Summary Of A Brilliant Solution

If anyone was to do even a little research about the United States in 1787, one would find that the states were not very unified and life was not easy. Men like, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington had one thing in mind, to reunite the United States. The book, A Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin, very clearly depicts the obstacles and adversity that the men attending the constitutional convention had to overcome. Due to a plethora of factors, the men attending the constitutional convention encountered many complications during the convention, ranging from travel issues to a lack of power to even do anything necessary to change the “United” States. The book shows this by describing the story of the men as a “story of anxious

This was encountered when the men began to decide how the powers would be separated in the federal government, beginning with the executive branch. This branch posed many problems and brought great conflict. So much that the men had to move on to the legislative branch before coming back to the executive branch. Through all of this separation of power, the men were trying to avoid tyranny. Again, this was the greatest concern among the men. They had to find the perfect balance for the executive branch. They could not give them too much power or else there would be an opportunity for tyranny and the possibility of another monarchy, but on the other hand, the branch had to possess enough power to do something and make a change. The problem faced with the articles of confederation was a lack of power and this cannot be fixed with more lack of power. Pinckney said, “How far do you intend to go in reducing the power of the states?” (Page 69). This shows that there was a balance that had to be found. Some of the topics they debated on where topics such as the president 's salary and how to prevent against sectional favoritism. The largest topic, however, was on how the president should be elected. One of the first struggles the men encountered was on who should elect the president. There were two sides, the supporters of the legislative branch electing the president and the supporters of popular vote. After much heated debate, and leaving the subject of the executive branch and returning to it, an idea was proposed. This proposal goes to the roots of our nation as it was made in compromise of the two most popular standing ideas. This proposal was the electoral college. This gave the votes to the electors who chose how their state would use their electoral votes. The votes were based on the size of each state. The popular vote is incorporated as the people vote for who they would