Constitutional Convention
Eli Blackwelder
Constitutional Convention
It lasted almost 4 months. The main goal was to ratify the Articles of confederation. They needed all 13 states to ratify it. There were many different parts to it.
Checks and Balances
There are 3 branches of government, Judicial, Legeislative, Executive. Judicial branch deals with court cases and interperets the constitution. It is made up of 9 judges and smaller courts below it. Legislative writes up laws and vote on them. It is made of the house of representatives and senate. Executive branch is made of the president and his cabinet. They have the authority to execute and enforce the law. Checks and balances were made so one branch couldn't have too much power. One example would be that the judicial branch can declare a presidents act unconstitutional.
3/5th Compromise
The 3/5th compromise was a way they could count slaves in the states with slaves fairly. The states with slaves wanted to use the slaves so they could maximize there representation in the house of representatives. The states without slaves thought that was unfair, so they made the 3/5th compromise. For every 5 slaves, it would count as 3 people in the census
Electoral College
The Electoral College is a system that elects the president. Each state has a certain number of votes and take the majority from the population. It picks one of the two presidential candidates based on the number of votes, and that is sent to the Electoral College. They count up the votes, and the president is elected.
The Great Compromise
The Great Compromise was a way for the representation in congress to work. There were 2 plans, the VA and NJ plan. The larger states wanted the VA plan, which was to have the population of the state find out how many representatives they had. The smaller states thought that was unfair, so they wanted the NJ plan, which was to have everyone get the same number of representatives. Neither side would budge, so they came up with a compromise. They would have a bicameral legislature, one based on population size, and one with 2 representatives from each state.
Ratification Of The Consitution
Federalists wanted the constitution to be changed, but the anti-federalists liked the constitution like it was. They came to an agreement and made the bill of rights.