What impact was affirmative action designed to have?

It created quotas for minority admissions or hiring.

americans had many intangible advantages. well since the british fought a war far from home military orders, troops, and supplies sometimes took months to reach their destinations, and the british had an extremely difficult objective. they had to persuade the americans to give up their claims of independence, americans had a grand cause: fighting for their rights, their independence and their liberty. this cause is much more just than waging a war to deny independence.

it was certainly a debatable decision, mainly because it was based primarily on political - and not on legal or social - views. since the congress at that time was led by members of the republican party, and the territory that the tribes wanted to turn into an exclusively indian state was predominantly democratic, the proposal (as expressed in the constitution) did not succeed, but the constitution itself proved to be of crucial importance in the creation of the state of oklahoma, and, most importantly, it guaranteed the involvement of representatives of the indian tribes in the government of the future joint state.  

as a member of congress, i would have voted to ratify the constitution, or at least to have it tabled. ignoring it was an interested and partial decision.