Pros Of Articles Of Confederation

Due to the “Articles of Confederation” inability to tax, and the rising debt, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison organized a conference at Annapolis in 1786. They planned a convention at Philadelphia to revise the constitution to make it more efficient. Two plans for the new government were discussed. The “Virginia Plan” included an executive and a judicial branch of two houses. The lower house representatives would be assigned by state according to population then the lower house would elect an upper house. The smaller states protested this would give larger states too much power. The “New Jersey Plan” proposed keeping a single house of representatives with each state sending an equal number of representatives but extending the power to tax and regulate commerce over the states. Unable to come to decide, they agreed to set up a “grand committee” composed of one delegate from each state and Benjamin Franklin as chairman. This committee came to a few compromises like the three-fifths clause, the “Great Compromise”, and allowing the external slave trade to continue for twenty years. Another issue Madison and others faced was finding a way to combine federal and state governments. They gave authority to the federal government but set up a system of checks and balances to …show more content…
The convention declared that since they were breaking from the Articles that if nine states ratified, those nine states would form a government. This document was extensively debated. A series of essays were published in favor of ratification. The essays are known now as the Federalist Papers and were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. The supporters called themselves Federalists, and they sought to establish order. Anti-federalists worried this order would lead to oppression. Nine states ratified but New York and Virginia only voted for it after being assured with a Bill of