Creating the Constitution Ch. 5 Section 2

Review Articles of Confederation Land Ordinance of 1785 Northwest Ordinance Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation Shays’s Rebellion

A New Constitution 1787- delegates from all states except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia To revise the Articles of Confederation Known as the Constitutional Convention 55 men attended George Washington – presiding officer Ben Franklin – old, wrote a lot of speeches but had other people read them, slept a lot, diffused tense situations with humor James Madison – secretary, wrote down everything Thomas Jefferson – serving as American minister in France at the time

The Virginia Plan Plan created by James Madison, introduced by the governor of Virginia  Edmund Randolph The Virginia Plan consisted of… Scrap the Articles of Confederation Create a government with 3 branches Power to make laws binding on the states and have taxes Create a Congress with 2 houses (bicameral) Have members of the lower house elected by the people - members of the upper house appointed by lower house The # of people sent to Congress from each state would be based on that state’s population  favored large states

The New Jersey Plan Plan created by William Patterson To combat the Virginia Plan So that large states would not have more representation The New Jersey Plan Modified Articles of Confederation Congress would have 1 house (unicameral) Have the power to raise taxes and regulate trade Representation in Congress would be equal for each state - not based on population  favored small states

The Great Compromise (The Connecticut Compromise) Ben Franklin headed the committee to decide on a compromise Compromise idea proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut The compromise consisted of… Congress would have 2 houses - the House of Representatives & the Senate In the House, states would be represented according to population Members of the House would be elected by voters In the Senate, states would have equal representation  2 senators per state Members of the Senate would be elected by state legislatures

The Slave Issue Northern states didn’t want slaves in southern states to count as part of the population b/c… Southern states would have more representatives in the House Slaves can’t vote Northern states said if you count slaves for the House they should be counted for taxation purposes as well Southern states didn’t want this b/c they would be responsible for more taxes

3/5th’s Compromise It was decided that every 5 slaves in a state would count as 3 free persons For determining both representation in the House and taxes in that state