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The creation of the american constitution
Explain the differences between the virginia plan and the new jersey plan. how were these differences resolved
The creation of the american constitution
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The foundation of the American Constitution was established to form a stable government through conflict and compromise. The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan combined formed The Great Compromise. Later, The Three-Fifths Compromise and The Commerce Compromise were also established. These all created a stable form of government. The Virginia Plan was known as the big state plan, since they had a large population. This plan was dealing with the relationship between the central and state governments. Many of these delegates believed that there should be a completely new document to lead the country. So, they came up with a plan that was drafted by James Madison and presented by governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph. The Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey plan had their differences: the latter wanting equal representation on the national legislature while the first wanted representation based on population size. One could see the problem the Virginia Plan could cause, since the majority of the population at the time lived in the Northern states and therefore would give states like Virginia and North Carolina a majority rule. The New Jersey Plan also caused an issue, since the states with smaller populations could have a majority rule over the larger states.
Smaller states like Delaware and New Jersey objected to the Virginia Plan saying that the large states would easily outvote them in Congress if the number of votes were based on population. After weeks of debate, William Patterson of New Jersey put forth a plan that called for three branches including a legislature with only one house where each state would have one vote. The New Jersey Plan with a single house legislature and equal representation was more like Congress under the Articles.
Several delegates submitted plans for consideration that would strengthen the national government two such plans were the Virginia and the New Jersey Plan. Despite much of Virginia’s plan being accepted, if a compromise had not been reached the New Jerseys plan would have been more workable because it offered: equal representation of the states, provided operational means to congress, and was not a radical departure from the Articles of the Confederation. To begin with the unequal representation of the states in the Virginia Plan was of great concern and controversy while the New Jersey Plan retained equal representation of the states. Virginia proposed a bicameral legislature that included elections by the people and appointments by those elected.
Before the Constitution was drafted, the United States’ budding government, now independent from Great Britain, acted under a dysfunctional constitution called the Articles of Confederation. Although this constitution kept the new nation running, there were still flaws that needed to be fixed. The Articles of Confederation lacked a developed executive or judicial branch and a method for the main government to collect taxes from state governments, according to the background essay of the DBQ Packet. An assembly of fifty-five men eventually gathered for a Constitutional Convention in order to write a new constitution that would better satisfy the people’s needs. The trouble of creating another constitution lied behind creating a document
In his speech, The Making of the U.S. Constitution, Gordon Wood discusses the history of how the U.S. Constitution came to be. He explains what factors contributed to its making and what the general consensus was about it during the time. He explains that the reason the constitution was created was because the government needed more power. Why did the government need more power? In short, to unify the 13 states and make life, in general, easier for its citizens, officers, artisans, and even to help with commercial interests (Wood, 2012).
The year of 1776 was a time of revolution, independence, and patriotism. American colonists had severed their umbilical cord to the Mother Country and declared themselves “Free and Independent States”.1 The chains of monarchy had been thrown off and a new government was formed. Shying away from a totalitarian government, the Second Continental Congress drafted a document called the Articles of Confederation which established a loose union of the states. It was an attempt at self-government that ended in failure. The Articles of Confederation had many defects which included a weak central government that lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, required equal representation and a unanimous vote to amend the Articles, and had only a legislative branch. As a result the United States lacked respect from foreign countries. These flaws were so severe that a new government had to be drafted and as a result the Constitution was born. This document remedied the weak points of the federal government and created one that was strong and fair, yet still governed by the people.
The New Jersey Plan was proposed during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where the delegates from each state were creating their new government. One of the plans that were proposed at the Conventional Convention was the Virginia Plan. This plan was written by James Madison who grew up on a wealthy plantation in Virginia. The plan said that the government should be split into three branches to keep equal power throughout the government. Though it did say seem flawless, there was one factor that displeased the smaller state. It said that the government should use the proportional representation, which is when voting would be based off of how many delegates there were. This was a problem for smaller states because then those states would not have as much of the vote as the larger states.
The establishment of the U.S. Constitution was an action taken in order to supply federal control over the young United States of America without replicating the mistakes and flaws present within the Articles of Confederation. The idea of the Constitution was to better unify the states, something the Articles of Confederation were completely unable to do. Even during the infancy of the Constitution, its creators were divided into two major political parties: the federalists, who supported large and strong federal government, and the Anti-Federalists who supported reserving state’s rights and limiting the grasp of the federal government. Upon the establishment and the passing of the U.S. constitution, these two parties used personal party-based
The Great Compromise, is also referred to as, The Great Connecticut Compromise, was headed by Franklin. The Compromise was discussed in meeting by a committee, at the constitutional convention was held in 1787. This was to accomplish and settle the interests for both the small and large states. It had allowed the for one to lead in the senate and the other in the House by an arrangement, that each of the states would have two representatives in the Senate no matter what the size of the state. However, any provisions, were further granted based on the populace of the house (Wilson, Dilulio, Jr. and Bose, 23).
The Virginia Plan was written by James Madison and was proposed at the 1787 Constitutional Convention where they talked about completely rewriting a new version of the Articles of Confederation. One of the ideas that was brought forth that we still use today is that the three branches of government be separated and a national government that makes the laws for citizens and states. Secondly, we see that the congress would be divided into a lower and upper house; whereas the lower house is chosen by the citizens and the upper house is chosen by the senators. Then lastly, we see that the Constitution established specifically a chief of justice and allowing congress to decided however many justices. There were many debates and proposals brought forth to try and appease everyone; however, the separation of branches, the division of the houses, and declaring a single chief justice were three factors that we see strongly in our government today. Although, the original Virginia Plan isn’t exactly what was passed it has still shown great success in our country
When the next election for president came in the year eighteen seventy-six, the nation was plunged into more political conflict in the Electoral college, which needed to be compromised on to determine who the nation’s next president would be. Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, was running against Samuel Tilden, the Democratic candidate, but the election needed a compromise. The Democrats agreed that, with a few promised concessions, they would give their remaining electoral votes to Rutherford Hayes, letting the Republicans win, and making Hayes the new president of the United States. The Compromise of eighteen seventy-seven had a negative political, social, and economic impact on the reconstruction era foundation in the south,
A constitution is the system of fundamental principles according to which a nation is governed. Our founding fathers created the US Constitution to set specific standards for our country. We must ask ourselves why our founding fathers created the Constitution in the first place. America revolted against the British due to their monarchy form of government. After the American Revolution, each of the original 13 colonies operated under its own rules of government. Most states were against any form of centralized rule from the government. They feared that what happened in England would happen again. They decided to write the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified in 1781. It was not effective and it led to many problems. The central government could not regulate commerce between states, deal with foreign governments or settle disputes. The country was falling apart at its seams. The central government could not provide assistance to the state because there wasn’t a central army. When they realized that the Articles of Confederation was not up to par, they held a convention, known as the Constitutional Convention of 1787. As a result of t...
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
Compromise of 1877 African-Americans may sometimes wonder at the contradictory facts about their history presented in many standard history texts. These texts state that blacks were given the right to vote in 1870, yet the same texts will acknowledge that this right did not really exist for African-Americans until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Similarly, the first public accommodation law was passed in 1875, but history shows that it took 91 years before it was acknowledged and African-Americans were allowed to the full benefits of citizenship. It is common knowledge that the American Civil War provided freedom and certain civil rights, including the right to vote, to the African-American population of the nineteenth-century. What is not generally known, and only very rarely acknowledged, is that after freeing the slaves held in the Southeastern portion of the U.S., the federal government abandoned these same African-Americans at the end of the Reconstruction period.
James Madison, a delegate and one of the main supporters of a stronger national authority, had thought ahead and drew up the Virginia Plan before the convention in Philadelphia began. Thus, it became the first discussion of the committee (Roche 19).