Creating the Constitution

1. Creating the Constitution Chapter 8, Section 2

2. A Constitutional Convention is Called • What events encouraged leaders to call a Constitutional Convention? • Delegates from 5 states met in Annapolis, MD • Alexander Hamilton • The changes they wanted required amending the Articles of Confederation • Most people didn’t think the government needed to be changed…what changed their minds? • Trade, trade laws • Strengthen national government • Taxes

3. The Convention’s Delegates • Who were some of the key delegates? • There were 55, known as the Founding Fathers • Which state did not participate? • What groups of Americans were not represented at the Convention? Why? • Native Americans • African Americans • Women

4. The Delegates Assemble • Pre-war, people saw government as a threat to citizen’s rights. • Now how do they feel? • What challenges faced the delegates at the Convention? • How to set up a strong but limited federal government.

5. The Convention Begins • Why did the delegates select George Washington as president of the Convention? • Respected leader • Why did the delegates vote to make discussions at the Convention secret? • To be able to consider all options freely, without outside influences

6. The Virginia Plan • Edmund Randolph presented a plan(it was developed before the Convention began), that became known as the Virginia Plan • Two-house legislature • Based on a state’s population or wealth • Three branches of government • Legislature – made the laws • Executive – enforce the laws • Judicial – interpret the laws

7. The New Jersey Plan • Presented by William Paterson • One-house legislature • One state, one vote • What was this similar to? • Gave power to regulate trade and tax imports • How did the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan differ? • Why did the issue of representation in Congress divide the large states from the smaller states?

8. The Great Compromise • Delegates could not come to an agreement • A special committee was chosen to work out a compromise • How did the Great (Connecticut/Sherman) Compromise satisfy the concerns of the large and the smaller states?

10. Slavery and the Constitution • Representation is to be based on population for the House of Representatives…but how, then, to determine population? • Southern states wanted slaves counted for representation but not for taxation

11. The Three-Fifths Compromise • How did the states resolve the debate over representation for enslaved Americans? • Three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for taxes and to determine representation • How did the states compromise over the issue of slave trade? • Congress could not ban theslave trade until 1808

13. Regulating Trade • What did Southern states give up in debates over trade issues? • Agreed to a tax on the slave trade • Agreed to export laws by national government

14. The Constitution • Constitutional Convention approves the Constitution on Saturday, September 15, 1787.

15. Key Terms • Constitutional Convention – a meeting held in 1787 to consider changes to the Articles of Confederation; resulted in the drafting of the Constitution • James Madison – delegate to the Constitutional Convention; known as the “Father of the Constitution;” took detailed notes • Virginia Plan – a plan proposed by Edmund Randolph, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, that proposed a government with three branches and a two-house legislature in which representation would be based on a state’s population or wealth • New Jersey Plan – a plan of government proposed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that called for a one-house legislature in which each state would have one vote • Great Compromise – the Constitutional Convention’s agreement to establish a two-house national legislature, with all states having equal representation in one house and each state having representation based on its population in the other house • Three-Fifths Compromise – the Constitutional Convention’s agreement to count three-fifths of a state’s slaves as population for purposes of representation and taxation