Building a New System of Government

1. Building a New System of Government From Confederation to Constitution

2. The Articles of Confederation • The first American plan of government. • The Articles: • Provided for a weak national government • Gave Congress no power to tax or regulate commerce (trade) among the states • Provided for no common currency (money) • Gave each state one vote regardless of size • Provided for no executive (President) or judicial (Court) branches

3. When problems developed with the Articles, the Founding Fathers decided to meet in Philadelphia and revise the Articles. Instead, they decide to scrap the Articles of Confederation and write a NEW plan of government. We call this plan of government: The Constitution.

4. The Constitutional Convention • Held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Summer, 1787 • All doors and windows were closed and locked. The window shutters were closed as well. This was designed to keep the work top secret. (It was HOT) • Only reason there is any record of the proceeding is that James Madison kept a diary of the day’s activities.

5. Key Issues and Resolutions • Made federal law the supreme law of the land when constitutional, but gave states considerable freedom to govern themselves. (states establish speed limits) • Balanced power between the large (VA Plan) and small states (NJ Plan) by creating a Senate, where each state has 2 senators, and a House of Representatives , where membership is based on population. (called The Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise) • Limited the powers of the federal government to those identified in the Constitution.

6. Issues/Resolutions (con’t.) • Satisfied Southern states by counting slaves as three-fifths of the population when determining representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. (called the 3/5th Compromise) (60% of the slaves could be added to a state’s population when determining membership in the House of Representatives) Also counted for tax purposes • Avoided a too-powerful central government by establishing three co-equal branches: legislative, executive, and judicial – with numerous checks and balances among them

7. Key Leaders • George Washington – President of the Convention • Presided at the Convention and while he wasn’t an active debate participant, lent prestige to the proceedings • James Madison – “Father of the Constitution” • Madison, a Virginian and brilliant political philosopher, often led the debate and kept his journal of the proceedings (the best records that we have) • He authored the “Virginia Plan” which proposed a federal government of three separate branches which became the foundation and structure of the new government. • Later wrote much of the Bill of Rights.

8. Key Leaders (con’t.) • George Mason – Virginia Declaration of Rights • Reiterated (repeated) the idea that basic human rights should not be violated by government (not specifically in the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was added) • Thomas Jefferson – Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom • Outlawed the established church – the practice of government support (in the form of taxes) for one favored church • This is the idea of the separation of church and state

9. Key Leaders (con’t.) • James Madison – Bill of Rights • Madison consulted both the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom when drafting what eventually became the United States Bill of Rights (1st 10 Amendments to the Constitution) SO……. • In order for the Constitution to become law, 9 of 13 states (3/4) needed to ratify (approve the document in their state legislatures)

10. SO…What happened next? • Two distinct groups formed: • Federalists – those in favor of the Constitution as originally written (no Bill of Rights) • Federalist Virginians included: George Washington and James Madison • Anti-Federalists – those that felt it was incomplete as originally written and felt it needed a Bill of Rights to guarantee the rights of the people. • Anti-Federalist Virginians included Patrick Henry and George Mason

11. Questions???