1. The Constitutional Convention: It’s All About Compromise

2. 55 delegates met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation, but quickly realized the Articles were not worth fixing--a new government was needed.

3. The men realized that the new Legislative Branch would be the most powerful part of the new government--how it would be organized was one of the biggest arguments.

4. The Virginia Plan ~ created by James Madison Madison is called the “architect of the Constitution” because he designed so much of it. Madison’s Virginia Plan called for a bicameral legislature ~ bicameral means having two houses or levels

5. The lower house in the legislature would be called the House of Representatives. It would be elected by the people of each state.

6. The upper house in the legislature would be called the Senate. The Senate would be elected by the members of the House.

7. Madison’s plan called for a two-house legislature based on population--the more people a state had the more representatives they would send to the new Congress. For this reason, the Virginia Plan was favored by the large states.

8. The New Jersey Plan ~ created by William Paterson Called for a unicameral (one-house) legislature To make things fair, Paterson’s legislature was based on equality -- all states would get the same number of representatives. For this reason, the New Jersey Plan was favored by the small states.

9. The Great Compromise also called the Connecticut Compromise Proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut It called for a bicameral Congress. The lower house, called the House of Representatives, would be based on state population, but states were guaranteed at least one representative. The upper house, called the Senate, would be based on equality. All states would receive two Senators.

10. The Three-Fifths Compromise The Southern states wanted to count all their slaves as a part of their state’s population, but did not want to pay taxes on any of them. The North did not want slaves to be counted and insisted that the South pay taxes on all their slaves. Compromise ~ the South could count 3/5 of their slaves for representation and taxation Ex.--for every 5 slaves, 3 get counted