Edmund Randolph 1753-1813 By: Sahara Hundley Edmund Randolph was born near Williamsburg, Virginia on August 10th, 1753 to Ariana Jennings and John Randolph. Randolph studied law under his father and attended the College of William and Mary. He became a notable law practitioner in Virginia thereafter. He was an aide-de-camp, or assistant, to General George Washington. During this time he also attended a convention that adopted Virginia’s first state constitution. He was actually the youngest member there at age 23. Later in 1776, Edmund married Elizabeth Nicholas (“A Biography of Edmund Randolph 1753-1813”). Once the war was over and America was free and without government, Randolph returned to his law practice and politics. Starting …show more content…
The Virginia Plan was a huge part in forming the constitution we have today. Without it, we may not even have our government. Many others did not like the Virginia Plan because it would provide a too weak of a government. The Virginia Plan was brought in to the convention to revise and edit to form the basis of our government. It stated that there would be three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. It explained the House of Representatives and the Senate. The plan also stated that their world be one executive, the president. This is where Randolph disagreed. He felt that if we had one president that it would become too close to a monarchy. He thought that a group of three would be more favorable. Unfortunately, the convention did not support his beliefs and took the newly revised Virginia Plan and created what we know today as the Constitution (“Randolph, Edmund …show more content…
Randolph served in this position till 1794. In 1794, Randolph succeeded Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. He was only in this position for a year because of being wrongly accused of selling U.S. government secrets to France. In 1795, Edmund Randolph resigned from secretary of state and politics. He returned to his life in Virginia as lawyer and away from the public eye. He also sorted out his financial situation during this time
Silas Deane was born in the colony of Connecticut, the son of a blacksmith. He studied law at Yale and would later open his open practice. He gained political interest where he served on the Connecticut’s Committee of Correspondence and a delegate to the first and second Continental Congress. Following America’s independence, Deane was sent to France, by congress as the first American representative to purchase military supplies for the newly united colonies and to set up an alliance. While doing that, he was plagued with a controversy that surrounded his interest in private financial gain.
Oliver Ellsworth’s career started slow but he soon built up a successful career. It began in 1777 where he first became Connecticut’s representatives in the Continental Congress. He later served on many committees during six terms until 1783. He also participated in Connecticut’s efforts during the Revolution.
To whom this may concern, On this 11th day of September, I Edmund Randolph will be presenting my solution to the catastrophes of our uncivilized government. As a citizen of the United States I believe we the body deserve a well organized, well established government that can’t be destroyed by surrounding countries. Here I present to you the Virginia plan. Keep in mind France has had a well organized and well thought out civilized government for many years.
Ernst 24). The plan included 15 proposals and traced the outline of what would become the United States Constitution. In addition to the bicameral legislature, the plan also requested that the government be separated into three branches, the executive, legislative, and judicial. Virginia’s plan also would have given…” congressional representation in both chambers of Congress according to each state’s population, which would have given larger states like Virginia greater political representation” (Frantzich, Stephen E.; Howard R. Ernst 24).
Virginia constitution of 1776 was one of the first constitutions written in an American history. Its core structure was developing its basic principle. Which included popular sovereignty, the idea that government is responsible to the people. While it protect the rights of all citizens, but at this time in age, this did not include slaves. Next was the separation of power, not allowing one to hold full power.
The Virginia Plan, created by James Madison, proposed that the Articles of Confederation to be “scrapped” or thrown out, and that the people would make a new National Government which has the power to make laws binding upon the states, to raise its own money through taxes, and to regulate trade throughout the states. The mayor, Edmund Randolph, introduced this plan. It was wildly popular throughout the states and was put into effect. It was significant in creating our new government simply because it got rid of the Articles of Confederation. It made it possible for the federal government to not only gain money from tax from the states, but it also impacted the creation of our new government.
Before all this, “The congresses only consisted of one chamber with a certain number of representatives from every states” (Drinan). Congress went from unicameral to bicameral which divided up the congress. The question was about the states having a certain number of representatives. Larger states and states with a higher population supported the Virginia Plan, which was based on the population. The higher population, the more representatives they could have.
1. The Constitution of 1787 attempted to resolve agreements on regulating trade, taxing, protecting private property, and several other weaknesses the Articles of Confederation did not fixate on. Another controversial topic in the Constitutional Convention was the question on representation. Two different plans were presented: the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan wanted representation to depend on the population within a state, a national government with three branches, and one house that would elect the people in a second house.
He became a champion for the separation of church and state and helped get Virginia's Statute of Religious Freedom, a revised version of a document penned by Jefferson in 1777, passed in 1786. The following year, Madison tackled an even more challenging government composition called the U.S. Constitution. Madison had helped develop Virginia's Constitution 11 years earlier, and it was his "Virginia Plan" that served as the basis for debate in the development of the U.S. Constitution. After an enormous study of other world governments, came to the conclusion that America needed a strong federal government in order to help regulate the state legislatures and create a better system for raising federal money. Madison argued strongly for a strong central government that would unify the country.
He became a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, in 1780, and eventually left three years later, back to Virginia, to help work on a religious freedom statute. Shortly after, he was called back to congress to join in the writing of the constitution. The Articles of Confederation were created as the first constitution for the U.S. in 1776, after we claimed independence from Britain. This gave the legislatures most of the power, then acted more as individual countries, other than one unified country, which tore our ability to maintain national debt, and keep a proper army.
The Great Compromise which was founded at the Constitutional Convention wasn't formed without trouble. Many of the delegates that participated in the convention were wealthy landowners and lawyers, who owned many slaves. They failed to notice the diversity that excited within the nation. As they talked how to repair the Articles of Confederation, issues would arise that would create continuous debates amongst each other. One of the issues that would arise would be the nature of the new government.
In 1776 the Continental Congress drafted our country’s first Constitution, The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation lasted only 8 years for many reasons. The Articles gave most of the power to the states. The national government has very little control and help only three responsibilities: monitor common defense, general welfare and securing liberties. The states held the power and this led to a very weak government.
After deciding to write a new constitution, the delegates could not decide what new form the government should take. One of the options was the Virginia Plan created by Edmund Randolph and James Madison. The plan included a strong government with three branches (the legislative branch, The judicial branch, and the executive branch). In the Virginia Plan, the legislator would consist of two houses and seats would be awarded on the basis of the population. Due to the fact that the seats are awarded based on population, larger states would have more representatives than smaller states.
However this idea was eventually scrapped and they wrote a whole new constitution. This constitution would protect America from tyranny, so they could keep a civilized and united country. The Constitution that was made helped defend America from almost all types of tyranny and is still helping us hundreds of years later. One way the Constitution prevented tyranny is by supporting Federalism.
John Jay, he was not only a man of many accomplishments, he was one of the most important and impactful men in the history of our beautiful country. Jay was one of the founding fathers that really shaped the government of the 13 colonies uniting them into one nation. Jay was one of the contributors to the Federalist Papers, which helped create the American government. He was elected president of the wartime Continental Congress, then became the secretary of foreign affairs. He also served as the first chief justice of the U.S.