The Conclusion of the Third Constitutional Convention | A House Divided Alternate Elections
After months of anticipation since two thirds of the states had invoked Article V of the Constitution to review the Constitution, the day finally arrived for delegates to assemble in Philadelphia’s Civic Center and once again enter swirling debate on dozens of amendments brought to the floor by groups from across the country. In what was widely seen as a coup for the reformist delegates, famous constitutional law scholar Edward S. Corwin was elected to serve as the chair of the Convention. Although once an admirer of President Nelson A. Miles, Corwin had turned against his belief in unrestrained executive power and instead came to strongly support John Dewey’s proposals of semi-presidentialism as a delegate in the Second Constitutional Convention. But beyond just Dewey’s camp of supporters, Corwin had even managed to secure the support of the more radical elements of American politics through his legal realist philosophy and criticisms of judicial review.
Edward S. Corwin reviewing notes in a working room of the Constitutional Convention.
However, although Corwin had become the public face of the Convention, another battle would play out in backroom dealings. Perturbed by the heavy presence of well-known socialist radicals at the Convention, particularly that of the ostentatious former Illinois Senator William Bross Lloyd and the infamous Seattle labor leader William Z. Foster, an informal coalition would be forged by opponents of the Wobbly League to try to limit their power at the Convention. Chief among this group would be three figures from the Convention’s Rules Committee: William Simon U’Ren’s trusted friend and lieutenant C.E.S. Wood on behalf of the People’s Power League, business leader W. Averell Harriman as a prominent delegate of the Hamiltonians, and Ohioan newspaper editor and delegate Dudley A. White as the representative of the Constitutional Preservationists. Meanwhile, Columbia University professor and leader of the Newstate League Rexford Tugwell, would come to be attacked as “Rex the Red” due to his increasingly apparent meetings with key Wobblies to attempt to find common ground. In perhaps the most significant of the negotiations though, William Simon U’Ren would personally meet with President Dewey’s Communitarian deputies such as Archibald MacLeish to discuss terms of a compromise between their proposals if need be.
Thus, the halls of the Civic Center were rife with political negotiations and pact-making as Edward S. Corwin gavelled in the Constitutional Convention’s first session. Although it began with high spirits and rousing speeches, the first session did not take long to descend into contentious political debate. Central to the controversy was the proposal of the Rules Committee for the Convention to adopt as its guidance for the main proceedings. Principally crafted by the anti-Wobbly triumvirate of Wood, Harriman, and White, the most contentious part of the rules package was an enforcement of a single-subject rule which would limit proposed amendments to dealing with one central issue and thus prevent an omnibus amendment like that which had emerged from the Second Constitutional Convention. By doing so, the authors hoped to prevent Wobbly proposals from being attached as a rider to an otherwise broadly popular amendment or other such bait and switch and thus pass without the scrutiny of a floor vote (while also generally undermining more ambitious proposals such as that of Rexford Tugwell’s Newstates with the tedium of parliamentary procedure). Chairman Corwin earned the enmity of many of the Wobblies by reining in debate early and forcing a speedy floor vote on the rules package, resulting in their narrow passage and throwing the convention into individual consideration of each proposed amendment.
With the speeches and deliberations on procedural matters having already exhausted the delegates due to their evening start, the proceedings resumed for a second session the next morning. Under the din of pouring rain outdoors, the Convention began the mechanical process of introducing amendments to the floor and debating their merits before moving into a floor vote on whether to submit them for ratification by the states. Beginning first with a remarkable tone of unity, the delegates examined the proposal of Representative Emanuel Celler to institute a two-round election system. With broad political support among all but the most conservative of delegates, the only point of contention would be in the threshold for first-round victory. Although the broad consensus believed that a 50% majority ought to be obtained for first-round victory, a minority report sought to lower the threshold to a 40% or 45% plurality to reduce the number of potentially costly second-round votes. Ultimately, the 50% threshold would remain the prevailing opinion and make it into the final amendment, which was handily passed for submission to the states. Several other election-oriented amendments would then be heard and voted down in succession, with the most prominent of the failed amendments including measures to make failed presidential candidates ex officio Senators or congressional representatives, repeals of the 20th and 21st amendments that had inaugurated the current election system, and the Newstate proposal to create an Electoral Branch of government headed by an Overseer of elections.
Next on the docket would be the very heart of the convention itself and its reason for being advanced by President John Dewey, consideration of amendments to implement semi-presidentialism and referenda, recall, and initiatives at the federal level. Underpinning the votes on these measures was a convoluted set of promises and exchanges of support between the Communitarian, People’s Power, and Wobbly Leagues to attempt to navigate the uncertain waters of individual floor votes. Such negotiations would see the People’s Power League fold on the matter of unicameralism despite whispers of its possible majority support and concede on the finer details of semi-presidential organization, in exchange for Communitarian support of People’s Inspectors of Government. For their part, the Wobblies extracted promises of support from the Communitarians for a second bill of rights and compromise variants of their other economic amendments in return for their support of the Communitarian political program. Thus, to the jubilation of many of the delegates assembled, President Dewey’s vision of a semi-presidential and more directly democratic America would clear its first hurdle when the Convention submitted his proposed amendments to the state for ratification. Magnanimously treating with his former political enemies by courting their anti-corruption sentiments and using a rebranding and historical appeal to surprisingly win over even some Constitutional Preservationists, William Simon U’Ren would also see his vindication when the Convention submitted an amendment for ratification to create the position of directly elected Censors with all the responsibilities he had initially proposed with his People’s Inspectors of Government. Across the country, news of the submission of these amendments would be hailed (or in some cases attacked) across the country as a seminal change in the very structure of American governance and the final culmination of the work of President John Dewey and revolutionaries such as Tasker H. Bliss to finally bury the legacy of Nelson A. Miles and the dictatorship. However, the convention’s work was hardly finished.
An effort championed by Charles Edward Merriam to instate the line item veto would reach surprising heights thanks to some enthusiasm among the ranks of the People’s Power League but still fell short of a majority in the Convention, failing alongside a number of other measures including an opposite proposal to abolish the presidential veto entirely, one to instate a single term limit on the presidency, another to add an additional senator per state, and yet another to abolish the Senate entirely. The next series of amendments would deal with the Supreme Court, with Chairman Corwin generating some muted controversy with his alleged favoritism towards a Wobbly-advanced proposal to abolish judicial review following the disastrous failure of an amendment to abolish the Court entirely. Although it garnered the support of Rexford Tugwell’s Newstaters and many Hamiltonian-aligned delegates, the amendment would mainly serve to drive a wedge between the Wobblies and Communitarians that began to poison the spirit of cooperation between the two factions after Communitarian-aligned delegates voted en masse to keep the amendment from submission. After an embarrassing defeat for the forces of Prohibition, the tension between Wobblies and Communitarians would soon boil over as the Convention entered debate on the issue of instating a mandatory referendum to declare war on another country. With many of the Wobblies led by the Norman Thomas acolyte Devere Allen into support for the proposal, vicious turmoil would begin to cloud the relations between the two camps after the proposal failed by a wide margin, even prompting threats of a walkout by young militants led by Jay Lovestone who were outraged at this development.
Temperatures in the room continued to heat up after the narrow passage of an amendment explicitly authorizing nationalization of private companies revealed the thin support for economic leftism at the convention. Many Communitarian-aligned delegates began to renege on their prior agreement of cooperation with the Wobblies, striking back at proposals to constitutionally establish a maximum wage or income and helping to ensure their rejection alongside that of the proposed economic bill of rights on the basis that they believed were political questions and not constitutional ones. Many of the Communitarians sensed an affinity between these proposals and Wobbly efforts to undermine judicial review and the conception of the Constitution as a higher natural law, and instead offered vague promises that Congress would instead examine the issues. However, before a match could be set to the powderkeg that was the Wobbly presence at the Convention, tempers would be cooled when civil rights leader Charles H. Houston took the stand to advance an issue that had languished on the political backburner: the abolition of prison slavery. Making a moving and emotional speech recalling his childhood during the Second Civil War and the history of freedom fighters such as the recently passed William Monroe Trotter, Houston swept away the animosities which had crept into the Convention and motivated a dramatic wave of support for his proposed amendment which passed for submission without issue. Houston’s amendment would be the last to pass the convention, with a handful of other minor amendments proposed and failing in succession, dealing with topics ranging from a balanced budget amendment to a movement of the national capital. When the convention had adjourned for its final session, six amendments were submitted to the states including a fundamental transformation of the balance of the legislature and executive and a wholly new federal office. However, with many Wobblies leaving the convention halls feeling dissatisfied if not outright betrayed by their supposed allies, it remains apparent that the issues of constitutional reform have not been wholly laid to rest by the Convention.
The Passed Amendments
Amendment XXXII:
The President of the United States of America and the Vice President of the United States shall be elected by the direct vote of the people. The person receiving the greatest number of popular votes for the office of President shall be the President, and the person receiving the greatest number of popular votes for the office of Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be at least one more than 50 per centum of the whole number of votes cast for such offices. If no person has such number, a runoff election shall be held within one month of the previous in which the choice of President or Vice President shall be made from the two persons who received the highest number of votes. Congress may by law provide for the time and day on which the election shall be held; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
Amendment XXXIII:
Section 1: The President shall have the power to appoint a Speaker with the advice and consent of the House of Representatives, who shall share executive power with the President. The Speaker of the House of Representatives may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.
Section 2: The Speaker and the principal Officers in each of the executive Departments shall be appointed with the advice and consent of both chambers of the Congress and accountable to a vote of no confidence by the Congress. Such a vote may be initiated by the Speaker or in a process that Congress may provide for in the rules of their proceedings.
Section 3: The President shall retain the power to dismiss the Speaker and the principal Officers in each of the executive Departments at will.
Amendment XXXIV:
Section 1: The Speaker of the House of Representatives shall have the power to refer a Bill approved by the House of Representatives to a vote of the people, whereby the people may give it the binding force of law with a majority vote of approval. Congress may by law provide for the times, places, and manner of holding such referenda by appropriate legislation.
Section 2: The President, Vice President, and all publicly elected Representatives and Senators shall be subject to a vote of recall upon the application of a number of citizens equal to fifteen percent of the votes for the office in question in its most recent election. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 3: Bills and Amendments to the Constitution of the United States may be initiated by a petition signed by a number of citizens equal to fifteen percent of the total number of votes for all candidates for president in the last preceding general election. Any such proposed Bill or Amendment shall be introduced at the first session of the Congress, and if not passed shall be referred to a vote of the people, upon the application of a number of citizens equal to twenty percent of the total number of votes for all candidates for president in the last preceding general election, whereby the people may give it the binding force of law with a majority vote of approval for a Bill or a two-thirds majority vote of approval for an Amendment. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union the right to referenda, recall, and initiative.
Amendment XXXV:
Section 1: The power of audit, review, and censure shall be vested in a Council of Censors of the United States of America.
Section 2: The Council of Censors shall be composed of twelve members elected by the People of the Several States at large for a term of twelve years. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided equally into six classes. The seats of the Censors of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and so on such that two Censors may be selected every second year. If vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, the position shall remain vacant until the next general election, in which a Censor shall be elected to serve the remainder of the term.
Section 3: No person shall be a Censor who shall not have attained to the age of forty years, and been thirteen years a citizen of the United States. No person shall be a Censor who shall have served for part or all of a term as a Censor of the United States.
Section 4: The two persons receiving the most votes for Censor in the several States every second year shall be elected as Censor. Congress may provide for by law the times, places, and manner of holding elections for Censor.
Section 5: The Council of Censors shall have the responsibility of conducting a thorough inspection of the operations of the government every year. A report detailing the inspection of government and the proceedings of the Censors shall be made available to the public on August the 1st of each year. The inspection shall examine whether the legislative and executive branches of government have performed their duty as guardians of the people, or assumed to themselves, or exercised, other or greater powers than they are entitled to by the constitution; whether the public taxes have been justly laid and collected in all parts of the several States; in what manner the public appropriations have been disposed of; whether the laws have been duly executed; and whether the constitution has been preserved inviolate in every part.
Section 6: The Council of Censors shall have the power, with the assent of at least seven of its members, to pass public censures of government; to impeach the officers and representatives of government; to recommend to the legislature the repeal or to the executive the veto of laws which appear to have been enacted contrary to the principles of this Constitution; and to call a Convention for proposing Amendments to this Constitution.
Amendment XXXVI:
Congress shall have the power to bring private properties, assets, and holdings under public control through expropriation, nationalization, or an act of eminent domain with just compensation.
Amendment XXXVII:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States as a punishment for a crime. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.