Pros And Cons Of Confederation Constitution

The constitution of the United States was a document created to fix the major problems the Confederation government had following its creation. The meetings in which the document was created founded the style of government that has lasted to this day. It created the Executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, it created our bill of rights, and it separated powers between the states and the newly formed federal government. Negotiations started as very difficult between the representatives of the separate states. The biggest hurdle started when the representatives from Virginia (at the time the largest state) proposed a plan for representation in the new government. Their plan, called the Virginia plan, would be radical for

Their plan would create instead of a “national” government with one congress that would have an equal number of representatives for each state. This plan had a tremendous amount of support from smaller states. A great compromise was eventually decided. It created 2 houses in the legislature, the house of representatives and congress. The house’s representatives would be decided based on population, while the congress would have 2 representatives per state. It was decided slaves would be counted as 3/5th of a person for taxation and representation purposes. There were tensions between southern states and northern states as well. Southern states feared that the ability to regulate trade could greatly affect their agrarian economy and their slave trade. It was agreed upon to settle these tensions that the newly formed congress could not tax exports. It also could only put a max of $10 a head on imported slaves and congress could not discuss the issue of slavery for 20

They decided the constitution and the government it created would be the supreme law of the land, and that states would not have the broad powers they originally had with the articles of confederation. The federal government would have broad powers, including; the power to tax, to regulate commerce, and to control the currency. There would also be a system of checks and balances created between the levels of government, which eased fears of one branch becoming too powerful and creating the possibility of tyranny. Each level of government would “compete” with one another and in return often frustrate each other. The Congress and House of Representatives would have different term lengths and limits, the president would have the power to veto congress, and judges would be “separate” from the government as its members would serve for