The Constitutional Convention

Events that lead to the need for a new government:

After the Revolution America’s first government was organized under THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.

Problems with the Articles Why this was a problem

-The Federal Government could The Federal Government had no Not tax money

-Each state could print money The nation faced a financial depression

-The Federal Government did not Laws could not be enforced Have a standing army

-Each state only had one vote in Large states did not have a fair the national congress say in national matters

-9 of 13 representatives in Congress It was very difficult for laws tohad to agree for a law to be passed be passed

In 1786, a rebellion of farmers lead by Daniel Shays began in Massachusetts.The farmers felt they were being unfairly taxed by the state of Massachusetts. The state capital was threatened and many lives were in jeopardy.

To help them deal with this violation of the law, Massachusetts asked the Federal Government for assistance. Because they had no money or troops or anyway to stop the rebels, the Federal Government could do nothing.

This lack of action and power convinced many people that the Articles of Confederation were flawed and that the national government could not protect people or enforce laws.

With Shays Rebellion in his mind and the fear of a nation without law and order, Alexander Hamilton called on the 13 states to send representatives to Philadelphia to fix the Articles of Confederation.

In the end, 55 men from 12 states (Rhode Island’s state government was against the meeting, they did not send a representative) attended the meeting that became known as The Constitutional Convention.

Some of the more well known people that attended the convention:

George Washington

Due to the respect people had for him and his ability to make people compromise, he was elected president of the convention

James Madison

Madison attended almost every meeting. We know what we know about the convention because of the notes he took on almost every session. The construction of our national government is based on his ideas. For his contributions he is called the “father of the Constitution.”

Ben Franklin

Ben was old and past his prime, but his presence made everyone realize that what was going on at the convention was very important.

Soon after the meeting began, it became clear that it would be impossible to simply change the Articles of Confederation so the delegates decided to create a new document and a new government.

Two problems, however, had to be overcome before the Constitution could be written:

First – How would the number of representatives each state had in Congress be decided?

Second – How would slaves be counted in the new government

Problem #1 – How many representatives would the states get in Congress?

Under the Articles, each state had one representative and one vote in Congress. The states with larger populations did not think this was fair and wanted larger states to have more representatives and more votes. They wanted the number of people a state had in Congress to be based on population.

Smaller states feared if the votes in Congress were based on population they would be dominated by the larger states and would not agree. They wanted each state, regardless of size, to have two representatives – The larger states would not agree to this.

The solution: The Great CompromiseThe delegates agreed to a two house legislature or Congress.

The House

-Number of representatives each state gets is based on population

The Senate

Each state gets two representatives

Problem #2 – How to count slaves in the new government – The Southern states wanted to count slaves in their population to get more representatives in Congress. The North refused to agree to this.

The Solution – Slaves would count as 3/5 of a person

The finished product was known as the Constitution of the United States.

It created the government you know today.

It is the oldest written Constitution in the World.