The 1787 Constitutional Convention was paramount in unifying the states after the Revolutionary War. However, in order to do so, the convention had to compromise on many issues instead of addressing them with all due haste. This caused the convention to leave many issues unresolved. Most notably were the issues of slavery, race, secession, and states’ rights. Through the Civil War and the Reconstruction, these issues were resolved, and in the process the powers of the federal government were greatly expanded. Slavery There was no significant desire among most delegates to abolish slavery during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. In addition, the focus of the convention was on forming a more perfect union, not dealing with the issue of slavery (Dolbeare, 71). Also complicating things was the concern among some delegates that putting too much weight on the issue of slavery might cause the unification process to fall apart. This resulted in the Constitution containing a series of compromises regarding slavery, and blatantly avoiding the issue of slavery. These compromises are found in four main places within the Constitution. The first is the three-fifths compromise, which detailed how slaves would influence the population of each state for the purpose of determining representation and taxation. Located in Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution the compromise states that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for enumeration purposes (Dolbeare, 71). This compromise was important for the Southern states, whose populations consisted of large numbers of slaves, because without it they would have a significant smaller number of representatives in the House. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution prohibit... ... middle of paper ... ...Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. Knopf, New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Print. Jennings, Marianne M. Business: Its Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print. Lincoln, Abraham. The Emancipation Proclamation. U.S. National Archives & Records Administaration. Web. 05 Dec. 2009. historics/USSC_CR_0074_0700_ZO.html>. Robinson, Luther E. Abraham Lincoln as a man of letters. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: R. West, 1977. Print. Scott v. Sandford. US Supreme Court Center, 1856. Web. 04 Dec. 2009. . Texas v. White. Cornell University Law School Supreme Court Collection, 1850. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. USSC_CR_0074_0700_ZO.html>.
The original version of the Constitution is a result of a series of compromises made to achieve a document that would be voted by the majority of the newly emerged states. Slavery was a very sensitive issue, as it was widely common on the continent.
The Three Fifths compromise states that a slave be counted as three-fifths of a person. Therefore, the population of the southern states equaled the population of the northern states. Now that the populations were balanced, the south and the north sent the same amount of representatives to the House of Representatives. Pro-slavery southerners felt as if the north still had an advantage, but it was actually the south that had the advantage in the Senate and the House of Representatives.... ...
A compromise was made and a decision of having equal representation in the upper house of Congress and representation based on population in the lower house. For every 30,000 residents in a state resulted in one state representative. Southern delegates pushed that the number of resident include the slaves that occupied the land as well. The committee agreed that every 5 slaves would count as 3 residents. This in turn gave the south much more power than it would have had otherwise since the southern sates consisted of an extremely large population of slaves. Slavery was also a heated issue that came up during the convention.
There were three major compromises made at the Constitutional Convention. They were The Connecticut Compromise, The Three-Fifths Compromise, and The Slave Trade Compromise. The Connecticut Compromise resolved one of the largest disputes between the large states and the smaller states. The larger states believed they should have representation based on how much land they owned, whereas the smaller states believed they should have equal representation for all regardless of the size of land or the population. The decision that pleased all was the creation of the House of Representatives, which was based on the proportionate size of the population and the Senate which had equal representation for all, two members per colony. After the Connecticut
The delegates of Congress gathered to ratify the new Constitution in 1787, had to agree in many compromises, two of the biggest ones were the Great Compromise and the Three-Fifth Compromise. The Great Compromise also called The Connecticut framed mainly by Sherman, resolved the debate between the Virginia plan supporters and the New Jersey plan supporters on the biggest issue of the debate centered on how many representative each state should have in the Congress. The Three-Fifth Compromise resolved the debates over slavery, taxation, and representation in the lower house, mostly between the southern states seeking more representation in the lower house and wanted the slaves to be counted, and northern states that wanted the slaves to be taxed
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates had to come to many compromises to satisfy all states. For this reason, many historians say that the constitution is a document of compromises. Many states were represented during the Constitution, both small and large.
The Delegates ultimately came up with a compromise. This compromise is commonly known as the 3/5 compromise as it insisted that every slave would be counted as 3/5 of a person. The real question that everyone was trying to solve was whether or not slaves who had no vote would be counted as a part of the population. Large states who owned many slaves agreed yes, while the smaller states with fewer slaves responded no. This issue was very important to them because it would determine the number of seats that a state would have in the House of Representatives. This conclusion was ultimately not the best compromise they could have made. They tried to make it "fair" but still limited the rights of freed slave men.
The Ratification of the constitution had caused a debate between the federalists and antifederalists. It was the outcome of the the articles of confederation. There was a need for a strong government
Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (New York: Random House Publishing, 1973).
Chosen to represent Connecticut at the Constitutional Convention, Sherman brought a proposition that would be named the Connecticut Compromise. He wanted to merge the Virginia Plan and New Jersey plan thus, combining major components of both plans. Sherman suggested a two-house national legislature. The Connecticut Compromise outlined the governmental structure that exists still today. The House of Representatives would have representation based on population. The Senate would have equal representation for each state. Even though the compromise was rejected the first time around, finally on July 23 it was passed. Ultimately this great compromise saved the entire convention from termination. Sherman was the only person to have his signature on four eminent papers of the United States. They were the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Sherman also designed the thee-fifths compromise. It was constructed because of the argument that slaves should be included in taxation, yet not in representation. Sherman, along with James Wilson, created the three-fifths compromise which stated that the government would count slave only as partial people. Meaning each slave would count as “three fifths of all other persons.” The goal was to abolish slavery in all states. By creating the three-fifths
Furthermore, the creation of The Constitution caused much debate between the elite and democratic states because they thought that if the Government got all of the power, they would lose their rights. The conflict between the North and South played a major role in the development of this document. The North felt that representation in Congress should be based on the number of total people and South felt that it should be based on number of whites. However, The Three Fifths Compromise settled this when it was said a slave will count as 3/5 of a free person of representatives and taxation. Article one section two of the Constitution defines how the population will be counted, obviously there was a strong opposition to this by Southern states like Virginia because their economy was based on slave labor and they had a bigger population because of it.
There were five major compromises that were made at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and they were the Virginia and New Jersey plan, the separation of powers, the fight for ratification, the federalist, and the decision of the states. The Virginia and New Jersey plan was made for two reasons and they were “whether simply to amend the Articles of Confederation or to draft a new document; and whether to determine congressional representation by state or by population” (Tindall, 2013, p. 270). Some of the separated powers were back then and still are the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The fight for ratification came about because of the anti-federalist and federalist couldn’t agree on anything at first then they came up with
The Constitutional Convention of 1787, in Philadelphia contained of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and fifty-five men gathered, to resolve the issue of slavery, and the structure of government. The need for slaves was scarce, because without slave labor, trading plantations would not have been abundant. “Slavery became connected with the color black, and liberty with the color white.” The need for equal rights for all, was a huge dilemma at the Constitutional Convection. (Norton & Company, Chapter Four)
one of the major compromises that was addresses at the Constitutional Convention was how congress would be represented between the small states and big states. The small states wanted each state to have the same number of representatives in Congress. The big states wanted representation based on population. During the drafting of the Constitution James Madison suggested that instead of starting a new federal constitution that they just revise the original Articles of Confederation coming up with a proposal that would be one of the opening discussion. The proposal he prepared would put the Virginia Plan which called for the New Congress to be divided into two houses (pg. 191), and New Jersey Plan sought to keep the existing structure of equal
Many new issues came up with the Constitution and they were settled. The issue of legislation was fixed with a bicameral legislature with two houses where one is represented equally by each state is allotted two votes while the other is based on population. How slaves would be counted was settled where every five slaves counted as three persons.