The Constitutional Convention

1. The Constitutional Convention • What was Shay’s Rebellion? • Farmers led by Daniel Shays tried to take over the Massachusetts arsenal. • Why did some people want a stronger national government? • They thought that the national government could not keep order or protect them. • In May 1787, 55 delegates from 12 states gathered at the Pennsylvania State House, this was later called the Constitutional Convention.

2. Constitutional Convention • Who was chosen as the president of the Constitutional Convention? • George Washington • What was one issue delegates spent much time discussing? • The relationship between the states and the national government. • How is power shared in a federal system? • The national and state governments share power.

3. Constitution • When it was finished the Constitution became the supreme law of the land. It helped found the American Republic. • What was the Virginia Plan? • Under this plan, Congress would have 2 parts or houses. The number of representatives a state would have in the houses would be based on their state population. • Why did delegates from Virginia want a state’s population to determine how many representatives it would have? • Virginia would have a lot of power with many representatives under this plan. Virginia had a lot of people.

4. Convention Debate • How did delegates disagree about representation in Congress? • They disagreed whether to have representation based on population or have the same number of representatives from each state. • What was the Connecticut Compromise? • Was based on two-house Congress. One house representation would be based on population. The second would have equal representation from all states. Either house could present a bill but both houses had to approve it before it would be law.

5. Compromise • This became known as the Great Compromise. It was approved on July 16, 1787. • Why did the issue of slavery come up at the convention? • The southern states wanted to count slaves as part of their population to increase representation. • What reason did northern states give to argue that slaves should not be counted? • Slaves did not have the rights of citizens, therefore should not be counted.

6. Compromise. • What issue was settled when delegates agreed to the Three-Fifths compromise? • Whether or not to include enslaved people when counting representation. • What was the Three-Fifths Compromise? • Delegates agreed to allow three-fifths of enslaved people to count towards the population of the state.