Chapter 2 Lecture Notes
Origins of American Government
Chapter 2 Section 4: Creating the Constitution
I.
II.
III.
The Framers:
A. With the exception of Rhode Island, 12 States sent representatives. Out of 74 delegates
originally identified to participate, only 55 attended.
B. Considerable experience among attendees:
1. 39 had participated in Continental Congress,
2. 8 had served in State constitutional conventions
3. 7 had been governors
4. 8 had signed Declaration of Independence
5. 31 had attended college
6. Two college presidents and three professors
7. Two would become President and one Vice-President
8. 17 served in Senate later; 11 in the House of Representatives
C. Most were relatively young
1. Average age 42
2. Nearly ½ in their 30s
3. Franklin (81) and Washington (55) lent experience and wisdom to group
D. Some famous names who did not, or would not, attend
1. Patrick Henry was suspicious of process
2. Thomas Paine (Common Sense, The Rights of Man) and Thomas Jefferson were in
Paris
3. John Adams (envoy) in England and Holland
Organization and Procedure: Washington was elected president of convention. Procedures
agreed upon included that a majority of States must be present to conduct business, each
State had one vote, and majority of votes would carry any proposal
A. Working in Secrecy
1. To protect from outside pressures
2. Madison’s Notes are the definitive record of the proceedings
3. Worked in committees, but full body made final decisions
B. A Momentous Decision
1. Delegates realized that they were actually forming a new gov’t
2. Writing a new constitution
3. Basis: legislative, executive, judiciary system
The Virginia Plan: the “Big State” plan
A. Formed primarily by Madison
B. Three branches
1. Legislative would be bicameral
2. Either by $$ given by states or by population
3. Senate chosen by House from lists from State legislatures
C. Maintain all powers of Articles of Confederation
D. Additional powers
1. Legislate when states were “incompetent” to act
2. To veto state laws in conflict with federal gov’t
3. Use of force to make States obey national law
Chapter 2 Lecture Notes
IV.
V.
E. Congress chooses “National Executive” (President) and “National Judiciary”
1. Council of “revision”
2. Could veto acts
3. Veto could be overridden by two houses
4. Executive: general authority to execute national laws
5. Judiciary: one or more supreme tribunals and inferior tribunals
F. State officers take oath and each guaranteed a republican form of government
G. Have the executive power to admit new states
The New Jersey Plan
A. Highlights:
1. Unicameral legislature, each State equally represented
2. Limited powers to tax and regulate trade
B. Federal Executive (more than one person)
1. Chosen by Congress
2. Removed at the request of majority of States’ governors
C. Federal Judiciary:
1. Single “supreme Tribunal”
2. Appointed by Executive
D. Major difference of plans: how should states be represented? Population or financial
contributions or State equality
Compromises
A. Connecticut Compromise
1. Two houses
a. Senate: states represented equally
b. House: based on population
2. “Great Compromise”
B. The Three-Fifths Compromise
1. Should slaves be counted?
2. Southern states: yes; Northern states, no
3. “Slaves” counted as 3/5 a person
4. Affected amount of $$ each state had to raise in taxes
C. The Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise
1. Agreement: Congress had power to regulate foreign and interstate trade
2. South fears: (basis for Civil War 80+ years later)
a. that northern commercial interests would act against agrarian South
b. Pay for gov’t out of export duties (tobacco, and later, cotton)
c. Interfere with slave trade
3. South insisted on protections
a. Congress forbidden to tax exports
b. Forbidden to act on slave trade for at least 20 years
c. Could not interfere with slave importation or movement between States in
agreement until at least 1808
D. A “Bundle of Compromises”
1. Each State had its own interests
2. Various compromises about:
a. Selection of President
Chapter 2 Lecture Notes
VI.
VII.
b. Treaty-making
c. Structure of national court system
d. Amendment process
e. Limitation of federal power
3. There was considerable unanimous agreement
a. Creation of new national government
b. Power to deal with grace social and economic problems
c. Popular sovereignty and limited government
d. Separation of powers and checks and balances
Sources of the Constitution
A. Educated delegates familiar with Greek, Roman, English, and European gov’t
B. Political writings of the time: used as philosophical basis for practical formation of gov’t
C. Delegates’ own experiences:
1. Continental Congresses
2. State constitutional processes
3. Articles of Confederation
The Convention Completes Its Work:
A. Committee of Stile and Arrangement (settled the order of importance and placed issues
in logical form)
B. 38 of 41 delegates signed
1. Edmund Randolph (Virginia) signed later
2. Elbridge Gerry (Massachusetts) later vice-President under Madison
3. George Mason (never signed)