Tempers raged and arguments started because of the Missouri Compromise. The simple act caused many fatal events because of what was changed within the United States. It may not seem like a big thing now, but before slavery had been abolished, the topic of slavery was an idea that could set off fights. The Missouri Compromise all started in late in 1819 when the Missouri Territory applied to the Union to become a slave state. The problem Congress had with accepting Missouri as a slave state was the new uneven count of free states and slave states. With proslavery states and antislavery states already getting into arguments, having a dominant number of either slave or free states would just ignite the flame even more. Many representatives from the north, such as James Tallmadge of New York, had already tried to pass another amendment that would abolish slavery everywhere. Along with other tries to eliminate slavery, his effort was soon shot down. The fact that people couldn’t agree on whether or not slavery should be legalized made trying to compose and pass a law nearly impossible.
This task was easier said than done. The fear of creating a government with too much power was a fear that was very much alive throughout the states. Tyranny was a common factor in developing governments, the delegates were seeking to avoid this error. Two ground rules were put into place for the Convention. The first was that any and all deliberations were to remain secretive. The second was that no topic or decisions would be considered closed and could therefore be up for debate and revision at any time. Once these rules were agreed upon, business started. The two contenders were the Virginia Plan, which had the larger states rooting, and the New Jersey Plan, claiming the votes of the smaller states. Under the Virginia Plan, legislature would be two houses and would be represented based on population. Under the New Jersey Plan, legislature would be one house and each state would have equal representation regardless of population. An agreement could not be reached between these two plans, instead a compromise was made. The Great Compromise met each side with an upper and lower house. The upper house was the Senate and would provide equal representation that was elected by the lower house. The lower house was the House of Representatives and would be dispersed based on population of the states. This compromise satisfied the small and large states, giving a
When the Founding Fathers got together at Philadelphia to draft the Constitution, they had many different views and opinions as to how to govern our country. At the convention, the founders fought over the issues of slavery, representation and the Congress’s powers. Their personal lives had influenced their ideas and some of the compromises made at the Constitutional Convention. The founders’ different personal experiences, economic backgrounds, and coming from states of different sizes, economy and needs, led to the creation of the Three-Fifths Compromise, The Great Compromise, and the Slave Trade Compromise.
The country, after winning the war of 1812, had a good deal of political nationalism, although sectionalist elements were beginning to emerge. The federalist party collapsed after the war and the Hartford convention, which diminished the party’s popularity. Therefore, as shown in Document I, the election of 1820 was very one sided, which lessened political divisions in the United States. This also showed that the American people were very united on the issues, which strengthened nationalism. By 1824 however, the strong nationalistic unity had collapsed, ushering John Quincy Adams, who would prove to be a very divisive president. One must also look at duality of the issue of the Missouri compromise. One one hand, as shown in Document F, the very idea of drawing a line across the country is wholly separatist. The tensions and divisions created with the Missouri compromise would grow, and lead to the establishment of two very different societies in the North and South. On the other hand, the line illustrated the willingness of the politicians to work together to improve the nation. This compromise was proof that though not all agreed on every issue, the goal of holding the country together was more important than north/south divisions. The “Era of Good Feelings” is an accurate name for this time period because although not all measures passed supported future unity, they demonstrated a temporary union and
James Madison, who would later become the 4th president of the United States, wrote the paper that affected the nation for decades to come. In the Constitution, there is the idea of a government that is divided up in two parts, the Senate, and the Representatives of each state (Article 1 section 1). This split was a very good step strategically, because one individual in another state running a whole country would not be able to give direct orders to others due to distance and miscommunication. However, splitting the politicians into groups and having them each represent the ideas of a specific state would help to keep order in that particular state. The Second section of the article states that the people are able to vote for new representatives every two years. To keep the ideas of the individuals in the state satisfied, knew blood should enter the table of representatives. People may not like one representative and vote someone else in with more passion, and virtue than the predecessor. This not only keeps the people happy, but also ensures for healthy communications between one
In the early 1800s the most divisive and controversial subject and topic of discussion was by far Slavery. After the Revolution most of the states, which were north of Maryland, were starting to pass anti-slavery laws. While in the early decades of the 1800s most of the slave holding and pro-slavery states were in the South. There were three major compromises, which attempted to be the solution to deal with the problem of slavery however none of them were fully successful in their motives on the subject.
The idea of representation was critical throughout the constitution. This can easily be seen in Article one section VIII. Section VIII states the powers that congress has. Some of the powers that congress has are as follows: collect taxes, borrow money, regular commerce, declare war, and maintain an army and a navy (Ginsberg 51). These powers are vast, but well-regulated with the intention of being checked by the House. The idea of expressed power was granted to congress and to the president with the establishment of this section (Ginsberg 51) this states that taxes are to be uniform throughout all
One thing that the states reached a compromise on at the Constitutional Congress was the Problems concerning, Representation from each state. The larger states wanted the representation to be determined on the state population, The smaller states wanted each state to have an equal amount of representatives. The solution they derived became known as the Great Compromise, They decided that they would have two houses of representatives, one based on the population of the state and the other with an equal; amount of representatives from each sate, therefore each of the two groups got what they wanted. This was also an effective way to divide the powers of the government.
The Missouri Compromise had an interesting political action, It depicted the norths disagreement towards slavery was more of a political issue rather than a moral argument. In the early 19th century , the north was populated with abolitionists and radicals, those who believes in abolition. Their main aim was not to stop slavery because it was inhumane, but the fact that white people were becoming unemployed and the south were becoming more powerful.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was dominated by political compromise. It was hard trying to come up with a way to keep all states happy and be fair in electing a president. One option was to let the state legislate decide but this was overruled. But they knew they couldn't let the people really decide because most were farmers and peasants and so they came up with a plan to decide by giving each state electoral votes based on their state population which at the time worked out well. Now however in present times it doesn’t work because too much power is given to very few states for example 6 states decide the president of The United States because their population is so big they get more electoral votes.
The Framers chose a bicameral system for the legislative branch of government. When still deciding what kind of system to input, the Framers looked to other countries. They observed that Great Britain had a bicameral parliament, and the system seemed to be very successful. They also weighed common sense. They knew that if they had two different chambers, each chamber would be able to “check up” on the other, preventing any abuse of power from taking place. The bicameral Congress was also a result of the Connecticut Compromise, a compromise between The New Jersey and Virginia Plans. The disagreement on those plans had led to many issues within The Articles or Confederation, a document that had been written before the Constitution. Once the compromise was established, the Constitution was much closer to being written. The Framers chose a bicameral...
The United States Congress was the result of two historical moments in United States, the First and Second Continental Congress. Long before he was a president, James Madison wrote the Virginia Plan for the governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, to propose at the convention. It basically stated that the Congress should be separated into two houses so it would not become tyrannical (Davidson 152). One of the houses eventually became the House of Representatives and one became the Senate. With the creation of a bicameral legislative branch, the framers had to separate the jobs each House would have to do and set the checks and balance so one body would not have more power than the other. Each House was presented with different responsibilities that are ...
The Great Compromise, was one of the most well know compromise made at the Constitutional Convention. When deciding how states should be represented in the new Constitution two plans were presented, The Virginia Plan and The New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan proposed a
Bleeding Kansas The Compromise of 1850 brought relative calm to the nation. Though most blacks and abolitionists strongly opposed the Compromise, the majority of Americans embraced it, believing that it offered a final, workable solution to the slavery question. Most importantly, it saved the Union from the terrible split that many had feared. People were all too ready to leave the slavery controversy behind and move on.
The first proposals to this new plan were the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan called for a separation of powers among the government’s three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Some states proposed this idea and came up with the New Jersey Plan, which called for all of the states to have equal representation from Congress. In order to move forward from the deadlock of the two proposals, the Connecticut Compromise was enacted. This decided that legislature would be bicameral, which meant that there would be two houses: one would have equal representation and one would be based on state population. This unified the states under a federal system. To this day, there are three types of Fe...