Forging a New Constitution Section Two

U.S. Economic Troubles After the Revolution, the new United States was in a depression. Thee were no real jobs, exports dropped, trade fell off, and no money was coming in.

Poor Farmers Struggle Small farmers could not sell their crops, which meant they could not pay their state taxes. States started to take their land as payment.

Shay’s Rebellion In 1787, Robert Shay led a rebellion, Shay’s Rebellion, in Massachusetts to protest the seizing of land by the courts. They closed the courts down and attached an arsenal before they were stopped.

Issue of Slavery Although slavery was legal in all U.S. states, the issue of abolition became more and more common from 1784 to 1804. Most Northern states outlawed slavery.

Southern Slavery While some northern African Americans were free, they still had few rights. The southern states still relied on slavery for their economy. The new constitution would have to deal with this issue.

The Constitutional Convention Alexander Hamilton James Madison Alexander Hamilton and James Madison began to call for a new constitution to redesign the U.S. government, which was not working at all. They convinced Washington to attend.

Constitutional Convention In May of 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia to draw up a new constitution for the United States of America. There were 55 delegates in attendance and the proceedings were very secretive. Delegates were not even allowed to take notes.

Washington & Franklin Benjamin Franklin and George Washington helped give respect to the meeting. Edmund Randolph and James Madison also attended the Convention. Madison is known as the “Father of the Constitution.”

Father of the Constitution James Madison

Secret Meetings

Washington Presides Washington was the unanimous choice to preside over the secret meetings and each state had one vote per question. Seven of the thirteen states had to be present to vote.

Edmund Randolph Edmund Randolph proposed the Virginia Plan, which was supported by the large states and called for a bicameral government with votes based on population.

William Paterson William Paterson proposed the New Jersey Plan, which was supported by the small states. It called for a unicameral government with votes based on one vote for each state.

Great Compromise The Great Compromise was suggested by Roger Sherman who proposed a bicameral government with a House of Representatives based on population and a Senate based on two votes per state. **Think share man!

Three Fifths Compromise The Three Fifths Compromise was also created to deal with the issue of slavery and how to count slaves toward that state’s population. Southern states wanted to count them into the population to get more representatives and northern states said that was not fair since slaves could not vote. Therefore, each slave would count as 3/5 of a person when counting them towards representation. The delegates also postponed the issue of the slave trade until 1808 to keep the southern states in the U.S. government.

George Mason George Mason proposed a list of rights to protect the individual liberties and rights of the citizens. His idea was defeated although he was promised they would come back to it. And, in 1791, the Bill of Rights were passed with 10 amendments although there were originally 12.

September 17, 1787 The new constitution was ready and needed 9 of the 13 states to agree to pass it.