MEAP 8th Grade – Day 7 Monday, September 30, 2013

The Articles of Confederation set up the first central government in the United States. (1781-1788)  After the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress met to decide how the new country should be run. 

The Articles of Confederation  In creating the Articles, many Americans feared a strong central government because of the abuses they had suffered while under British rule.  The Articles gave more powers to the states and created a national government consisting solely of a single house of Congress in which each state would have one vote.  The Articles prohibited the national government from levying taxes, regulated the sale of government-owned land to settlers, and required unanimous consent from all states in order to make amendments.

The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention From May 25 until September 17, 1787, 55 delegates from different states met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Constitutional Convention.  The delegates had wanted to improve the Articles of Confederation, under which the central government of the U.S. did not have enough power to govern effectively.  Instead of improving the Articles, the delegates ended up creating the U.S. Constitution as a new framework of government to replace the Articles.

The Great Compromise The Virginia Plan called for a strong bicameral (two-body) legislative branch, with each state's representation based on its population.  The smaller states, however, felt that a population-based legislature would not give them any real representation, so the New Jersey Plan was offered; there would be a unicameral (one-body) legislative branch with equal representation among every state.  The disagreement was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, often called the Great Compromise. This plan called for a bicameral legislative branch in which the House of Representatives had state representation based on population (to satisfy the large states) while the Senate had equal state representation (to satisfy the small states).

The Great Compromise

Three-Fifths Compromise

Three-Fifths Compromise Delegates from the North and South disagreed as to whether slaves should be counted in a state's population, since slaves did not have the rights of citizens.  Northern delegates believed that slaves should not be counted as part of the state's population because it would hugely increase the representation of southern states in the House.  The delegates compromised and determined that 3/5 of a state's slave population would count toward its actual population.

Federalists and Anti-Federalists Two political groups formed based on whether the Constitution should be ratified. The Federalists supported the Constitution because it would create a stronger federal government.  The Anti-Federalists, on the other hand, wanted states to have more power; they opposed the Constitution because they thought the federal government had too much power.

Federalists and Anti-Federalists

The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay supported the Federalist viewpoint and anonymously wrote a set of 85 essays called the Federalist Papers.  These essays were published with the goal of explaining how the new government would work and to convince Americans to ratify the Constitution.  Federalists felt that the rights of individuals would be protected by the constitutional provision of the separation of powers, which divided the governmental power into three branches and gave each branch the ability to check the other branches. This ability, known as checks and balances, would keep any one branch from obtaining total power.

The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights Anti-federalists did not support the Constitution because they believed it gave the central government too much power over states and individuals.  In order to address these concerns, the Anti-Federalists supported the addition of a bill of rights to the Constitution, which would guarantee the rights and liberties of individuals.