The Philadelphia Convention (also know as the Constitutional Convention) took place in May - September of 1787. Fifty-five delegates representing all states except Rhode Island had come to Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. This meeting would "forever decide the fate of Republican Government" as James Madison put it. The delegates were mainly merchants or "monied men" such as Benjamin Franklin (representing Philadelphia) , George Washington, Robert Morris, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. There was only one farmer, but there really was no "common people" like artisans or tenants at the convention. Would having more common people represent the states make any difference?
The delegates chose Washington to preside over the meeting, which was to be held in secret at the Pennsylvania State House. James Madison's Virginia Plan was what the delegates were to consider. It was different from the Articles of Confederation in three ways: It rejected state sovereignty in favor of the "supremacy of national authority", it called for a national government to draw authority from the people and to exercise direct power on them, and it created a three tier national government where the lower house of the legislature would be elected by the people. However it had two major flaws, one of them being that the lower house of the legislature would have more influence from the larger states because membership was based on population. Representatives from smaller states rejected this because they felt that the larger states would not listen to them and "crush" them. So the smaller states favored the New Jersey Plan because it treated the states equally by allowing each state to have one vote in a unicameral legislature. And the larger states opposed this provision. After much debate, the Great Compromise was accepted, allowing each state two representatives in the lower house while the House of Representatives would be based on population.
Slavery was also debated upon, but rarely. They decided that slaves would only count as three-fifths of a free person in determining a state's representation in Congress.
The Convention was over in September of 1787 when Benjamin Franklin urged the 41 delegates still present to sign the Constitution. All but three signed it.
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By making these compromises between the conflicting interests of the rich and poor, it made the big states happy with the House and the small states happy with the Senate. There were still, however, clashing (regional) opinions about slavery. Why do you think the delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention didn't discuss slavery as much as other issues?
I think that it would have made a huge diffeence to have more common people to represent. This would mean that poor people would be able to voice their opinions about issues such as taxes. Meeting in secret probably wasn't the best decision on the leader's parts because it meant that they had less of a general consensus on what the public thought. I definitely think that the compromise that was made between the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan was smart because, for the moment, it avoided a civil war.
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