Constitutional Era
SOL VUS.5
During the Constitutional Era,
the Americans made two
attempts to establish a
workable government based
on republican principles.
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States
Articles of Confederation
American political leaders, fearful of
a powerful central government like
England’s, created the Articles of
Confederation which were adopted
at the end of the war.
Although the Articles of
Confederation were weak, they
provided a beginning for forming
our government.
The following weaknesses
crippled the effectiveness of the
Articles of Confederation.
The Articles provided for a weak
national government, therefore,
the national government did not
have decisive power over the
states.
There was also NO provision
in the Articles for an
executive or judicial branch.
There was no power given to
Congress to tax or regulate
commerce among the states.
This was a major weakness!
There was no common
currency.
This meant that each of the
states issued their own
currency!
Under the Articles of
Confederation, each state
was given one vote
regardless of size.
This did not seem fair to large
states with more population!
Because of the weaknesses of
the Articles, a Constitutional
Convention was called to amend
the Articles of Confederation.
However, delegates to the
Convention wrote a new
Constitution rather than amend
the old Articles of Confederation.
The Constitution of the United
States of America established a
government that shared power
between the national government
and state governments,
protected the rights of states,
and provided a system for orderly
change through amendments to
the Constitution.
The Constitution made
federal law the supreme law
of the land, but otherwise
gave the states considerable
leeway to govern themselves.
The Great Compromise

This compromise balanced power
between the large and small states by
creating a bicameral Congress.

The Senate – each state gets two
senators

The House of Representatives –
membership is based on population
The Three-Fifths Compromise
This compromise placated the
Southern states by counting the
slaves as three-fifths of the
population when determining
representation in the U. S. House
of Representatives.
Branches of Government
• By establishing three co-equal
branches, the legislative, executive,
and judicial, the new plan of
government avoided a too-powerful
central government.
• Numerous checks and balances were
incorporated to limit the power of any
single branch of government.
The powers of the federal
government were limited to
those identified in the
Constitution.
This allowed states to retain
control of powers not given to
the federal government.
George Washington
Chairman of the Convention
Washington presided at the
Convention and, although seldom
participating in the debates, lent his
enormous prestige to the
proceedings.
James Madison
Father of the Constitution
Madison, a Virginian and a brilliant
political philosopher, often led the debate
and kept copious notes of the
proceedings. His notes are the best
record historians have of what transpired
at the Constitutional Convention.
Actual “Virginia Plan”
At the Convention, Madison
authored the “Virginia Plan,”
which proposed a federal
government of three separate
branches (legislative, executive,
judicial) and became the
foundation for the structure of the
new government.
Later, James Madison authored
much of the Bill of Rights.
The first ten amendments to the
Constitution, known as the Bill of
Rights, safeguard some of the
most precious American
principles.
The Constitution and the
Bill of Rights gave
Americans a blueprint for
successful self-government
that has become a model
for the rest of the world.
Ratification of the constitution did
not end debate on governmental
power or how to create “a more
perfect union.”
The diversity of our nation has
spawned continuing debates over
the meaning of the Constitution for
generations – a debate that
continues today.
The diversity of our nation has
spawned continuing debates
over the meaning of the
Constitution for generations –
a debate that continues today.
During the Constitutional Era, this debate
flared between the Federalists and AntiFederalists as the country’s foundations
were being established.
The Federalists favored a strong
national government that shared
some power with the states.
They believed that a strong national
government was necessary to
facilitate interstate commerce and to
manage foreign trade, national
defense, and foreign relations.
The Federalists argued that
the checks and balances in
the Constitution prevented
any one of the three branches
from acquiring preponderant
power.
They argued that a republic
could survive in a territory as
large as the United States
because the numerous political
factions would check each other,
thereby preventing any one
faction from gaining too much
power.
They also argued that a national
Bill of Rights would be
redundant, because the
Constitution itself protected
basic rights, and because most
states already had bills of rights
that clearly defined basic rights
that the governments could not
abolish.
The Anti-Federalists believed a
strong national government
would tend to usurp the powers
of the state governments, thereby
concentrating too much power at
the national level and too little at
the state and local level.
The Anti-Federalists believed that
notwithstanding the Federalists’
arguments, a national Bill of Rights
was necessary and during the ratifying
conventions in several states, forced
the Federalists to pledge that a Bill of
Rights would be the first order of
business of the new government
established by the Constitution.
The major principles of the Bill
of Rights of the Constitution
were based on earlier Virginia
statutes.
Virginia Declaration of Rights
George Mason
Reiterated the notion that basic
human rights should not be
violated by governments.
Virginia Statute for Religious
Freedom:
Thomas Jefferson
Outlawed the established church –
that is, the practice of government
support for one favored church.
James Madison, a Virginia,
consulted the Virginia
Declaration of Rights and the
Virginia Statute for Religious
Freedom when drafting the
amendments that eventually
became the United States Bill
of Rights.
1. What did the Great
Compromise establish?
A bicameral Congress
Senate – equal representation
House of Representatives – by
population
2. Which document
addressed the separation of
church and state?
Virginia Statue for Religious
Freedom
3. What was the compromise
that was reached that related
to slavery?
It was agreed that slaves would
count as three-fifths a person when
calculating population.
4. Which group supported a
weak federal government?
The Anti-Federalists
5. Why did the Federalists
think a Bill of Rights was
unnecessary?
They felt the state Bill of Rights was
sufficient to protect people’s rights.
6. Who is the “Father of the
Constitution”?
James Madison
7. Which group supported
the government outlined in
the new Constitution?
The Federalist
8. What was the name of the
document on which many of
the principles of the Bill of
Rights are based?
The Virginia Declaration of Rights
drafted by George Mason
9. Who wrote the Virginia
Statute for Religious Freedom?
Thomas Jefferson
10. How did the supporters
of the Constitution insure
ratification?
They agreed to add a Bill of Rights.
11. How does the checks and
balance system apply to the
three branches of
government?
Each branch of government has
power over the other two branches.
12. Who presided over the
Constitutional Convention?
George Washington