The Plan for Government
A Guide to the Constitution 1787
Kaycee Brakefield
Why was a new government needed?
A new government was needed because there was a lot of chaos within the government that existed. There was issues with slavery, voting, who had power, dividing the government, and changing the government.
Who were the delegates?
Virginia and Pennsylvania were the Delegates that represented the states. Virginia wanted to be represented by population and Pennsylvania wanted to be represented by the same power for every individual
Issue with Representation
The issue was that the delegates couldn't come to an agreement whether or not they should be represented by population or equally. In the end they just created The Great Compromise.
Issue with Slavery
Slavery was an issue because they didn't know whether or not to count them as population or not. In the south they didn't view them as people but as property. The north viewed them as people but only until it gave the south an advantage over them. So they came up with a compromise called the three-fifths compromise were a slave counted as three/fifths of a person. This also protected slave trade for 20 years.
Issue of state and federal power
People thought America should be governed two different ways some states thought they should govern their selves. The other states thought there should be an overall government.
Separation of powers
It divided government into 3 parts. The legislative makes laws, the executive branch enforced laws, and the judicial branch interpreted laws.
How the constitution can be changed
The constitution can be changed by adding amendments. They did this because not everyone agreed the constitution was right and needed things added