• The deficiencies of the Confederation, including the government 's inability to deal with instability or to handle economic problems effectively, and its powerlessness (Shay 's Rebellion) dissatisfied Americans Framing A New Government • 1783 - members (from Philadelphia) of the Confederation Congress went to New Jersey, then Annapolis, before settling in New York in 1785 to escape vengeful veterans • Eighteen members voted on the Northwest Ordinance Advocates of Centralization • The majority believed they had fought the Revolutionary War to avoid tyrannical authority and wanted to keep political power in the states
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• Wealthy and powerful groups supported a strong national government that would deal with the economic problems that directly affected these groups
• Society of Cincinnati - hereditary and exclusive society formed by Revolutionary army officers in 1783
• Military men, upset by Congress ' refusal to pay their pensions, wanted a national government or even a military dictatorship
• Newburgh Conspiracy - military directly challenged Congress in 1783, but failed due to Washington 's intervention
• American manufacturers wanted a uniform high national duty instead of state tariffs; merchants and shippers wanted one national commercial policy; land speculators wanted Indians removed from western tracks; people with money wanted the states to stop issuing paper money; investors in Confederation securities wanted the government to fund the debt and increase the value of the securities; and large property owners needed protection
• Disorder and violence represented the tension between defense of individual rights and protection of the public (safety and security)
• Government needed to strengthen its power to tax
• Alexander Hamilton - New York lawyer, military aide to Washington (one time), and illegitimate son • Hamilton called for national convention to overhaul the Articles of Confederation • James Madison (Virginia) convinced Virginia legislature to convene an interstate conference on commercial questions • Only five states sent delegates, but they approved Hamilton 's drafted proposal recommending convention of special delegates from all states to convene next year to make the constitution of the federal government adequate for the current union • Centralizers believed the support of Washington would provide be only way Philadelphia convention would prevail • After Shay 's Rebellion, Washington left Virginia for the Constitutional Convention A Divided Convention • 55 men from all states (except RI) attended one or more sessions of the convention in Philadelphia State House from May to September 1787 • "Founding Fathers" were relatively young (average age of 44) and well educated • Convention chose Washington to preside over the sessions • Major decisions didn 't require unanimity, just simple majority • James Madison (Virginia) - intellectual leader of Virginia delegation in Philadelphia; created detailed plan for new national government that Virginia used to control the convention agenda • Edmund Randolph proposed national government should consist of three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary • The Virginia Plan (Madison 's plan) - new national legislature made up of two houses: in lower house, states would be represented in proportion to population and in upper house members were elected by the lower house; small states did not like the Virginia Plan • William Paterson (New Jersey) submitted an alternative plan for a federal government • The New Jersey plan kept one-house legislature (in …show more content…
• Convention agreed to permit members of upper house to be elected by state legislature rather than national legislature
• Large states wanted slaves to count for population size but not for taxation purposes, but no one argued for giving citizenship or suffrage to slaves Compromise
• The delegates refused to give up, partly thanks to Franklin
• On July 2, the convention created a grand committee with a single delegate from each state (Franklin was chairman)
• Committee produced a proposal that became the foundation of the Great Compromise
• Most important achievement was resolving problem of representation; proposal called for legislature in which states were represented by the lower house based on population, with each slave counting as 3/5 a free man, to determine both representation and taxation
• Upper house should be represented equally with two members/state
• July 16, 1787 - convention voted to accept the compromise
• Convention agreed new legislature could not tax exports, impose duty of more than $10/head on imported slaves, and had no authority to stop slave trade for twenty years
• Constitution provided no definition of citizenship or a list of individual rights
The Constitution of
• Wealthy and powerful groups supported a strong national government that would deal with the economic problems that directly affected these groups
• Society of Cincinnati - hereditary and exclusive society formed by Revolutionary army officers in 1783
• Military men, upset by Congress ' refusal to pay their pensions, wanted a national government or even a military dictatorship
• Newburgh Conspiracy - military directly challenged Congress in 1783, but failed due to Washington 's intervention
• American manufacturers wanted a uniform high national duty instead of state tariffs; merchants and shippers wanted one national commercial policy; land speculators wanted Indians removed from western tracks; people with money wanted the states to stop issuing paper money; investors in Confederation securities wanted the government to fund the debt and increase the value of the securities; and large property owners needed protection
• Disorder and violence represented the tension between defense of individual rights and protection of the public (safety and security)
• Government needed to strengthen its power to tax
• Alexander Hamilton - New York lawyer, military aide to Washington (one time), and illegitimate son • Hamilton called for national convention to overhaul the Articles of Confederation • James Madison (Virginia) convinced Virginia legislature to convene an interstate conference on commercial questions • Only five states sent delegates, but they approved Hamilton 's drafted proposal recommending convention of special delegates from all states to convene next year to make the constitution of the federal government adequate for the current union • Centralizers believed the support of Washington would provide be only way Philadelphia convention would prevail • After Shay 's Rebellion, Washington left Virginia for the Constitutional Convention A Divided Convention • 55 men from all states (except RI) attended one or more sessions of the convention in Philadelphia State House from May to September 1787 • "Founding Fathers" were relatively young (average age of 44) and well educated • Convention chose Washington to preside over the sessions • Major decisions didn 't require unanimity, just simple majority • James Madison (Virginia) - intellectual leader of Virginia delegation in Philadelphia; created detailed plan for new national government that Virginia used to control the convention agenda • Edmund Randolph proposed national government should consist of three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary • The Virginia Plan (Madison 's plan) - new national legislature made up of two houses: in lower house, states would be represented in proportion to population and in upper house members were elected by the lower house; small states did not like the Virginia Plan • William Paterson (New Jersey) submitted an alternative plan for a federal government • The New Jersey plan kept one-house legislature (in …show more content…
• Convention agreed to permit members of upper house to be elected by state legislature rather than national legislature
• Large states wanted slaves to count for population size but not for taxation purposes, but no one argued for giving citizenship or suffrage to slaves Compromise
• The delegates refused to give up, partly thanks to Franklin
• On July 2, the convention created a grand committee with a single delegate from each state (Franklin was chairman)
• Committee produced a proposal that became the foundation of the Great Compromise
• Most important achievement was resolving problem of representation; proposal called for legislature in which states were represented by the lower house based on population, with each slave counting as 3/5 a free man, to determine both representation and taxation
• Upper house should be represented equally with two members/state
• July 16, 1787 - convention voted to accept the compromise
• Convention agreed new legislature could not tax exports, impose duty of more than $10/head on imported slaves, and had no authority to stop slave trade for twenty years
• Constitution provided no definition of citizenship or a list of individual rights
The Constitution of