The Constitutional Convention
By: Trey Cygan
Constitutional Convention
- Was in Philadelphia in 1787. It was held from May until September of the year of 1787.
- The purpose of this convention was to discuss and fix the current problems under the Articles of Confederation.
- Some of these problems include foreign affairs, specific powers, and state powers along with many others.
- Not all states had someone show for the convention, in all 55 delegates attended, yet only 39 signed the Constitution.
- The constitution came officially signed in 1787, but was ratified and effective a year later. The constitution kept some ideas from the Articles of Confederation but would fix the problems that it brought as a nation.
Virginia Plan
- It was Created by James Madison during the convention, but told to the group by Edmund Randolph.
- The main idea behind this plan was to give the larger states (according to population) the right to have more votes in congress with a larger population. Which would make sense with the state covering more citizens of the country.
- The problems that came with this were that some states felt it was unfair by being smaller, and southern states would want to include slaves in their votes.
- It also would have three main branches of government, the executive, legislative, and judicial.
- The legislative would be bicameral or have two houses, and both houses would be based of population.
James Madison
Thought to be the father of the constitution, and was the 4th president. Very well educated and spent much of his life contributing to the government. 1751-1836
Virginia Plan
Edmund Randolph
He was a representative of Virginia, was a strong supporter of the plan and also had a large portion of his life put in the government was mayor, a state representative, and in a court member. 1753-1813
New Jersey Plan
- It was thought of by William Paterson, his idea spoke for the delegates for small states such as New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and Connecticut.
- It agreed with the Virginia plan about have three separate groups for a separation of power.
- But unlike the Virginia plan the legislative power would only be one house and each states representative would have one vote/ the same amount of representatives to vote.
- The New Jersey plan opened eyes of many and would give ideas on how to go in the middle to be fair to both states.
William Paterson
He was a representative for New Jersey and other small states in this plan, he spent also lots of his life in the government as a representative and a member of the court and as soldier. 1745-1806
New Jersey Plan
Luther Martin
Early on he was a teacher, later on he became a state attorney general after the convention. Was well educated didn't work in many parts in the government as many delegates did. 1748-1826
Problems at the Convention
- The main problem at the convention was how the legislative power would be and how many votes each person would get.
- The solution was that there would be two houses. One (House of representatives) would give be based off of population for number of representatives, two (Senate) this would give each state an even amount of representatives. This became known as The Great Compromise or the Connecticut compromise.
- The right that states had to with hold foreign affairs, also slavery was another problem/ issue discussed at the convention.