1. May 1787 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2.  55 delegates  Lawyers, physicians, generals, governors, planters, and a college president  Well educated  All states represented,except Rhode Island

3.  Presided over meeting  Gave the meeting greater significance  Would later become the first president of the United States

4.  Oldest delegate (80 years old)  Like Washington, was well respected and added a positive presence to the meetings

5.  Powerful speaker and writer  Wrote the Preamble  Wrote final draft of Constitution  Tried to get Constitutional Convention to ban slavery

6.  Father of the Constitution  His notes became the best record of what happened at the convention.  Supporter of strong central government

7.  Governor of Virginia  Proposed creating strong national government instead of rewriting Articles  Introduced Virginia Plan to convention

8.  Presented the New Jersey plan, a plan that revised the Articles of Confederation

9.  Proposed a compromise to the New Jersey and Virginia plan which came to be known as The Great Compromise

10.  English Parliamentary Traditions  The Magna Carta (1215)  The English Bill of Rights (1689)  Enlightenment Thinkers  John Locke ▪ Natural Rights  Baron de Montesquieu ▪ Separation of Powers

11.  Convention began by choosing George Washington to preside over meetings.  Each state would have one vote on all questions.  The delegates decided to keep all the sessions secret. This made it possible for the delegates to talk freely.

12.  Proposed by Edmund Randolph  Two-house (bicameral) legislature  Members of the lower house elected by the people  Members of the upper house elected by the lower house  Number of representatives would be proportional to the population of each state

13.  Proposed by William Paterson  Kept Confederation’s One-House legislature  Gave Congress the power to tax and regulate trade  Congress would elect a weak executive branch consisting of more than one person

14.  Suggested by Roger Sherman  Two-House legislature  Lower House (House of Representatives)  Membership would be proportional to population of the state  Upper House (Senate)  Each state would have two members

15.  Northern states wanted to ban slavery throughout the nation  Southern states considered slavery essential to their economies  It was agreed that Congress would not interfere with the slave trade until 1808

16.  Southern states wanted slaves to be counted as population for the purpose of representation in the House of Representatives  Northerners wanted slaves to be counted as property and taxed  Compromise—slaves would be counted as 3/5 of a free person for the purpose of taxation AND representation

17.  9 out of 13 states had to ratify (approve) the Constitution  Federalists-supporters of the Constitution  James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay defended the Constitution in The Federalist Papers  Anti-Federalists-opposed ratification  Lacked a bill of rights to protect individual freedoms

18.  June 21, 1788—New Hampshire (the 9 th state) ratified the Constitution  June 25, 1788—Virginia ratified the Constitution  June 26, 1788—New York ratified the Constitution  November 1789— Constitution ratified by North Carolina  May 1790—Constitution ratified by Rhode Island