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Articles Of Confederation Dbq

1372 Words6 Pages

After fighting for so long and hard to secure independence from the British rule, the young United States of America needed to come together to form a strong nation. Having literally sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears to free themselves from the tyrannical oppression of an over-powered central government, the people wanted to ensure that they would not be trading one for another. There needed to exist a means to effect a measure of equality and security for the newly founded country. The Constitution aimed to do just that. Prior to the writing of the Constitution, the only such staples of government existed through the individual states’ constitutions and the Continental Congress’ Articles of Confederation. While each state addressed its own …show more content…

One such heated debate involved the topic of representation in the new government. Under the Articles of Confederation there was a simple “one-state, one-vote” policy (The Articles of Confederation, n.d.). In framing the new Constitution, many of the larger states wanted this to be changed to a proportional concept. The delegates from these states argued that due to their larger areas they contributed in greater amount to the nation than did the smaller states, and should therefore have a greater representation and influence. The Constitutional Convention already agreed that the number of delegates in the House of Representatives, being elected by popular vote, should be in proportion to the number of people they represent. On the other hand, there was much controversy as to how the upper house, the Senate, should be numbered. Many different delegates brought forth plans and ideas, which were debated and time and again rejected. On July 5, 1787 Conneticut delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth presented the “Connecticut Compromise” which took parts from previously offered plans. The plan, which would later be commonly referred to as the “Great Compromise”, conceded to the House of Representatives being structured as noted above, and the Senate being comprised of two delegates per state, regardless of size (1787: A Great Compromise, n.d.). As it was already the idea of the Framers that the Senate be the higher house, with more tenured delegates not so easily influenced by their constituents, and therefore acting more in the interest of the nation, it was argued that all states have equal say in the Senate. This plan underwent quite a lot of debate still before finally being accepted by the smallest possible margin on July 16,

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