...nation be writing the Articles of Confederation. Delegates met at the Constitutional Convention to discuss the Constitution. The Constitution was debated because it had no Bill of Rights. Governing a new nation the Constitutional Convention and debating the Constitution was how the US overcame the Articles of Confederation and formed a government. When governing a new nation, the US wrote new state Constitutions, the Articles of Confederation and divided land. Eleven out of thirteen states wrote new state Constitutions. State Constitutions avoided the same problems they had with the British. They limited the power of the central government and the governor. The Articles of Confederation was written in 1777. The states were given power. The Congress could make laws, coin/borrow money, build roads and post offices, deal with foreign nations and declare war. Congress could not regulate trade, collect taxes and enforce laws. The states did not want to give lands to the government. Disputes over land slowed ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The land ordinance of 1785 broke land into six-square mile townships. The land ordinance of 1787 banned slavery and set up a three-step process for state hood. Governing a new nation led to compromises at the Constitutional Convention. The compromise of the constitutional convention caused the Great Compromise, a representative government and the three-fifths compromise. The House of Representatives and Senate were made. The senate had...
Words: 649 - Pages: 3
...constitution was made at the constitutional convention, which formulated many different compromises such as The Great Compromise, and the Three-Fifths compromise. Some people believed that the Constitution should be ratified, and some people thought it should not be, these people became known as federalists and antifederalists. While the articles of confederation created the first form of government for the states, it had many flaws. Some of these were resolved at the Constitutional Convention by creating many compromises, but people known as anti-federalists still thought that the constitution should not be ratified. This was solved by...
Words: 879 - Pages: 4
...they needed a government. The Articles of Confederation is what the continental congress made a plan for as a whole. The constitutional convention was ran by the legislature which caused the great compromises. The constitution was written by delegates and each state had to hold a convention to approve of the constitution but not everyone agreed about the constitution and that it should be ratified. In the late 1700’s the thirteen original colonies needed a government so they came up with the articles...
Words: 825 - Pages: 4
...COMPROMISES OF OUR CONSTITUTION America was built on compromises. What you lose in compromise, you gain by collaboration. A compromise means an agreement reached by opposing claims. (1) There were several compromises that were made to help form the Constitution of the United States. There were three main conflicts the new nation had to be resolve. The main ones were: The Great Compromise, The 3/5ths Compromise and also The Slave Trade Compromise. Even though there were conflicts over a strong central government, and states’ rights, the members in the Philadelphia Convention overcame their differences to form a democratic government that is for the people, and meets the needs of our nation. (2) The original document established for the United States to govern the people was adopted in 1777. It was called, the Articles of Confederation. It was outdated and it needed to be tweaked. Congress had very limited power to regulate national affairs, no authority to tax, or to regulate commerce. As a result of a weak central government, in 1787, the United States went bankrupt. With credit and debt problems, the states convinced the delegates to meet. So, they met in May, at the Convention, in Philadelphia. Rather than fix a broken system, the Virginia plan modeled a whole new government system, it had Federal and National Features. States would have power but submit to a national supreme authority. (3) The Great Compromise was very important. The Virginia plan had the structure...
Words: 801 - Pages: 4
...associated with race, and with the fall of the Native American populations, it was Africans who were largely enslaved. This paper will attempt to answer how slavery developed as a national issue during the revolution and constitutional convention. Specifically, how the Constitution dealt with the question of Slavery and if it was an effective solution. In order, to uphold to The Declaration of Independence’s and after America won its independence from Great Britain in 1783 it became obvious that the United States needed a stronger unified government in order to establish itself as a Country. So in 1786, Alexander Hamilton, called for a constitutional convention to discuss...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...The Constitutional Convention was assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. Fifty-five delegates, including James Madison and George Mason, were compiled from several states and the meeting was supervised by George Washington. During this assembly, two different plans of action were set forth to improve upon the existing government: the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. After the proposals of the Virginia and New Jersey plans, the Constitutional Convention was forced to settle on the Great Compromise in order to end disputes between the states and maintain independence for both the national government and the states. The Virginia Plan was authored by the Virginian delegates, including James Madison. It departed from the government system created by the Articles and gave states power while still holding up the federal government as the supreme authority. It was composed of a single executive with two houses (an upper and a lower) as well as a new court system. Representation of the states was based on state population. The authors of the Virginia Plan believed that the delegates would prefer a general grant of authority to a long list of enumerated representatives. The Virginia Plan was fought against by representatives from the small states and a new solution was created to...
Words: 526 - Pages: 3
...(weatherman). After the United States had finally won their independence from Great Britain, they spent their early years governed by the Articles of Confederation( weatherman) . The Constitutional Convention was A meeting with delegates from every state except Rhode island to discuss problems of the weak government and also the Articles of Confederation. In 1787 the Constitutional convention held a meeting to discuss...
Words: 536 - Pages: 3
...The United States Constitution overcame the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and provided the organization of the new government. After the American Revolutionary War in America, the colonists needed a government so no one could take away their power.The Articles of Confederation were very weak and under them the new country was vulnerable and the states all were doing their own thing. During the Constitutional Convention, many compromises were made to make everyone in small and large states happy. Federalists wrote the Federalists Papers to gain support from the public. Anti- Federalists refused to sign things and protested the Constitution. To overcome the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation the newly formed United States...
Words: 954 - Pages: 4
...Aidee Salgado American Government 6/29/2016 The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia The three proposals that were debated at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 were the Virginia and New Jersey Plan and the Connecticut Compromise. Legislatures of twelve states had selected seventy-four delegates, and fifty-five filled these seats. These delegates consisted of twenty-nine college graduates and the remaining twenty-six included notables such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The goal of the the Philadelphia convention was to establish a new Union. The Virginia Plan was the first plan proposed at the Constitutional Convention. This plan was written by James Madison and was led by Governor Edmund Randolph and called for a strong central government. The plan consisted of the following: A two house legislature, with numerical representation, where popularly elected lower house elects the upper house. Broad, yet undefined legislative power, with absolute veto over laws passed by state legislatures with taxing power. Single executive elected by legislature for fixed term. National judiciary elected by the legislature. Council of Revision composed of the executive and judiciary to review laws passed by national legislature. The Virginia Plan generated a counter-proposal by William Paterson of New Jersey called the New Jersey Plan. The New Jersey Plan called for a modest change in the Articles of the Confederation, keep the state governments dominant...
Words: 498 - Pages: 2
...Connecticut Compromise, also known as the Great Compromise concluded the highly controversial issue of representation that was presented at the Constitutional Convention from May 25, 1787-September 17, 1787 at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. The Great Compromise attempted to balance power between large and small states in the new Congress. Delegates often disagreed about how many representatives each state should be allowed to have. The larger states favored the Virginia Plan. According to the Virginia Plan, each state would have a different number of representatives based on the state's population. The smaller states favored the New Jersey Plan. According to the New Jersey Plan, the number of representatives would be the same for each state. Roger Sherman, a delegate from Connecticut, suggested a legislature consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate would have an equal number of representatives from each state (The Dirksen Congressional Center, 2008). This would satisfy the states with smaller populations. The House of Representatives would include one representative for each 30,000 individuals in a state (The Dirksen Congressional Center, 2008). This pleased states with larger populations. It was decided that there would be two chambers in Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives would be based on population. The Senate would be based on equal representation of two seats...
Words: 302 - Pages: 2
...The constitutional convention was called on in may of 1787 to address strengthening the power of the central government that the Articles of Confederation introduced. The Articles created a weak central government with more given to state legislatures. Problems arrived from this proposition as the federal government could not conduct foreign policy, because of the inability to enforce law that the states favored. For example after the war british goods flooded the u.s market, but the confederation congress did not have the authority to regulate the trade. States were implementing their own trade policies elsewhere in the U.S further creating a problem. Soon the Constitutional Convention would be called upon.The 55 delegates from 12 states selected for the convention agreed to not only consider revisions of the Articles of Confederation, but to try to construct a whole new framework of government. The issues...
Words: 570 - Pages: 3
...The Constitution The written document that established the National Government of the United States is known as the Articles of Confederation. Independence was declared from Great Britain for this document. They created it to set laws, to appoint taxes according to the population, grant one vote per state, and give rights to the federal government to dispose of the public lands in the west. The constitution was needed when there appeared to be a problem with the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional convention was held in Philadelphia. It was from May to September of 1787. Of all the states 12 of the 13 delegates appeared at the convention. The only one not in attendance was Rhode Island. Some important people who attended the convention were George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and George Mason. Each one of them had a very important role in the signing of the...
Words: 538 - Pages: 3
...address and at the same time the Constitution was able to identify and address weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. There are many reasons as to why the Constitution evolved but it served well for the United States. The Great Compromise was a formal agreement for both large and small states to have two representatives in the upper house for each state. The Connecticut Compromise or as it is most likely known as The Great Compromise, was written in 1787 during the Constitutional Convention by Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman. The Constitutional Convention set up it to where each state would be able to have their own congressional representation and legislative structure. The Great Compromise also required that each state be represented by two representatives within the upper house and that representation in the lower house be equal between all states. This congressional congress session went on for seven long weeks and was almost ruined or destroyed by the issue of representation. The states still argues that they were providing more of a contribution to the financial and defensive resources and so therefore they attested they deserved more representation in the Senate. By July 16, 1787 the congressional convention members accepted The Great Compromise by a mere one vote. “As the celebrants duly noted, without that vote, there would likely have been no Constitution.” (The United States Senate, n.d.). After Thomas Jefferson helped to write the Declaration of...
Words: 1298 - Pages: 6
...Should There be Another Constitutional Convention? The Articles of Confederation was he first federal “constitution” to be upheld in the thirteen colonies. Unfortunately, under the Articles, Congress was given no power over the states so that the country could grow into an actual functioning society, though there were certain things that they did have control over, such as create war and peace time, conduct foreign affairs and etc. But under the Articles, “But Congress could not collect taxes and enforce laws directly; it had to rely on the states to provide money and enforce its laws. . .”(Dye 61). Essentially, the states did what they felt was right beneath their own respective state level government. “No respect is paid to the federal authority. Not a single state complies with the requisitions[submitted by Congress]” (Nardo 18). The Founding Fathers were disturbed by the utter discord the nation seemed to be in. Deciding that enough was enough in May of 1797, twelve of the thirteen colonies delegates, 55 delegates, gathered together in the State House of Philadelphia to, originally, fix and tweak the bugs out of the Articles of Confederation. But instead of fixing the Articles, James Madison decided that it would be better to scrap the whole document and create a whole new federal constitution. James Madison was intent on drafting a new constitution that would create a stronger, central government: The Virginia Plan. “. . . he by no means wanted that government to be so...
Words: 2073 - Pages: 9
...Confederation and Constitution United States History Professor: 9/30/12 The Articles of Confederation were a great start to shaping and unifying our country, but it was just that, a “start”. It needed to take the country as a whole into consideration in order for it to hold this unity in place. The Articles of Confederation led to the Constitution of the United States. Although similar in some aspects, very different in others. The articles had many weaknesses that were changed in the Constitution. There were many compromises made between the states in order to effectively draft the Constitution. Roger Sherman’s Plan kept the Constitutional Convention together which was later known as the Great Compromise. The fight for the Constitution had just begun and the ratification processes needed to take place. Even with some states being in favor of the Constitution it would take time to get the nine states needed to complete this process. The states in favor would called themselves The Federalist and those opposed were called the Anti-Federalist. The Federalist set out to change the mind of the remaining states with a series of letters that were written to newspapers. The Articles of Confederation were used as a base for the Constitution. The ideas from the Articles of Confederation were used in the writing of the Constitution. Both the Articles and the Constitution established “federal” systems of multiple sovereigns whose continued existence was constitutionally...
Words: 1610 - Pages: 7
