The delegates all came to the convention from the same region. The delegates agreed on the same constitutional principles. The delegates agreed on what governmental changes were necessary. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests.
The delegates agreed on the same constitutional principles. The delegates agreed on what governmental changes were necessary. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests.
There were two sides to the Great Debate: the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists wanted to ratify the Constitution, the Anti-Federalists did not. One of the major issues these two parties debated concerned the inclusion of the Bill of Rights.
The delegates agreed on the same constitutional principles. The delegates agreed on what governmental changes were necessary. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests. Which statement about the Great Compromise is accurate?
The delegates generally agreed on the need for a separate executive independent of the legislature. (The executive would be called the “president.”) And they also agreed on giving the president the power to veto laws but only if his veto was subject to an override.
To encourage delegates to make arguments without fear of recrimination and to discourage mob action in the city, those in attendance kept their deliberations secret during their lifetimes and did not inform the public of the resulting document until September 17, after most of the delegates had signed on to it.
How the Articles of Confederation failed and delegates met to create a new constitution. The major debates were over representation in Congress, the powers of the president, how to elect the president (Electoral College), slave trade, and a bill of rights.
Each state would be equally represented in the Senate, with two delegates, while representation in the House of Representatives would be based upon population. The delegates finally agreed to this "Great Compromise," which is also known as the Connecticut Compromise.
The three major compromises were the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the Electoral College. The Great Compromise settled matters of representation in the federal government.
The common element in two debates at the convention was slavery. There was no part of the Articles that addressed slavery, each of the states could decide whether they will legalize it or forbid it.
Which principle under debate at the Convention do you think was the most important to the new nation? Support your opinion with evidence from the text. What compromises did the Convention delegates reach when planning for the legislative and executive branches?
This uncertainty played a major role in the ratification convention in Massachusetts. Finally, after long debate, a compromise (the "Massachusetts Compromise") was reached. Massachusetts would ratify the Constitution, and in the ratifying document strongly suggest that the Constitution be amended with a bill of rights.
What two views of the presidency did the Framers debate? Whether the president should be weak and subordinate to Congress or strong and independent of the other branches.
Called the “Great Compromise” or the “Connecticut Compromise,” this unique plan for congressional representation resolved the most controversial aspect of the drafting of the Constitution.
some of the characteristics of the delegates to the constitutional convention were White males, wealthy, educated. Some were lawyers. Many helped write their state constitution and seven served as state. Some fought in the revolutionary war.
The delegates for a strong national government believed that a strong national government would endanger the rights of states. The delegates for stronger state governments believed that a strong national government would threaten individual liberty.
*Southern delegates wanted slaves to be counted to determine population. This would increase the number of representatives they had in the House. *Northern delegates said that since slaves could not vote, they should not be counted toward the slave's representation.
Between May and September 1787, delegates from 12 states convened in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, which had proven insufficient to cope with the challenges facing the young nation.
The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States, placing the Convention among the most significant events in American history.
The delegates for a strong national government believed that a strong national government would endanger the rights of states. The delegates for stronger state governments believed that a strong national government would threaten individual liberty.
The delegates all came to the convention from the same region. The delegates agreed on the same constitutional principles. The delegates agreed on what governmental changes were necessary. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests.
The states believed the Articles of Confederation were working and did not need to be replaced. Each state was most concerned for its own interests and needs. Each state was certain that cooperation would lead to another war. Each state was most concerned for its own interests and needs.
a legislature based on size of the state. an act of working as a lawmaker for a group. a government made up of two parts or houses. an agreement reached after long debate. a government made up of two parts or houses.
The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests.
The states believed the Articles of Confederation were working and did not need to be replaced .
The Federalists felt that this addition wasn't necessary, because they believed that the Constitution as it stood only limited the government not the people.
However, under the Articles, when the Founding Fathers signed the Constitution in 1787, it needed the ratification from nine states before it could go into effect.
As a result, after the Constitution was enacted, Congress sent a set of twelve amendments to the states. Ten of these amendments were immediately ratified into the Bill of Rights. Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Share-Alike License 3.0.
The Great Debate. The transition from the Articles of Confederation to the United States Constitution wasn't a seamless one, and fixing the problems of the Articles of Confederation required a series of lengthy debates both during and after the convention. But one thing was certain, something had to be changed.
The Anti-Federalists. In the ratification debate, the Anti-Federalists opposed to the Constitution. They complained that the new system threatened liberties, and failed to protect individual rights. The Anti-Federalists weren't exactly a united group, but instead involved many elements.
One faction opposed the Constitution because they thought stronger government threatened the sovereignty of the states. Others argued that a new centralized government would have all the characteristics of the despotism of Great Britain they had fought so hard to remove themselves from.
Although the Anti-Federalists were unsuccessful in the prevention of the adoption of the Constitution, their efforts were responsible for the creation and implementation of the Bill of Rights.
Delegates from Northern states, where the economy did not rely heavily on the enslavement of African people, felt that enslaved people should not be counted toward representation because counting them would provide the South with a greater number of representatives.
The compromise between the two became known as the three-fifths compromise because every five enslaved people would be counted as three individuals in terms of representation.
The compromise mandated that tariffs were only to be allowed on imports from foreign countries and not exports from the U.S. This compromise also dictated that interstate commerce would be regulated by the federal government. It also required that all commerce legislation be passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which was a win for the South since it countered the power of the more populous Northern states.
Once it was decided that representation in the House of Representatives was to be based on population, delegates from Northern and Southern states saw another issue arise: how enslaved people should be counted.
Northern states wanted the government to be able to impose import tariffs on finished products to protect against foreign competition and encourage the South to buy goods made in the North and also export tariffs on raw goods to increase revenue flowing into the United States. However, the Southern states feared that export tariffs on their raw goods would hurt the trade upon which they heavily relied.
The national government could not tax, could not enforce the laws it passed, and could not regulate commerce. These and other weaknesses, along with an increase in national feeling, led to the Constitutional Convention, which met from May to September 1787. The U.S. Constitution it produced has been called a "bundle of compromises" ...
The Articles of Confederation under which the United States operated from 1781 to 1787 provided that each state would be represented by one vote in Congress. When changes were being discussed for how states should be represented during the creation of a new Constitution, two plans were pushed forward.
The delegates generally agreed on the need for a separate executive independent of the legislature. (The executive would be called the “president.”) And they also agreed on giving the president the power to veto laws but only if his veto was subject to an override. As Madison noted:
When the convention received the draft containing these proposals, another heated debate erupted. Opponents of the ban on exports objected on economic grounds. One delegate said that denying the power to tax exports would take away from the government “half of the regulation of trade.” Another pointed out that taxing exports could become important “when America should become a manufacturing country.”
The small states wanted each state to have the same number of representatives in Congress. The big states wanted representation based on population.
In February 1787, Congress decided that a convention should be convened to revise the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first constitution. In May, 55 delegates came to Philadelphia, and the Constitutional Convention began. Debates erupted over representation in Congress, over slavery, and over the new executive branch.
States were imposing tariffs on each other and fighting over borders. Britain was angry because pre-war debts were not being paid, and it was refusing to honor the treaty that had ended the war (the Paris Treaty of 1783). Recognizing that things were not going well, Congress declared, on February 21, 1787, “that there are defects in the present Confederation” and resolved that a convention should be held in Philadelphia “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation . . . and to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union.”
Delegates voted more than 60 times before the method was chosen. The final agreement was to have the president elected by electors in each state who would be chosen “in such manner” as its legislature might “direct.”. Each elector would vote for two people (one of whom could not be an inhabitant of the same state.)
According to Madison’s notes, they suggested that “the proportion of suffrage in the 1st branch should be according to the number of free inhabitants; and that in the second branch or senate, each state should have one vote and no more.”.
The second issue surrounding the question of representation was the mode of election; that is, whether representatives should be elected by the people directly or by the members of the state legislatures. On one side, delegates such as Roger Sherman and Elbridge Gerry believed that the people were not fit to select their representatives. On the other side, delegates such as George Mason and James Madison argued that direct election to the lower House by the people was necessary to satisfy the "democratic principle." (June 6) This question was finally settled by a compromise on June 25: representatives in the lower House would be elected directly by the people; Senators would be appointed by each state legislature.
Three issues dominated the debates over the Virginia and New Jersey Plans. First was the question of a unicameral versus a bicameral Congress. Delegates such as James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued that splitting the legislature into two Houses would allow each to act as a check on the other. Others, such as Paterson, countered that such a check was unnecessary. The question was finally settled in favor of a bicameral Congress on June 21.
On June 16, Paterson argued that his more conservative plan—unlike the Virginia Plan— was within the scope of what the Convention was authorized to do. A strange interlude occurred on June 18 when Alexander Hamilton of New York introduced his own plan.
Other delegates, such as George Mason, feared that equal representation would allow the smaller states to form a majority in Congress that would tax and spend the wealth and resources of the larger states to the advantage of the smaller states. The delegates reached an impasse over the rule of suffrage in Congress.
The third and most contentious element of the debate was the question of equal versus proportional representation in Congress , otherwise known as the "rule of suffrage" in the legislature. Some delegates feared that proportional representation would allow the larger states to dominate Congress and pass laws adverse to the interests of the smaller states. Other delegates, such as George Mason, feared that equal representation would allow the smaller states to form a majority in Congress that would tax and spend the wealth and resources of the larger states to the advantage of the smaller states.
From the beginning, however, the central point of contention among delegates was the extent to which the scheme of representation under the Articles should be changed.
When the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention convened in May of 1787 to recommend amendments to the Articles of Confederation, one of the first issues they addressed was the plan for representation in Congress. This question was especially contentious, and kept the delegates embroiled in debate ...
The delegates all came to the convention from the same region. The delegates agreed on the same constitutional principles. The delegates agreed on what governmental changes were necessary. The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests.
The states believed the Articles of Confederation were working and did not need to be replaced. Each state was most concerned for its own interests and needs. Each state was certain that cooperation would lead to another war. Each state was most concerned for its own interests and needs.
a legislature based on size of the state. an act of working as a lawmaker for a group. a government made up of two parts or houses. an agreement reached after long debate. a government made up of two parts or houses.
The delegates considered each one of their states to have independent interests.
The states believed the Articles of Confederation were working and did not need to be replaced .