America is Born part 7

Lets meet somewhere in the _ _ _ _ _ _

• Within five days of the meeting, the delegates gave up the idea of fixing the Articles of Confederation.

• They decided to form a new government. An immediate issue facing the delegates was how to give fair representation to both large and small states.

• Political leader James Madison offered the Virginia Plan. However he had Edmund Randolph propose his plan as he did not feel he personally had the clout to have it taken seriously.

• It proposed that a state’s representation be based on the size of its population. Under this plan, the larger the state, the more political power it would have.

• The smaller states objected to this plan. They supported the New Jersey Plan. It (led by William Patterson) called for giving each state equal representation no matter what its size.

• The delegates finally settled on a compromise plan developed by delegate Roger Sherman. The plan became known as the Great Compromise. It (aka Connecticut Compromise) called for a legislature with two houses – a House of Representatives and a Senate.

• Each state would have two members in the Senate.

• In the House of Representatives, the number of representatives from each state would be based on the size of the state’s population.

• Some of the delegates from the southern states quickly let Madison know that if he were interested in their participation that the constitution better not interfere with their right to have slaves. He reluctantly agreed.

• The delegates then debated whether slaves should be included in a state’s population count.

• The Northern states had few slaves. As a result, they did not want slaves counted. The Southern states – which had numerous slaves-favored counting them.

• The delegates again compromised. This agreement was known as the Three Fifths Compromise. It allowed each state to count three fifths of their slaves as part of the population..

• After agreeing on the difficult issue of representation, the delegates dealt with other issues somewhat more easily. The new system of government was a form of federalism in which power was divided between the national and state governments.

• Power granted to the national government by the Constitution included control of foreign affairs, providing national defense, and regulating trade between the states.

• Powers reserved for the states included providing for and supervising education, establishing marriage laws, and trade within a state.

• Both levels of government shared such powers as the right to tax, borrow money, pay debts, and establish courts.

• The delegates however, made sure to limit the authority of the federal government.

• First, they separated powers within the national government. They gave the legislative branch – the Senate and House of Representatives – the power to make laws.

• The executive branch would carry out the laws. • The judicial branch would interpret and settle disputes about the

laws.

• The delegates also made sure that each branch had certain powers over the others. This was called a system of checks and balances. It ensured that no one branch became too powerful.

• The delegates also feared placing too much power in the hands of the people. So instead of choosing a president directly, each state would choose a group of electors equal to the number of senators and representatives each state had in Congress.

• Together these electors were known as the electoral college. They were the ones who cast ballots for the presidential candidates.