Constitutional Convention Snapshot
Government
Constitutional Convention
The constitutional Convention happened in 1787. The meeting was held in Philadelphia to address the problems that the government had under the Articles of Confederation. Under the Articles of Confederation the government had little to no power in making changes. The government could not create or enforce laws under the Articles of Confederations. At the convention many things were discussed two of them were the Virginia and New Jersey Plan. The purpose of the convention was to make a stronger and better government.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/convention-and-ratification
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan was a a plan to make a legislative branch with two chambers. The purpose of having two different chambers was to make sure that states with more population got more representatives than small states. The purpose of the plan was to protect the larger states interest in the new government. Instead of making changes to the Articles of Confederation the plan was to create a new government. In many cases the larger states agreed with the plan while the smaller states did not agree with it. The plan also called for the national government to have the legislative, executive, and judicial branch.
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan came after the Virginia Plan because the smaller states did not agree with giving the control to the more popular states. Paterson proposed that each state got one vote under one legislative body. The idea came from the Articles of Confederation. The New Jersey plant wanted to change the Articles of Confederation so that the congress would have authority to raise funds by using tariffs and congress could elect a federal executive who could not be re-elected. In the end the New Jersey Plan did not work for a new constitution but some of the ideas were used.
George Washington (Virginia Plan)
George Washington was the first president of the United States and was a leader of the continental Army. His term lasted from 1789 to 1797. He was born on February 22, 1732 in Virginia. While he was president the states were struggling with the power of the Articles of Confederation. The states fought over rights and refused to contribute paying off the war debt. George Washington wanted to make major changes to the Articles of Confederation or make a completely new form of government. He supported the Virginia Plan.
http://www.biography.com/people/george-washington-9524786#presidency
James Madison (Virginia Plan)
James Madison was a huge supporter of the Virginia Plan. He was a founding father of the united states and was in office from 1809 to 1817. Madison wanted a strong government and he created the first draft of the U.S constitution and the Bill of Rights. He is also known as the "Father of Constitution". Thomas Jefferson and James Madison formed the Democratic-Republican Party. After James Madison got done serving as the president he served as secretary of state. After two terms in the white house he retired.
William Paterson (New Jersey Plan)
William Paterson was born in Ireland in 1745. Paterson was a delegate to the New Jersey Constitutional Convention in 1776. From 1776 to 1783 he served as the States Attorney general and in 1787 he became the head of the New Jersey delegation to the federal Constitutional convention. He served as governor of New Jersey until 1793. Then he became the associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
http://www.biography.com/people/william-paterson-9434637#synopsis
Problems at the Convention
At the convention the major debate was what type of legislature they wanted to use. Delegates also debated over how many votes each state got because the larger states wanted more votes than the smaller states. The other major issue was between the Northern and souther states over slavery. The northern states wanted to abolish slavery but the southern states wanted to keep slaves and have them count towards the population for votes.
Luther Martin (New Jersey Plan)
Luther Martin was born in 1766 and attended the College of New Jersey. He was the attorney general of Maryland in 1778. At the Constitutional Convention he opposed the idea of a strong central government. He agreed with the small states and went against the Virginia Plan.