Chương 51: (Re)Creating the Constitution

Philadelphia, United States of America

September 16th, 1776

"A well-armed Populace, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Does that sound better?" Jefferson asked his colleagues.

John Adams frowned and looked at the text written on the parchment, "A bit more specific than the "other" Second Amendment, but perhaps it's better to make this Amendment more specific to prevent confusion in the future."

A group of men was in one of the private rooms of the Pennsylvania State House. Five delegates were assigned to the framing of the Constitution. All of them but Madison were the original authors of the Declaration of Independence, with only Franklin missing due to his current duties in France. James Madison was invited by Jefferson personally and was introduced into the Watchmen Society, the official name of the organization that consisted of those that knew of General Kim's secret. Initially, James Madison was bewildered at the sudden invitation to be one of the authors of the Constitution but realized the reasoning behind the invitation after learning of his history in the other world. They were tasked with crafting a new and improved Constitution that would then be presented to the other delegates and further debated upon.

"We should take into consideration the evolution of culture and weaponry over time, which is why I reasoned that we shift the wording. The term "militia" was considered outdated in modern times due to the presence of a standing military and the "National Guards" of each state," Jefferson stated.

"Perhaps there should be an extension to this amendment to recognize the need for some governmental regulations regarding weaponry, especially the transport of weapons in and out of states," Madison suggested.

Jefferson looked at his fellow Virginian for a few moments and wrote on a separate piece of parchment, "A fine suggestion, but the text will need to be crafted carefully. Too many governmental regulations will result in a tyrannical government in the future."

"This much more tiring than I expected," Robert R. Livingston, a lawyer from New York, mentioned as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, "I expected the process to be much easier since we had the entirety of the Constitution already written out for us, but there are numerous changes that are critically needed."

Roger Sherman, the fifth delegate in the room who was also a lawyer by trade and originally from Connecticut, placed down a copy of the "other" Constitution onto a nearby table and looked at the other delegates, "It's fairly simple; we have incredible foresight on the problems that this Constitution faced in the "other" America's history. While they did the best they could with the original Constitution and modified it sparingly, they were numerous other problems with the Constitution that politicians were unwilling to change or modify due to their own interests. However, since we know what the problems are, we are able to do our best to fix them. In essence, we are tearing down chunks of the other Constitution and replacing it with "improvements," so to speak."

"We have been working on this for nearly a month now, yet we have just barely reached the Bill of Rights," Jefferson muttered, "But thank heavens that we have managed to finish the "core" of the Constitution."

Article I was modified in several different ways. Slaves were considered as "one person," but all slaves were to be freed twenty years after the ratification of the Consitution. Afterward, a "sunset" policy would go into effect, banning slavery in total across the United States. "Gerrymandering" or the manipulation of district boundaries to favor a certain party or class, was to be illegal in every shape and form and a nonpartisan committee was to draw the district lines fairly and without bias. The Habeas Corpus was only to be suspended in times of rebellion, not during wars. Term limits were to be established for every elected federal and state position (with the basis being four years, barring Senators and Representatives). The maximum number of terms for Senators (only federal) would be three, while the maximum number of terms for Representatives would be six. In total, a Congressman could only serve in Congress for twenty years maximum. A "Delaware" Rule was to be implemented to designate the number of seats in the House of Representatives, with the lowest populated state serving as the number of people represented by one representative. However, there were talks to potentially implement the "Cube Rule" to allow Congress to grow more "naturally." The redistribution of House seats was implemented every twenty years after a national census was taken (the census would be every ten years). Organized territories (with 10,000 settlers or more) were granted one representative in the House of Representatives until their statehood. Congress had to power to levy income taxes when that option became available (the official deal with the other delegates was that tariffs, in turn, would be set incredibly low if that happened). Additionally, Congress was authorized to charter a national bank. Both the representatives and senators would be elected by popular vote, though the state legislature could recall a senator with a supermajority vote. The age requirement for Senators was lowered to match with the age requirement for Representatives (25 years old). Additionally, bribes were specifically banned, and donations for active Congressmen were also forbidden.

Article II was slightly trickier. There were plenty of debates between the five men for the power of the executive, but all of them recognized that a semi-powerful executive was needed during certain times. As such, the powers of the executive were broadened to encompass a new power; the Executive Order. An Executive Order was an order that a president could legally use during times of crisis or great interest. Once an Executive Order took effect, it was to be active for sixty days maximum. During those sixty days, Congress would vote on the matter, and if it passed through Congress with a majority, the Executive Order would become permanent. If the Executive Order were rejected by Congress through a vote or expired after sixty days, the Executive Order would be null. As such, the President had some say in law-making, but even that was limited by Congress. However, the Executive Order power allowed a president to rapidly respond to a national or foreign crisis, which was the main basis for the new addition to Article II. Even then, the president was not allowed to declare wars without explicit Congressional permission.

Additionally, the President's form of veto was a "line-item veto," not an over encompassing total veto. The Electoral College was to remain as the method of electing presidents, but each state's electoral votes were not "winners take all." Instead, candidates would be awarded electoral votes according to the voter's preference. The age requirement for Presidents was lowered to 30 years old. The qualifications were modified to a person who had been an American citizen for at least thirty years and a resident of the United States for at least fifteen.

Article III was also debated fairly intensely, with the five men differing on their views of the Judicial powers. However, they agreed that judicial review was a necessary check to the Legislature. Due to this, judicial review was designated as an official power of the Supreme Court. However, the power of judicial review was limited to only the State Supreme Courts and the Federal Supreme Court. Judges were limited to one, twenty-year tenure, including the judges of the Supreme Court. The official number of Supreme Court Justices was to expand by two every century, with the starting basis being seven.

The remaining articles were left alone... for the time being.

Afterward, the Framers moved onto the Bill of Rights. They were aware of the necessity to incorporate some of the later amendments into the original Bill of Rights for a more equal and better United States. Still, they were careful in choosing the texts of the amendments and implementing them into a new Bill of Rights. The First Amendment was changed minorly, but the change of wording was crucial:

"Congress shall make no law sanctioning any establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Now they were finishing up on the Second Amendment, which was considered (if what they read were to be believed) a very controversial amendment.

"Moving on," Jefferson announced as he read through the papers that contained the texts of the other Bill of Rights, "Third Amendment is worded well enough; I believe it can remain as it is."

"The Fourth Amendment. Most definitely something I agree with. But in the notes given to us by General Kim, it says that due to the evolution of technology and the expansion of government powers, numerous loopholes have appeared for the government and law enforcement to find exceptions to the Amendment." Adams noted.

"A right to privacy, along with a bit more narrow definition of the Fourth Amendment, may fix this," Livingston muttered, "However, this is not an easy one to fix, that is for sure."

Jefferson wrote on a parchment rapidly as the talks continued behind closed doors.