The Pros And Cons Of The Constitutional Convention

At the time that the Constitutional Convention took place, the North was industrialized and produced many finished goods. The South, however, still had an agricultural economy. Therefore, the South imported many finished goods from Britain. The North wanted the government to be able to impose import tariffs or taxes on finished products. They wanted this to help protect against foreign competition and encourage the South to buy goods made in the North. Also, they wanted export tariffs on raw goods to increase revenue flowing into the United States. Yet, the Southern states feared that export tariffs on their raw goods would hurt the trade that they heavily relied upon. The compromise mandated that tariffs were only to be only allowed on imports

It also required that all commerce legislation be passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which was a win for the South since it countered the power of the higher populated Northern states. The last compromise was the Slave Trade Compromise. Northern and Southern states took strong positions on the issue of slavery. Those who opposed slavery in the Northern states wanted to bring an end to the importation and sale of slaves. This was in direct opposition to Southern states, which felt that slavery was vital to their economy and did not want the government interfering in the slave trade. In this compromise, Northern states, in their desire to keep the Union intact, agreed to wait until 1808 before Congress would be able to ban the slave trade in the U.S Also part of this compromise was the fugitive slave law, which required Northern states to deport any runaway slaves, another win for the

The anti-federalist wanted to add the bill of Rights to the constitution to ensure their personal freedoms would be secure from the large national government that was being proposed. The Bill of Rights contained ten guaranteed rights, most important was the freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of religion. Other important amendments included the 13th, 14th, 15th,18th,19th, and 21st. The thirteenth amendment states that, “ neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This amendment was put into place after the civil war in order to abolish slavery. The fourteenth amendment states that, “ that states may not deny any person life, liberty or property without due process of law, and says that a state may not deny a person the equal protection of the law.” This amendment was put into place as a reconstruction amendment like the thirteenth to provide citizenship to all people born in the United States and recently freed slaves. The fifteenth amendment states, “ the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.” This amendment served as the third and last reconstruction amendment and