crown, it must have still felt important to keep too much of any function in one person.

This leads to the other concept of checks and balances. We do see that somewhat here, as there is instruction for impeachment, and other powers of Congress where they could go against the will of the president. However, the phrase "checks and balances" isn't used, it's just something that can be seen in the framing.

The other nod to balance comes in having a bicameral legislature. It could be valid for a state with a larger population to have more say in some matters, but that could impose on the smaller states. Every state has the same number of senators, but representatives are allocated by population and no state will have less than one. Things may not always work out perfectly, but there is an attempt to make things fair.

Ages of eligibility and length of citizenship required for serving in both houses is set forth, as well as the length of terms and the election cycles. It would be chaotic to have every member up for election at the same time, so those terms are set forward.

We have already seen some changes. Originally senators were to be appointed by state legislatures instead of popularly elected. State populations were becoming very dissatisfied with this, so the 17th Amendment changed it, ratified in 1913. You have probably known people who remembered that happening, even if they are no longer with us.

Another significant portion of this article is the Commerce Clause, Section 8, Clause 3. Setting forth the various powers of Congress, it specifies:

"To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

This comes up because often people will feel that various activities should not be regulated, and while that might be true of the activity itself, once money is changing hands, that may not be true.  Therefore, you might drink milk from your cow without pasteurizing it, and there will probably never be a law about that, but there might be a law about selling unpasteurized milk to your neighbors. Those laws are often made by state or local bodies, but the potential for federal legislation is there.

I have said that the Constitution as a whole is long and boring, but that is more when you are trying to read through the whole thing at once. Dividing it into sections, the text may still be dry, but it is manageable and can be interesting. I had forgotten about the 17th Amendment, but being reminded of it now, it is impressive that the process went along smoothly for so many years, and then was fixed relatively smoothly as well. They system can work.

There is also a quick reminder of the flaws, right in Section 2, where in expounding how to determine populations you only count 3/5ths of non-free persons. There will be people who will tell you that this was progressive, as it diminished the numbers for slave states, but not as much as not counting any non-free persons.

Also, in not counting non-taxed Indians, there is another reminder. If they had truly been given their sovereignty that would have been reasonable, but said sovereignty was encroached on so often, there was an issue there, even if the problem is not the actual texts.

These are reminders that for all that was good and noble in the intent of the framers, there were things that were ignoble as well, and many of the problems we have in today's society stem from our failure to eradicate our nation's baser thoughts and acts.