BellRinger
 Imagine
you have graduated and are
now setting up your own apartment for
the first time. As part of your
independence you decide to live with a
few of your friends who are doing the
same thing. Would you want to set up
some rules for sharing living space? How
would you decide which rules were fair to
everyone? Would you need a leader to
move things along? Would you want to
limit the power the leader has?
Convention: Issues &
Compromise
A Call for Change
 Political
leaders were
divided on the type of gov’t
the country should have:
• One group wanted to
remain with a system of
independent state gov’ts
• Another group wanted to
create a strong national
gov’t
 Called
for reform of the
Articles of Confederation
 James
Madison & Alexander
Hamilton were proponents
Meeting Called
 Hamilton
proposed calling a
meeting in Philadelphia to
discuss trade issues & possible
changes to the Articles of
Confederation
 George
Washington finally
agreed to attend the
convention; was not
enthusiastic about revising the
Articles of Confederation at
first
• Presence lent greater
significance to the meeting
The Constitutional Convention
May
1787-Constitutional
Convention met in Philadelphia
• Consisted of 55 delegates
• Native American, African American, &
women were not included in the
political process
Several
leaders stood out:
• George Washington, Ben Franklin,
James Wilson
• James Madison-“Father of the
Constitution”; authored the basic plan
of gov’t that was adopted
Washington In Charge
George
Washington
presided
Basic
rules were:
• each state had one vote on all
issues
• a majority vote was needed to
finalize decisions
• delegates from at least 7 of the
13 states were required for
meetings to be held
• delegates met behind closed
doors so they could talk freely
BellRinger
Define
compromise.
Describe situations in
everyday life when
compromise is
necessary.
The Virginia Plan
 Two
plans of gov’t were proposed––the Virginia
Plan & New Jersey Plan
 Virginia
Plan-proposed by Edmund Randolph from
VA, called for a two house legislature, a chief
executive chosen by the legislature, & a court
system
• People would elect members of the lower house
• Lower house would choose members of the upper house
• Both houses-number of representatives would be
proportional to the population of each state

State with a smaller population would have fewer
representatives than a state with a larger population
The New Jersey Plan
 New
Jersey Plan-proposed by
William Paterson; modified the
Articles of Confederation:
• Kept the one-house legislature
with one vote for each state (small
state equal to large states)
• Congress would now have the
powers to set taxes & regulate
trade
• Congress would elect a weak
executive branch with more than
one person
Compromise Wins Out


Decided revising the Articles of
Confederation would not solve the
problems
Voted to plan a national government
based on the Virginia Plan; had to work
out several issues:
• how the members of Congress were to
be elected
• how state representation would be
determined in both houses
• whether or not enslaved people were to
be counted as part of the population;
would affect the number of
representatives
• whether or not to ban slavery
The Great Compromise
Great
Compromise-resolved
the representation issues
Roger
Sherman of CT
proposed the plan; said that:
• Would be a two-house
legislature:


Lower house, or House of
Representatives-number of seats for
each state would vary according to
the state’s population
Upper house, or Senate-each state
would have two members
More Compromises
 Way
to count enslaved people would be
determined by the Three-Fifths Compromise:
• Every five enslaved people would equal three free people
 Another
compromise on slavery-Congress would
not interfere with the slave trade for 20 years
• After 20 years-could limit the slave trade if chose to
• Northerners that wanted to abolish slavery throughout the
nation compromised with the Southern states that
considered slavery essential to their economies
U.S. Constitution Signed

September 17, 1787-after four months of discussion and planning,
the delegates met to sign the document
• All but three delegates signed
• Convention sent the approved draft for state approval
• Nine of the thirteen states were needed for the Constitution to be
approved