The Constitutional Convention

The Convention Begins Members of the convention did not have the authority to form a new system of government, only to fix the Articles of Confederation Many delegates begin to argue that the AOC could not be fixed and all agree that the meetings should be held in complete secrecy Guards were placed at the doors, windows were nailed shut so that delegates would be free to speak their mind without fear of the public mis-hearing them 55 Delegates from 12 states took place, RI did not send anyone Franklin and Roosevelt were quickly elected to the delegation, however Franklin asked each state to send new, young, fresh faces to insure new ideas

The Virginia Plan On the 3rd day of the convention, Edmund Randolph and James Madison of Virginia proposed a plan for a new, strong central government, for the next month debate and argument focused on the proposal The plan called for 3 branches of government that would have separate powers but would keep Congress as the law making body, a judicial branch would review the law and an executive branch (of 3 presidents) would carry out the law Congress would also be broken up into 2 bodies (called a bicameral legislature) to represent the rich and the poor in America Connecticut argued greatly against the Virginia Plan as it would give the people too much power and someday lead to a new revolution, Pennsylvania on the other hand argued strongly to increase the power of the people over an elected government

Problems with the Virginia Plan One part of the Virginia Plan almost tore the convention apart, VA wanted all representation in congress to be based on population, many states feared this plan since VA-PA-MA had the largest population in the whole country The smaller states strongly opposed the VA plan and quickly rallied behind the New Jersey Plan which proposed each state get 1 vote in congress and did not look at population at all The NJ Plan called for a single house of congress with equal votes for all states, it also gave congress the ability to print money, raise taxes and control private businesses The delegates began in debate but erupt in fighting/arguing that became so tense not only did Washington have to control the delegates, many feared the convention would fail all together

The Great Compromise Roger Sherman of CT worked out a compromise that he hoped would satisfy both large and small states, the Connecticut Plan became known as The Great Compromise by asking each side to give up a few items to the other side in order to gain larger more important details of the new government Sherman’s plan called for a 2 house Congress not based on wealth, but based on voting rights of the people and the states (the Senate would speak on behalf of the states, the House would speak on behalf of the people), all representatives would have to be elected but their time in office would be limited to terms With states getting an equal voice in the Senate and the people getting a voice based on population in the House, smaller and larger states both agreed that a strong central government would be the best option

Debates Over Slavery Not only did the delegates argue and debate over representation in Congress, they also saw differently on the use of slaves in the new American nation Southern delegates said that enslaved people should be counted in calculating how many representatives a state should have in Congress, northern delegates said that because enslaved people could not vote they should not be counted towards a state’s representation, both sides threatened to leave the convention and form their own new nation if their view on slavery was not accepted across the board Finally, Congress agreed to a plan called the 3/5th’s Compromise that would keep both sides a part of the new American government, the compromise states that every slave would be counted as 3/5th’s of a real person to help balance the number of votes southern states could have in Congress The compromise was a blow to enslaved Africans, as the 3/5th’s compromise helped now to strengthen the use of slaves to gain political power, this gave the southern states a huge advantage, northern states refused to accept this deal unless southern states classified “freed” slaves as full voting citizens

Slavery and the Constitution Some northern states wanted to make the buying, keeping and selling of humans illegal across the whole nation, but in doing so the southern states would be economically crushed, once again a compromise was reached, ships would be allowed to deliver slaves for 20 years to southern states but in 1808 importing slaves would become completely illegal, the hope was that southern states would use the 20 years to build factories and create new jobs out of farming After months of deliberations, the delegates agreed to all compromises and created a new American nation based on our Constitution and not the AOC, it would be broken down into 3 sections: 1st is an introduction explaining why this change occurred, 2nd would be all the rules for the government, 3rd would be all the rules for the people While many delegates (including Franklin) had doubts about the new Constitution and it’s potential faults, they all agreed that one nation together is better than 13 separate confederated states Once the Constitution had been signed by all 55 delegates, all rules of secrecy were lifted and public debate began and lasted for over 10 months of intense examination