2.1.2 The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention

Learners can: 

• identify the debates and compromises that occurred when the United States Constitution was written

On July 4, 1776, during the gathering of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, representatives from all 13 colonies officially declared independence from Great Britain.The delegates of the Second Continental Congress also wrote a plan for a new government.

The plan for government was the country's first constitution, and it was called the Articles of Confederation. Eventually, the leaders of the United States called for a stronger government, which would lead to the Constitutional Convention, where a new form of government was written.

Today, you will learn about the United States Constitution, the system of government that replaced the Articles of Confederation and that is still used today. EDIO VIDEO PAGE 2

Multiple Choice

Who had more power?

• states

• Congress

• the president

• King George III

The Constitutional Convention

In May 1787, many signers of the Declaration of Independence returned to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The meeting was known as the Constitutional Convention.

• Some of the delegates came to support and strengthen the Articles of Confederation. They did not want a strong central government. They wanted to keep the power within the states.

• Others came to create a completely new constitution, or written plan, for government. They believed in a strong central government and wanted to give more power to the leaders in Congress.

  The meeting included 55 delegates who came from different states and held different ideas, but they shared many of the same characteristics.

  The delegates were all well-educated, wealthy, white men who held people in slavery, fought in the American Revolution, and served in Congress.

  Many of the delegates fought in the American Revolution and served in Congress, which, under the Articles of Confederation, was the only ruling body of government at the time.

  Some of the delegates were considered the “Founding Fathers" of the United States of America because they had steered the country toward independence.

Benjamin Franklin was a member of Congress. His opinions and ideas were highly respected during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. He was also a writer of the Declaration of Independence.

At the time of the Constitutional Convention, he suffered from poor health, but at age 81, he was the oldest person in attendance and was present for most of the discussions.

Franklin supported a stronger national government and agreed that the Articles of Confederation were too weak.

Benjamin Franklin

​James Madison was a leader from the state of Virginia. He was a member of Congress and firmly believed in a strong national government.

He did not believe that the government was strong enough, and he believed that it would not be successful if it continued under the Articles of Confederation. He called it a “treaty of friendship between the states."

During the convention, he took detailed notes that historians still look at today.

James Madison

George Washington, who had led the nation to victory during the Revolutionary War, also attended.

Washington was elected president of the Constitutional Convention.

​​George Washington

Alexander Hamilton was a leader from New York. He worked closely with George Washington during the revolution. Later, he became a member of Congress and a lawyer.

Hamilton agreed that the central government created by the Articles of Confederation was too weak.

​​Alexander Hamilton

Multiple Choice

Who was the President of the Constitutional Convention

• Alexander Hamilton

• Benjamin Franklin

• George Washington

• James Madison

The delegates decided to keep their meeting a secret. The doors and windows of Independence Hall were kept closed. The delegates were not allowed to tell anyone about what was said. They were not even allowed to write letters home about the convention to their families.

The meeting of the Constitutional Convention would last several months because of debates over how the people of the United States should be represented.
The Constitutional Convention began on May 25, 1787. The goal was to improve the Articles of Confederation in order to create a stronger government.

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had very limited powers. Instead, the states had the power to make decisions, which caused the nation to be divided instead of united.
The delegates knew that more power needed to be given to Congress to form a stronger government.

They agreed that the leaders in Congress should make the laws for the nation.
What the delegates did not agree on was how each state would be represented. They wanted to make sure that when laws were created, voted on, and approved, each state was represented fairly in Congress.

• Delegates who lived in larger states thought that representation in Congress should be based on the population of each state. As a result, states with larger populations would have more representation, or more votes, in Congress than states with smaller populations.

• Delegates who lived in smaller states with smaller populations thought that each state, regardless of population, should have one representative, or one vote, in Congress.

• The debates around representation in Congress caused delegates from large states and small states to present plans that they hoped would convince the remaining delegates that their plan worked the best.

Audio Response

Should the population of the state you live in determine the representation or votes each state gets when a law is made?

Open Audio Recorder

​A New Plan for Government

The delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention debated how the states should be represented in Congress for the new national government of the United States.

Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia, a large state, presented a plan created by James Madison called the Virginia Plan.

William Paterson, a delegate from the smaller state of New Jersey, created a plan for the new government called the New Jersey Plan.

Instead of Congress being the only ruling body, the delegates agreed with the Virginia Plan, which provided three branches of government:

• the Legislative Branch;

• the Executive Branch; and

• the Judicial Branch. 

However, they continued to debate over how the Legislative Branch, or Congress, should be structured to make sure that all states were represented when laws were created and voted on.

Small states opposed the Virginia Plan because they would be powerless against the large states.

Large states opposed the New Jersey plan because it was too similar to the plan under the Articles of Confederation, which did not work.

The debate lasted weeks, and the Convention was at a standstill over the issue. Some states even threatened to withdraw from the Convention.

Finally, a committee consisting of one delegate from each state was formed to find a compromise.

The Great Compromise

Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, from Connecticut, had a different idea.

Using both the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan, they developed a compromise.

Their plan was known as the Connecticut Compromise or the Great Compromise.
As a result of the compromise, Congress was split into two groups, or houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

• In the Senate, each state would have equal representation, meaning two senators per state.

• In the House of Representatives, representation would be based on population.

It was agreed that for every 30,000 people, each state could have one representative in the House of Representatives.
Determining the population of each state became another debate among the delegates. At the time of the convention, the southern states had a large enslaved population because they depended on their enslaved population to help operate their plantations, or large farms.

Many delegates who lived in the northern states did not want to count enslaved people in the population count. The delegates who lived in the southern states threatened to leave the Convention if their enslaved population was not counted.

​The delegates in the southern states wanted to count their enslaved population because it would help to increase their representation in Congress in the House of Representatives.

However, the northern delegates only wanted to count unenslaved people as part of the population in the United States.

Three-Fifths Compromise

​The delegates came to another compromise called the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The population count was determined by:

• counting each unenslaved person as one person; and

• counting every five enslaved people as only three people.

The Three-Fifths Compromise did not support the idea that the Founding Fathers believed in freedom, justice, and equality. Not only did slavery remain when the Constitution was written, but enslaved people continued to be seen as property and not people who deserved equal rights and freedom.

However, after several debates and compromises, the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787.

Open Ended

The Three-Fifths Compromise determined that enslaved people did not count as a whole person.

The writers of the Constitution believed in freedom, justice, and equality.

Did the Three-Fifths Compromise support the ideas that the Founding Fathers believed in?

Match

Match the following

• 
  

  the Three-Fifths Compromise

• 
  

  the Great Compromise

• Blank

counting the enslaved population for rep

representation of large and small states

Blank

• counting the enslaved population for rep

• representation of large and small states

• Blank

Open Ended

How did the delegates who wrote the Constitution create a Congress that fairly represents every state?

The delegates who wrote the Constitution created a Congress that fairly represents every state by . . .