Unit 2: DESIGNING & DRAFTING THE
CONSTITUTION: MADISON’S ROLE
Context
Madison’s research
Madison’s goal
Madison’s design
Attacks on design
Madison as “drafter”
STATES AFTER REVOLUTION
• Constitutions, including bills of right (except New York)
• Criteria for citizenship, voting, etc.
• Bi-cameral legislatures (except Pennsylvania/Georgia)
• Weak executives (except Massachusetts)
• Short terms of office for elected representatives
• Trade and foreign policies
(Georgia). Although
National Government After Revolution
Articles of Confederation (1781)
Federation of independent sovereign states
Madison during Articles. . .
1779: Continental Congress—advocates strong
national government (age 28)
1784: Helps form Patowmack Co.
1786: Attends Annapolis Convention; supports
call for convention
“Vices of the Political System”
April 1787
• States . . .
Long list of “vices”
• Congress. . .
Major problems
Convention called for May 14, 1787
• Assignment: Amend Articles of Confederation
• New Hampshire—delegates July 23
• Rhode Island: NO!
teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/intro.html
MADISON PREPARES
GOAL: Americans must think of nation
first, states second
THEREFORE: Representation is main
issue (Articles must be scrapped)
Letter to Randolph
April 8, 1787
• See Volume I, “Primary Documents”
Letter to Washington, April 16, 1787:
Having "formed in my mind some outlines of a
new system, I take the liberty of submitting
them without apology, to your eye."
VIRGINIA PLAN: The Design
• 15 “articles”
• Introduced by Edmund Randolph
ACTIVITY I
Prepare a schematic of the Virginia Plan
Design under fire
• Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, New York
and Maryland’s Martin attack Virginia Plan
• Convention thrown into crisis—June 29-30
“COMPROMISE”
• Oliver Ellsworth (CT): “We are partly national
and partly federal”
• Gerry Committee proposes change to national
legislature
• Gerry proposal wins 5-4
Effects of Compromises
• Congress reflects people and states
• Congress will not be body Madison
envisioned
• What can Madison do?
Madison as “drafter”
• Could have quit
• Works with Wilson on executive
• Serves on Gerry Committee (ramifications of
Connecticut Compromise)
• Serves on Committee of Eleven (electoral
college)
• Serves on Committee on Style
ACTIVITY II
• Prepare a schematic of the Constitution
• Compare and assess
MADISON’S ASSESSMENT
September 6, 1787, to Jefferson: the "plan
should it be adopted will neither effectually
answer its national object nor prevent the
local mischiefs which every where excite
disgusts against the state governments."
CONCLUSION
George Packer, 2008:
Governing means mastering details, knowing
options, using caution—that is, taking
government seriously