The sense of potential disaster and the need for drastic change pervaded the Constitutional Convention that began its deliberations on May 25, 1787. All of the delegates were convinced that an effective central government with a wide range of enforceable powers must replace the weaker Congress established by the Articles of Confederation. On May 29, Edmund Randolph, on behalf of the Virginia delegation, submitted fifteen propositions as a plan of government to the convention. Despite the fact that the delegates were limited by the instructions of their State legislatures to a revision of the Articles, Virginia had really recommended a new instrument of government. For example, a provision was made in the Virginia Plan for the separation of …show more content…
These discussions continued until June 13, when the Virginia resolutions in amended form were reported out of committee. The delegates agreed that the new government would be composed of three separate branches, based on ideals enumerated in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government: legislative, judicial, and executive, each with distinct powers to balance those of the other two branches. It was also agreed that the legislative branch, like the British Parliament, and the state legislatures (except Pennsylvania's), should consist of two houses. Beyond this point, however, there were sharp differences of opinion that at times threatened to disrupt the convention and cut short its proceedings before a constitution was drafted. The Virginia Plan provided for proportional representation in both houses, which dissatisfied the smaller states. The large states argued in favor of proportional representation in the legislature, so that each state would have voting power according to its population, calling equal representation, "confessedly unjust." The small states, fearing domination by the large ones, insisted on equal representation for all …show more content…
Madison argued that a conspiracy of large states against the small states was unrealistic as the large states were so different from each other. Hamilton argued that the states were artificial entities made up of individuals, and accused small state representatives of wanting power, not liberty. (see History of the United States Senate). For their part, the small state representatives argued that the states were, in fact, equal, and that proportional representation would be unfair to them. Gunning Bedford, Jr. of Delaware notoriously threatened on behalf of the small states, "the small ones w[ould] find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith, who will take them by the hand and do them justice." Therefore, on June 14, when the Convention was ready to consider the report on the Virginia plan, William Paterson of New Jersey requested an adjournment to allow certain delegations more time to prepare a substitute plan. The request was granted, and, on the next day, Paterson submitted nine resolutions embodying important amendments to the Articles of Confederation, which was followed by vigorous debate. On June 19, the delegates rejected the New Jersey Plan and voted to proceed with a discussion of the Virginia Plan. The small States became increasingly discontented and some threatened to withdraw. On July 2, the Convention was deadlocked over giving each State an equal vote
The Virginia Plan, introduced by James Madison, suggested for the need of representation based upon a states population, including a states African American slavery population. Thus, it was deemed the Large State plan, since it obviously favored states with heavy population. Tindall and Shi explore this, but leave many questions unansw...
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.
On June 12, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee, consisting of one delegate from each of the thirteen states, for the purpose of setting up a cohesive Federal Government. Headed by John Dickinson, the committee presented a draft of the Articles of Confederation to Congress a month later. Though the Articles were not officially ratified until five years later, Congress began operating under them in 1777. The delay that occurred during the years from drafting to ratification was partially caused by the opening of a multi-faceted debate that encompassed the issues of representation for citizens, the balance of power within the country, and state sovereignty. Densely-populated states wanted a system of representation based on population, while the more sparsely-inhabited states disagreed. The Federalist Party wanted a small federal government, but common sense demanded a balance in size. Everyone wanted the question of state sovereignty answered. The Articles of Confederation attempted to answer these questions, but instead, only succeeded in creating an ineffectual, self-contradictory government that required reform. This reform came in the form of the Constitution of 1789.
For five years after Revolutionary war each state basically governed themselves. Although there was national government in place, it held little power over the states. It soon became apparent that the Articles of Confederation needed to be readdressed to combat the increasing problems that were brewing in the country. The first attempt to redress was dismissed by many of the states. Nevertheless, a second attempt produced results with twelve of the states sending delegates to redress the Articles of Confederation. 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.
At the convention, the founders were debating about how many representatives in the Congress should each state allowed to have. For example, James Madison, who came from Virginia, one of the larger states, suggested that representation should be proportional to the state’s population (Hart et al. 109-110). Coming from a state with larger population had influenced Madison’s proposal, for he reasoned that since Virginia has a large population of people, so more representatives are needed to represent more people. However, the states with a smaller population disagreed with this proposal and came up with a proposal that would counter Madison’s proposal. Paterson, who came from New Jersey, one of those states with smaller population, proposed a plan in which equal number of people should be elected from each state for representation in the Congress (Hart et al. 109-110). It was evident to see how coming from a smaller state had affected Paterson’s proposal, for he feared
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
The Connecticut Compromise resolved this issue by forming the two houses that we have today. In one house, the Senate, every state is represented equally regardless of population. In the lower house, the House of Representatives each state receives one representative for a set number of people. This satisfied all of the states and helped resolve one of the greatest conflicts while writing the Constitution. Another conflict that arose was with the counting of slaves in the census used to set the number of representatives per state. This was resolved under the Three-Fifths Compromise which stated that every slave would be counted as 3/5 of a person, although these slaves were given no voice or rights.
On May 25, 1787 in a State House in Philadelphia, fifty-five delegates from twelve out of the thirteen colonies re-united, in efforts to modify the ineffective Articles of Confederation. This meeting was called the Continental Convention of 1787. After the Articles of Confederation, it was clear that a unicameral legislature was not going to uphold the needs of all the states, to maintain and unify them. Many ideas arose to offer a solution for the controversial debate on how many representatives each state should have in the U.S. Congress. The ...
Following the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress realized it was necessary to set up a government. The Articles of Confederation in 1781 served as the document that established the fundamentals of the national government in the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. Although, this document said nothing about slavery. It left the most powers including slavery, to the individual states. After their experience with the British, the colonists distrusted a strong central government. The new government consisted of a Congress in which each state had one vote. With little to no power to execute its laws or collect taxes, the new government proved ineffective. In May of 1787, delegates from 12 states came together, their goal being to revise the Articles of Confederation. Always constantly meeting, they changed their goal and decided that they would write a new Constitution, making three branches of government. An argument over the legislative branch arose. States with large populations wanted representation in both houses of the legislature to be based on population. States with small populations wanted each state to have the same number
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).
Edmund Randolph of Virginia was the first to offer a suggestion, known as the “Virginia Plan”, that addressed representation. His plan provided for a system of representation based on the population of each state or the proportion of each state’s revenue contribution, or both. This did not fly with the smaller states like New Jersey, Delaware, or Connecticut. The smaller states saw this idea as a bias towards the larger states, with the potential for domination of the legislature in a new government. This was primarily seen as a battle between the smaller merchant states versus the larger, slave owning states. In fact, this issue threatened the entire constitutional process if a reasonable compromise could not be achieved. The “Great Compromise” (also called the Connecticut Compromise), set to establish two chambers of the Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, with the House being apportioned by he number of people in that state, while the Senate would contain equal representation from all states, regardless of the size or number of people from that state. This idea is also referred to as a bicameral legislature, meaning two chambers.
everyone agrees with. The small states wanted equal representation with the large states in Congress, and the large states were afraid they would have to pay an excessive amount of money to support the federal government. These disagreements also included quarrels over boundary lines, conflicting decisions by state courts, differing tariff laws, and trade restrictions between states (). In addition, the states disagreed over...
The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781 represented the former colonist’s first attempt to establish a new government after the Revolutionary War. These Articles provided a weak political document that was meant to keep the states united temporarily. The states had all the power, so any changes made to the Article of Confederation would take every state to approve it or amend it. In February 1787, Congress decided that a convention should be convened to revise the Article of Confederation (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2009). Congress felt the Article of Confederation was not enough to effectively deal with the young nations issues. Congress knew it was time for the country to move forward, and to do that, there would be some big changes ahead, and that was the end of the Articles of Confederation, and the beginning of the created US Constitution.
The Constitutional Convention took place on May 25 to September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.George Washington presided over the convention. The purpose of the Constitutional Convention was to decide the way that America were going to be governed. The Convention was officially called to revise the existing Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention acknowledged the complications of the frail central government that prevailed under the Articles of Confederation.
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...