Ch. 6 L2 - Constitutional Convention

Ch. 6 - Constitutional Convention

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Leaders of the Constitution

• Question: What is one way to solve a disagreement?

• 1787 - 55 delegates went to Philadelphia to meet and try to fix America's government. Articles of Confederation wasn't working!

• Every state went except for Rhode Island

• This meeting is called the Constitutional Convention

• Keep in mind... the delegates that went were landowners, business people, lawyers

• Oh and most were wealthy and educated, and some had even helped their own state write its constitution

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• James Madison arrived first - he had big plans for America - he took notes and because of those notes, we know what happened in that convention

• GW came and crowds cheered as he came - bells were ringing for him

• Ben Franklin - people respected him for his wisdom

• So now the meetings begins...

Goals of the Convention

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• Basically Congress did NOT have enough power

• JM and GW wanted a federal system where states SHARE power with the central government, but the central gov. still has more power than stats

• JM also wanted a republic = citizens vote for leaders to represent them

• People have the power

Creating a New Government

• Convention began on May 25 and they elected GW to be the president of the convention

• They also agreed to keep their talks a secret, no news, no Facebook

• Edmund Randolph described a plan that JM made = Virginia Plan

• Virginia Plan = 3 parts (branches) of government

• many states had their gov. like this already where one branch would make laws, another would carry out the law (enforce), and another would settle court issues

Representation

• So will the delegates accept the Virginia Plan? Well there was one part many didn't like.

• JM said that Congress will be based on your state's population - the more people your state has, the more you can send to Congress

• So who wouldn't like this plan?

• Small states, of course! This would mean that large states get more votes in Congress than small states. Large states get more power!

• So the small states made another plan called the New Jersey Plan = every state gets one vote, send one person to Congress.

• Both large and small states have equal power. So now who would not like this?

• Large states!

• They argued about this for a long time! Roger Sherman came up with a plan...

• Divide Congress into two parts (houses) - Senate and House of Representatives

• Senate - equal number of members from each state

• House of Representatives - based on population - larger states get more people than smaller states

• This plan was called the Great Compromise

• compromise = both sides give up something to settle a disagreement

• Guess what? Both sides accepted this compromise! Woohoo! But now onto other issues...

The Issue of Slavery

• Do you count slaves as part of your state's population? Why was it an advantage for slaves to be counted?

• Some states didn't like this. They said you can't count them as citizens because you don't treat them like citizens. You treat them like property.

• What about slavery in general? Some wanted to end slavery.

• Which part of the country had slaves?

• South would not accept the new government unless slavery was allowed still.

• Disagreement again! Time for another _____________.

• Compromise!

• Three-Fifths Rule = every 5 slaves counted as 3 people

• Slave trade was still allowed

• Some states still did not like this, but they allowed it so that they can create and accept the Constitution for America.

Ratifying the Constitution

• So would the delegates ever accept the Constitution?

• Yes! They signed it on September 17, 1787.

• So about how many months was the Constitutional Convention?

• Constitution is based on Madison's Virginia Plan. James Madison = Father of the Constitution

• 9 states had to ratify (approve) the Constitution before it was official.

• Federalists = supporters of the Constitution

• Constitution was a shock to many because they thought they were there to make changes to the Articles, not create a whole new gov!

• So now what? They had to teach everyone about the Constitution!

• Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote essays called The Federalist.

• They explained how the new gov. would work and how America needed a strong central gov

• But not everyone was a federalist. Not everyone liked the federal system = Antifederalist

• They thought a strong central gov. was dangerous and a threat to liberty because there was no Bill of Rights = rights that people have (freedom of speech and religion)

• So Federalists promised to add a Bill of Rights

Ratification

• So now states had to meet and decide if they will ratify the Consitution

• Delaware was the first state to ratify it. But remember, they need how many states to make it official?

• 9! Well in 1788, New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify it!

• Constitution is offical! It's America's law!

• And yes, all 13 states ended up ratifying it.

• But wait! How did GW become the 1st President of the United States? Stay tuned...