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A summary about constitutional convention
A summary about constitutional convention
A summary about constitutional convention
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This was their way of checking each other making them agree on any laws before passing them. This also gave the President the power to veto any acts of congress. This gave us the federal Structure of the government. The House of Representatives were elected by the people. On the 17th of September 1778 thirty nine delegates signed the Constitution though Ben Franklin said (“Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure it is not the best”)
The Articles of Confederation was written in 1777 by nearly the exact same people who would later go on to write the United States Constitution. This document was meant to unify the colonies to create a sufficient government. The Articles of Confederation’s focus was to ensure that the state and local government possessed the power throughout the colonies. However, the document failed the country due to the lack of a central government because the states did not want to reestablish the type of government that England had after the Revolutionary War. The lack of bigger government caused many problems that would make each state almost look like they’re were separate.
In May 25, 1787, a convention was called in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to express the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, the intention from many delegates was to draft a new constitution; create a new government rather than fix the existing one. Rhode Island was the only one of the 13 original states to refuse to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, the first issues they had to address was the representation in Congress.
During the Constitutional Convention, in the summer of 1787, several divisions arose among the delegates. There were differences between the northern vs. southern states, merchants vs. farmers, free vs. slave states, large vs. small states, and east vs. west. However, the main division of the Constitutional Convention was the Virginia Plan vs. the New Jersey Plan, essentially the large states vs. small states. The primary objective of the meeting was to somehow find a balance of power without leaving any one group or person with absolute control.
How do you convince some newly independent citizens of the benefits of ratifying a constitution? According to Alexander Hamilton, through writing, and lots of it. In 1787, Hamilton, along with James Madison and John Jay, published a series of documents, addressing concerns the people might have about the Constitution drafted by the Congressional delegates. The Constitution was being sent to the states for ratification, but in New York, many were opposed to the ideas put forth. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote eighty-five documents which would later be named The Federalist Papers, as they voiced the common opinion of the Federalist party, which was in favor of ratification.
When the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain, they no longer had a government or authority to rule. So, the Articles of Confederation was created and became the first constitution to govern the United States. This plan was created in order to organize the nation and fight the Revolutionary War for independence. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses such as the government only had one branch that only created laws and did not have branches to execute, interpret, or enforce the laws. As a result, the Confederation failed the nation and it was abolished then a new constitution was created entitled the U.S Constitution.
Constitutional Convention In 1787, Washington was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention and was popularly chosen as president. The Convention met in Philadelphia from May 14 to September 17. Delegates gathered to correct the various problems that had come up.
With alot going on during the creation of the Articles of Confederation, Due to the on going effects and changes of the American Revolution. The colonies had been in search to create a more centralized government. Since most colonies had taken more care of their own individual interests, it had been much easier to agree upon and form state institutions. Rather than focusing on the importance of the growth of a strong united but yet equally independent structure for their own national gorvernment.
In the late 1770s, the Constitution caused much controversy and pitted the Federalists and Anti-Federalists against each other even further (“Brief History”). The Constitution created a stronger central government and weaker state governments which Anti-Federalists were not in favor of. (“Brief History”). The Constitution also included three branches of government: executive, judiciary, and legislative and included checks and balances. The new constitution caused many to speak out in opposition and for it and among those people were James Madison and Mercy Otis Warren.
The Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation soon after the conclusion of the war as a new system of government, the lawyer John Dickinson served as the chief author (Schultz). The federal government formed their existence in 1777, under the Articles of Confederation. This shaky beginning existed simply because the new country was deeply in debt and under the watchful eye of foreign nations waiting to see just how the infant nation would fare. The Articles were written so that the governing power had no separation, it existed as a single legislature, that closely followed the Continental Congress's system (Schultz). It is very hard for me to imagine our country leaderless, without a president, a monarch or a prime minister,
(https://history.state.gov). The reason being for the Articles to be created was because of how unorganized the states were handling power. It wasn’t until 1777 that Congress came together and “realized that they should have some clearly written rules for how they were organized.” (www.ushistory.org).
One of the compromises made in the Constitutional Convention is the three-fifths compromise. In this compromise, the southerners wanted to add slaves to the population of the state they lived in. If slaves were included in their state’s population, that state would be able to add more representatives in the House of Representatives. Northerners did not agree with that statement because slaves did not have the right to vote. After the delegates compromised, they agreed that only three-fifths of the slave’s population would be counted into the state’s population.
The creation and development of the federal government under the new Constitution originated as a meeting to amend the Articles of Confederation. However, once gathered the meeting quickly became a Constitutional convention. Wherein, each delegate was allowed to voice their differing opinions in confidentiality without retribution from opposing political factions. During this convention, the Constitution for a new government was developed.
When the delegates of the Constitutional Convention met they wanted to establish a leader since under the Articles of the Confederation there was no executive branch. So the delegates decided to create the offices of the president of the vice president. The delegates were in fear of a creating tyrant like they had previously with Britain, so they had to limit this new leader’s power. To prevent a tyrant from ruling again the delegates creating the Electoral College and this system is where the people select to president and the vice president indirectly. The reason the delegates did not let the people chose directly was they did not trust them because most Americans were illiterate at the time and heard their news from others.
Articles of the Constitution The Articles of Confederation are a series of important statements for our country to live by. “Framers”wrote detailed descriptions of each article that way there would be no confusion on what they stated. They knew that as times passed and society changed we would have to make some changes to these articles. As new presidents emerge and new situations happen, the authors of the Constitution knew that some of their original laws would need to be changed to better benefit the United States.
