1. Chapter 3 The Constitution

2. By 1787 it was clear that the national government needed to be strengthened Congress agreed that the Articles of Confederation had many problems and they need to fix these problems

3. Each State sent delegates to a convention in Philadelphia to fix the flaws, only Rhode Island refused The convention began on May 25, 1787 in Independence Hall

4. Most of the 55 men who were in attendance were well educated lawyers, merchants, college presidents, physicians, generals, governors, and people with political experience

5. The delegates unanimously decided to have George Washington preside over the convention because of his strong leadership abilities One of his first actions was to appoint a committee to set rules for conducting the convention

6. This committee decided that meetings could not be held unless 7 states were present The Congress gave the committee the task of revising the Articles of Confederation but they quickly decided that to change them was not enough, they decided to discard the Articles and start all over

7. There were two opposing plans for the new document One plan was called the Virginia Plan This plan called for a government with three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial

8. The legislative would be the lawmaking body, the executive would carry out the laws and the judicial would interpret and apply the laws The legislature would be divided further into two houses

9. In each house the states would be represented on the basis of population This would mean that larger states would get more votes than the smaller states This plan appealed to the delegates from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York as well as Virginia

10. The small states feared that the government controlled by the large states would ignore the needs of the smaller states After two weeks of intense fighting New Jersey presented an alternative plan

11. The New Jersey Plan called for three branches of government, however the legislature would only have one house and each state would get only one vote Delegates from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland all approved of this plan

12. The large states did not agree with this plan because they felt that they should have more power because they were larger For six weeks the delegates argued over the two plans and neither side wanted to give in, some even threatened to leave the convention; however they did not

13. A committee headed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut finally came up with an answer: the legislature should have two houses- a Senate and a House of Representatives Each state would have equal representation in the Senate and in the House it would be based on population

14. After some discussion they decided to accept Sherman’s plan even though both sides were not completely happy with it This plan is known as the Great Compromise or the Great Charter

15. The Great Compromise settled the structure of Congress but questions remained about how to calculate the population for the purpose of representation At this time about 55,000 African Americans were enslaved, mostly in the South

16. The Southern states wanted to count these people as part of their population to increase their voting power in the House The North opposed this idea because the slaves were not allowed to vote or otherwise participate in government so they should not give the South a stronger voice in Congress

17. So the delegates came up with the Three-Fifths Compromise that stated that every five slaves would count as three free persons Compromises were made on international trade and interstate trade

18. One other compromise was made about who should choose the president, one group said that Congress should choose and others believed that the people should vote for the president

19. So the delegation came up with the Electoral College which is a group of people who would be named by each state legislature to select the president and the vice president

20. This is used today however the voters choose the electors not the Congress All summer the delegates worked out all the problems and came up with this new document, some went home but 42 delegates remained

21. On September 17, 1787 the committee gathered for the last time and the document was ready to be signed, all but three signed the new Constitution The next step was to win ratification, and the delegates decided to have a ratification vote in each state, either yes or no

22. When at least 9 of the 13 states had ratified the Constitution it would become the supreme law of the land The people of America reacted in different ways, those who supported the document called themselves Federalists and those opposed Anti- Federalists

23. The Anti-Federalists did not like the Constitution because they felt that the document did not protect individual rights such as freedom of speech and religion The Federalists promised that if the Constitution was ratified they would add a Bill of Rights

24. This turned the tide and on June 21, 1788 the Constitution became the supreme law of the land when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it The last of the 13 states to ratify the Constitution was Rhode Island in 1790

25. The 13 independent states were now one nation, the United States of America

26. Constitution The Constitution has three major parts, the Preamble, the seven articles, and the 27 amendments The opening section of the Constitution is called the Preamble The Preamble tells why the Constitution was written; it consists of a single concise sentence

27. “ We the People of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

28. These carefully chosen words make clear that the power of the government comes from the people

29. The middle part states six purposes: to unite the states, create a system of fair laws and courts, to maintain peace and order, to be ready militarily to protect the country and the citizens, to help people live healthy, happy and prosperous lives, and to guarantee the freedom and basic rights of all Americans

30. The seven articles explain how the government is to work The first three describe the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of government and the next four address more general matters

31. Article I deals with the Legislative Branch of government Article II deals with the Executive Branch Article III deals with the Judicial Branch

32. There are 27 amendments to the Constitution The First ten are called the Bill of Rights

33. In designing their plan for government the delegates to the Constitutional Convention disagreed on many details, however they had a common vision on how the government should run

34. It should be representative of the people and limited in scope as well as the power should be divided among different levels rather than concentrated at on level The notion that power lies with the people is called popular sovereignty

35. The Declaration of Independence expresses strong support for popular sovereignty, saying that governments should draw their powers “from the consent of the governed” The Constitution also includes several provisions that ensure popular sovereignty

36. Of special importance are the provisions about the right to vote It is through the elections that the people exercise their most power

37. By a majority vote citizens decide who will represent them in congress; through the Electoral College the people vote for the president and vice president Elected officials are always accountable to the people

38. The Declaration of Independence expresses strong support for popular sovereignty The framers felt that government should be strong but not too strong Under the Constitution the government is also limited by the rule of law

39. This means that the law applies to everyone even those who govern To further protect against abuse of power and the possibility that one person or group could gain too much power the framers split the government into three groups each with specific powers