The Constitutional Convention: Agreements and Compromises
Summarize this: The Constitutional Convention: Agreements and Compromises In May 1787, the Constitutional Convention began the difficult task of crafting a new system of government. The state legislatures sent 55 delegates to Philadelphia. Many of these men had a great deal of experience working in politics and government. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin both took active roles in the debates at the convention. Two other Pennsylvanians made important contributions, too. Gouverneur Morris wrote the final draft of the Constitution, and James Wilson did important work on the details of the document.
James Madison of Virginia was the author of the basic plan of government that the convention eventually adopted. His careful notes are our major source of information about the convention’s work.
The convention began by unanimously choosing George Washington to preside over the meetings.
It was decided that each state would have one vote on all questions, and a simple majority of the states present would make decisions. The public and press were not permitted to attend the meetings. The delegates hoped that the private setting would allow them to talk freely.
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Key Agreements
After deciding to abandon the Articles of Confederation, the delegates reached a consensus on many basic issues of forming a new government. They all favored the ideas of limited and representative government. They agreed that the powers of the national government should be divided among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The delegates all believed it was necessary to limit the states’ power to coin money and interfere with creditors’ rights. And all of them agreed that they should strengthen the national government.
The great debates and compromises of the convention were not over these fundamental questions; rather, they dealt with how to put these ideas into practice.
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The Virginia Plan
The debates opened with a proposal from the Virginia delegation, which outlined a plan for a strong national government. The plan proposed a government based on three principles. First, the government would have a strong national legislature with two chambers. The lower chamber would be chosen by the people and the upper chamber would be chosen by the lower. The number of legislators would vary from state to state and would be determined by how many people lived in the state. The legislature would also have the power to bar any state laws it believed to be unconstitutional. Second, a strong executive would be chosen by the national legislature. Third, a national judiciary would be appointed by the legislature.
The delegates debated the Virginia Plan for more than two weeks. Delegates from the smaller states quickly realized that the larger, more populous states would be in control of a strong national government under this plan. The smaller states wanted a less powerful central government and more independence for the states.
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The New Jersey Plan
The delegates for the small states made a counterproposal. The New Jersey Plan called for keeping two major features of the Articles of Confederation. First, the government would have a unicameral legislature with one vote for each state. This made all states equally powerful, regardless of their population. Second, the nation would continue to function as a confederation of sovereign states.
Congress, however, would be strengthened by having the power to impose taxes and regulate trade.
A weak executive, consisting of more than one person, would be elected by Congress. A national judiciary with limited power would be appointed by the executive.
As the summer wore on, the convention became deadlocked over the question of the representation of states in Congress. The debate was bitter, and the convention was in danger of dissolving.
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The Connecticut Compromise
Finally, a special committee agreed on a compromise. Called the Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise, this plan was adopted after a long debate. The compromise suggested that the legislative branch should be bicameral, or have two houses. One would be a House of Representatives, with the number of representatives based on each state’s population. The other would be a Senate, with two members from each state. The larger states would have an advantage in the House of Representatives, where representation would be based on population. Congress would be able to impose taxes, and all laws concerning taxing and spending would originate in the House. The smaller states would be protected in the Senate, with equal representation and state legislatures electing the senators.
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Compromises About the Presidency
There was further disagreement over whether the president should be elected directly by the people, by the Congress, or by state legislatures. As a compromise, the delegates finally settled on the Electoral College system, which is still used today. In this system, voters from each state select electors to choose the president. The president’s four-year term was a compromise between those who wanted a longer term and those who feared a long term would give a president too much power.
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Disputes over Slavery
James Madison’s notes tell us that the delegates disagreed about how to handle slavery. At the time of the convention, several Northern states were making plans to abolish slavery. Many delegates were opposed to slavery and some wanted it abolished. However, it was clear that the Southern states would never accept the Constitution if it interfered with slavery. In the end, the delegates did not deal with the issue. The Constitution mentions the slave trade and escaped enslaved persons but does not address legal or moral issues related to the ownership of enslaved persons. In fact, the Constitution does not include the word slave anywhere. Instead of saying “slave” or “slavery,” the Constitution refers to the “importation” of people, and “persons held to service or labor.”
The delegates realized that their compromises on slavery had not completely solved the issue. They had compromised in order to create the new government. But their refusal to deal with slavery entirely left the matter to later generations of Americans to resolve.
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The Three-Fifths Compromise
There was great disagreement about how to count enslaved persons in matters of representation and taxation. Almost one-third of the people living in the Southern states were enslaved African Americans. Delegates from these states wanted enslaved persons to be counted the same as free people to give the South more representation in Congress. At the same time, the Southern states did not want enslaved persons counted at all when it came to paying taxes. Because few enslaved persons lived in the North, Northern states took the opposite position. They wanted enslaved persons counted for tax purposes but not for representation.
The Three-Fifths Compromise settled this deadlock. Instead of counting every enslaved person, only three- fifths of the group were to be counted for both tax purposes and for representation. Enslaved persons were counted in this way until 1868. By that date, the three-fifths rule had been eliminated by two events. One was the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. The other was the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, making it a rule to count a state’s entire population when figuring out representation in Congress.
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Commerce and the Slave Trade
A third compromise resolved a dispute over commerce and the slave trade—not slavery itself, but the continuing transport and sale of enslaved persons. The Northern states wanted the federal government to have complete control over trade with other nations. The Southern states were afraid that the federal government would interfere with the slave trade. States in the South depended heavily on agricultural exports such as cotton and tobacco. Southern farmers could not produce large crops and make huge profits without using slave labor. Southern states also feared that business interests in the North would have enough votes in Congress to impose export taxes or pass trade agreements that would hurt the South.
As a compromise, the delegates decided that Congress would have the power to regulate both interstate commerce and commerce with foreign countries. However, Congress could not ban the slave trade before 1808. To protect the South’s exports, Congress was also prevented from imposing export taxes. As a result, the United States is one of the few nations in the world today that does not directly tax the goods it exports.
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Ratifying the Constitution
By September 17, 1787, the Constitution was complete. Thirty-nine delegates signed the document, including the aging Ben Franklin, who had to be helped to the table to sign it. Before the new Constitution could become law, however, it had to be ratified by nine of the thirteen states.
The Constitution went into effect in June 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. However, the political debate over ratification lasted until May 29, 1790, when Rhode Island became the last state to ratify.
