Name __________________________ Period _______ Date________
Drafting the Constitution
Shay’s Rebellion
Daniel Shay was a Massachusetts ____________ of the
American Revolutionary War. After the war, he returned to his
farm and a pile of debt. Because of the debt he owned, he was
facing the possibility of debtor’s prison and losing his land. Shay
believed that the reason for all of his financial problems was the
heavy ___________ of the Massachusetts government.
In 1787, he and other indebted farmers protested that the
courts should close, so they would not lose their lands. When the
courts refused, Shay and his army of 1,200 (other farmers in debt)
marched to Springfield, where the arsenal held the area’s
munitions. State officials hurried to send a militia to stop the
_______________, and the mob and militia fighting. Obviously is 1,200
men gathered to fight over heavy taxes and debt, there was a
______________ problem.
Shay’s rebellion caused _______________ throughout the states,
because all of the states suffered from heavily indebted farmers.
The national government had ______________ power to help the
states stop potential uprisings, and it threatened to undermine the
reputation of this new nation. George Washington famously stated,
“What a triumph for our enemies…to find that we are incapable of
governing ourselves.”
A Call to Order: The Constitutional Convention
There were many problems and _________________ with the
Articles of Confederation. The states were not “playing nice” with
each other, and they would often fight about trade, tariffs, and the
right to navigate around the United States. To try and find a
solution, James ______________ (from Virginia) and Alexander
____________ (from Massachusetts) called a meeting in 1786 for the
states to discuss interstate trade. Only ____________________ states
sent representatives to the meeting in Maryland. So, the gentlemen
tried again. They called another meeting, for the next year, in
_________________, Pennsylvania, and they wanted to try again to
discuss interstate trade and other problems with the national
government.
In May, 1787, twelve of the thirteen states (not
_____________________________) sent delegates to the Convention in
Philadelphia (most of them were inspired after “Shay’s Rebellion”
scare). Fifty-five men, mostly lawyers, merchants or planters,
locked themselves in the courthouse to discuss these serious and
controversial issues. One of the first orders of business was to
choose the presiding officer for the meeting (this would be the guy
in charge) and they unanimously chose _________________
____________________.
The Great Compromise
In the beginning of the Convention, the men just wanted to
revise the Articles of Confederation; however, they quickly
decided that the foundation of the new government was too
_____________, and they could do a better job if they started form
scratch. This freed them to make new decisions, and revise
previous decisions.
One of the first issues that needed to be revised was
____________________ from each state in the national government.
_______________ states wanted to have representation based on
population, but the _____________ states wanted each state to have an
equal number of representatives. It was clear that a compromise
was needed.
James Madison drafted the ________________ Plan, which
favored the larger states. The Virginia Plan proposed a
_________________ (or two-house) legislature. In this plan, the people
would elect representatives to the lower house, based on the
state’s population. Then the lower house would elect
representatives to the upper house.
This was unacceptable to the smaller states, because it gave
the larger states more power based on their populations.
Therefore, William Paterson drafted the ____________________________
Plan. The New Jersey Plan proposed a ___________________ (onehouse) legislative body; in which each state would only send
__________ representative. The differing plans and their proponents
were stuck in a deadlock. They needed a compromise to continue.
Roger ______________ a delegate from Connecticut, offered a
solution to the problem, and his suggestion took the name “The
_________________ ___________________.” Sherman suggested that the
congress should be a bicameral legislature. In the lower house (or
the _____________ of ____________________), states would send
representatives based on _________________; but in the upper house
(or the ___________________), each state would send ________________
representatives each. The citizens of each state would elect the
members to the House of Representatives, but the state legislature
would choose the members of the members of the Senate. The
compromise was acceptable to the two opposing sides, and this
became the structure for the national _________________ branch.
The Issue of Slaves and the Constitution
When the delegates could agree on the Great Compromise,
it created a new problem that needed a fair solution. If they were
going to have a legislative house’s representation based on
population, then they needed to know how to _______________ each
state’s population. More importantly, who would be counted for
the state’s population?
Delegates from the southern states wanted to include their
_________________ population. The delegates from the northern states
believed this would give the South (who had more slaves than the
North) an unfair advantage. The delegates agreed to the ___________
- ______________ Compromise, which allowed states to count only
three-fifths of the state’s slave population. This agreement
illuminates the country’s attitudes towards slaves, as it states that
an African slave was worth only _______%, compared to a free,
white man.
Slavery was an important issue for the southern states.
Their ______________ were based on the labor from these men and
women. The delegates from these states were careful not to give
the national government any power that would threaten the
shipping or use of slaves. For example, the delegates to
Philadelphia wanted to give Congress the right to ______________
foreign ____________ (remember, we marked that as a weakness of
the Articles of Confederation). But the southern states worried
that id they regulated foreign trade, then they might _______________
the slave trade. To come to a compromise, the southern states
agreed to regulate interstate and foreign trade if the Congress
promised not to interfere with the slave trade for at least _________
years. Not everyone was happy with this arrangement, but it was
the only way to get the southern states to agree.
Decision Time for the Delegates at the Constitutional
Convention
After all of the fighting and arguing had finished and
compromises were made, it was time to create a new system of
government of the United States of America. The delegates decided
there would be a few concepts that would frame the government:
__________________ government and ________________ of powers.
Instead of a confederation, where all the power came from
the individual states, this time the delegates wanted to form a
___________________. Federalism is a government in which the power
is shared between the ______________ level and the _________________
government. The national government would be given the
authority to control foreign affairs, provide national
_________________, regulate _________________ between states, and coin
__________________. Since these powers are specifically states in the
Constitution, then these are called delegated or ____________ powers.
Those powers that were kept at the state level are called
___________________ powers, which include providing and supervising
___________________, establishing _______________ laws, and regulated
trade ________________ a state. However, both the national and state
levels of government would have the power to _________________, or
borrow money, and to pay debts.
Since the delegates feared a tyrant or abusive national leader, they
wanted to separate the power within the national government by
establishing three different ________________ within the government,
and providing a way for the different branches to “police” each
other. The first branch listed in the Constitution is the __________
branch, which is responsible for making the national laws. The
second branch listed is the ________________ branch, which is
responsible for enforcing (carrying out) the national laws. The
third branch listed is the _____________ branch, which is responsible
for the interpreting (judging) the meaning of the national laws.
Then, delegates created a system of _____________ and
_________________. This system would prevent once branch from
becoming more powerful than the others. Look at the chart below
to see how each branch prevented abused by the other two.
Electing the President of the United States of America
At the _______________ ____________________, the delegates
worried that in these early stages of the national government, the
people of the United States were unable to effectively vote for the
___________________. First, they worried about communicating the
important principles of each candidate, so each voter could make a
fair and honest choice. Second, they were concerned that there
were no political parties to help guide the decision of voters and
the opinion of candidates. Third, many of the upper class
Americans did not trust the lower class Americans to make a wise
choice with their vote.
To smooth these concerns, the delegates created the
_____________ ________________. Instead of each person voting, and that
vote being tallied in a popular election (the man with the most
votes wins), the Electoral College would vote for the general
population. In this scenario, each state would choose a number of
__________________ (equal to the total number of representatives and
senators in Congress from each state), and those electors would
cast their vote for the presidential candidate.
The Constitution of the United States of America
Once all the delegates, arguments and compromises were
completed, the Constitutional Convention adjourned on
_______________, 1787. Now, it was up to the states to decide if this
was an effective and fair form of government. Each state
legislature was sent a copy of the highly debated and
compromised document, and it was ____________________ turn to
debate the big ideas of government. The country waited anxiously
while each of the thirteen colonies decided whether or not to
submit their _________________.