MEAP 8th Grade – Day 7
Monday, September 30, 2013
The Articles of Confederation set
up the first central government in
the United States. (1781-1788)
After the United States had
declared its independence from
Great Britain, the Second
Continental Congress met to
decide how the new country
should be run.
The Articles of Confederation
 In creating the Articles, many Americans feared a
strong central government because of the abuses
they had suffered while under British rule.
The Articles gave more powers to the states and
created a national government consisting solely of a
single house of Congress in which each state would
have one vote.
The Articles prohibited the national government
from levying taxes, regulated the sale of governmentowned land to settlers, and required unanimous
consent from all states in order to make amendments.
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention
From May 25 until September 17, 1787, 55
delegates from different states met in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, at the Constitutional Convention.
The delegates had wanted to improve the Articles of
Confederation, under which the central government of
the U.S. did not have enough power to govern
effectively.
Instead of improving the Articles, the delegates
ended up creating the U.S. Constitution as a new
framework of government to replace the Articles.
The Great Compromise
The Virginia Plan called for a strong bicameral (two-body)
legislative branch, with each state's representation based on its
population.
The smaller states, however, felt that a population-based
legislature would not give them any real representation, so
the New Jersey Plan was offered; there would be a unicameral
(one-body) legislative branch with equal representation among
every state.
The disagreement was resolved by the Connecticut
Compromise, often called the Great Compromise. This plan
called for a bicameral legislative branch in which the House of
Representatives had state representation based on population
(to satisfy the large states) while the Senate had equal state
representation (to satisfy the small states).
The Great Compromise
Three-Fifths Compromise
Three-Fifths Compromise
Delegates from the North and South disagreed as to
whether slaves should be counted in a state's
population, since slaves did not have the rights of
citizens.
Northern delegates believed that slaves should not
be counted as part of the state's population because
it would hugely increase the representation of
southern states in the House.
The delegates compromised and determined that
3/5 of a state's slave population would count toward
its actual population.
Federalists and Anti-Federalists
Two political groups formed based on whether the
Constitution should be ratified.
The Federalists supported the Constitution because
it would create a stronger federal government.
The Anti-Federalists, on the other hand, wanted
states to have more power; they opposed the
Constitution because they thought the federal
government had too much power.
Federalists and Anti-Federalists
The Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
supported the Federalist viewpoint and anonymously
wrote a set of 85 essays called the Federalist Papers.
These essays were published with the goal of explaining
how the new government would work and to convince
Americans to ratify the Constitution.
Federalists felt that the rights of individuals would be
protected by the constitutional provision of
the separation of powers, which divided the
governmental power into three branches and gave each
branch the ability to check the other branches. This
ability, known as checks and balances, would keep any
one branch from obtaining total power.
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights
Anti-federalists did not support the Constitution
because they believed it gave the central
government too much power over states and
individuals.
In order to address these concerns, the AntiFederalists supported the addition of a bill of rights to
the Constitution, which would guarantee the rights
and liberties of individuals.