1.  CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION  May 25 – Sept. 17, 1787

2.  The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation (shown in Shays’ rebellion) prompted the states to call for a meeting to revise the Articles. The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia led to an entirely new framework of government.

3.  Philadelphia 1787  George Washington was president of the Convention  Called to amend (change) the Articles of Confederation  55 delegates from 12 of the states  Rhode Island did not show up—why?  Two different plans to change the Articles surfaced from state delegates

4.  Proposed by James Madison and Edmund Randolph of Virginia  Plan called for a new, strong central government and to toss out the Articles all together  Plan instead proposed three branches of government the executive branch would carry out laws, the judicial branch would consist of a system of courts to interpret the law

5.  The legislative branch would be broken up into two houses, a lower house and an upper house  The # of representatives each state had would be determined by the state’s POPULATION  Large states like Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts supported this plan (?)  Small states opposed it Representation based on population

6.  William Patterson proposed a different plan to the delegates on June 15, 1787  This plan called for amending or changing the articles  This plan also called for three branches of government, but with one big difference Equal representation

7.  It called for a single house of Congress, with equal representation for each state  Delegates argued day after day over the issues and between the plans, some even feared the Convention would fail

8.  Roger Sherman, a delegate from Connecticut; worked out a compromise that would satisfy both the large and the small states  The Great Compromise created a bicameral legislature where the HOR representation would be based on population(large states happy) and the Senate would be equal(small states happy).  However, the fighting continued…over if or how to count slaves toward representation.

9.  It was decided that slaves would count as 3/5 th as a free person, so 500 slaves would equal 300 free people.  This is called the 3/5 th Compromise, it writes slavery into the US Constitution. It will not be undone until the addition of the 13 th, 14 th, and 15 th amendments  This made the Northern states mad, they argued slaves were not even allowed to vote…yet the Southern states wanted to use them to gain more representatives in the House and have more power in government

10.  So the Congress decided that the slave trade would end in 20 years, meaning no more slaves could be imported into the US in order to get the Northern states to agree to the compromise