The Constitution American leaders created the Constitution as a blue print of government for the united States More then 200 years after the Constitution remains the guiding document for our government

2nd Constitutional Convention 1787 1786 Articles of Confederation First form of government Weak, many problems No clear leadership Government had no power

Problems with Articles of Confederation 1)One house of Congress and no separation of powers. 2 government under the Articles was too weak since the majority of the power rested with the states. 3) Congress, did not have the power to tax 4)Changes to them was nearly impossible 5)Laws were hard to pass and harder to enforce 6) Congress did not have the power to regulate commerce or trade so states printed their own money

Need for Strong Government Articles of Confederation was very weak and did not work Shays Rebellion Protest of ex-soldiers who did not get paid but were required to pay taxes Soldiers formed a mob and burnt down banks and killed tax collectors Rallied the congress to form a new religion to deal with problems people were facing

Virginia Plan Virginia Plan Bigger states get more members in congress Bigger states felt they deserved more power then smaller states Based on Population Proportional Representation

New Jersey Plan Smaller states wanted each state to have equal members in Congress Equal Representation

Arguments Big states and small states could not agree Big states wanted more votes cause of population Small states believed each state had contributed equally to independence so each state should have equal votes

The Great Compromise Senate: equal votes for each state (2) House of Representatives Each state gets votes based on their population Bigger states got more votes then small states They adopted both plans

Slavery? Southern slave state wanted their slaves counted as people They wanted more representatives in the house Are slaves people? Could they vote? Did they have rights? Larger, northern states refused to count them

Three Fifths Compromise Each slave would be counted as 3/5ths of a person This would benefit smaller states who would now agreed to sign the Constitution

Federalism The delegates created a division between state and federal governments Federalism: power is divided between a national government and state government

Assignment Complete the following Terms and names: define or summarize pg 79 Questions 5 and 6 page 80 Finish the key conflicts chart pg 69 Strong central government vs. strong states 1. 1. Large states vs small states 1. 1 North vs. South