Constitution Essay Research Paper The United States

Constitution Essay, Research Paper

The United States Constitution was discussed and established from the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The Convention was held in the Pennsylvania State House. It lasted from May 25, 1787 to September 17, 1787. The thirteen stated that existed at the time were invited to attend. Fifty-five delegates represented the twelve states that attended (Rhode Island declined to send delegates). The convention was held all summer long, and all the delegates were never present all at the same time. Among those who attended were the president of the convention, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Dickinson, Roger Sherman, and James Madison called the Father of the Constitution.

The convention was held in an attempt to rescue the government from the claws of powerlessness over the states. Some states wanted to abandon the Articles of Confederation all together, claiming that a stronger national government was needed. Others wanted to merely amend the Articles seeing no need to destroy and start from scratch. All the delegates, however, did realize that significant changes needed to be done for an effective government. And so the delegates began to work.

As mentioned earlier, James Madison was called the father of the Constitution because of his contribution to the debate, his Virginia Plan which became the first issue of the Convention and the focus of discussion against which all other ideas were weighed. The Virginia Plan called for the creation of a bicameral, or two-house, national legislature (the House and the Senate) creating the legislative branch of their proposed government. Each state would send representatives on proportion to the number of its citizens. That meant that a state with a large population would have more representatives in both chambers that a state with a small population, giving the larger state (in terms of population) more voting power in the legislature. Along with the legislative branch, the government would also have an executive branch and a judicial branch. It would also have the right to tax its citizens (right that wasn’t included in the Articles of Confederation making it inefficient) and the power to veto, or overturn any act of a state legislature. This power made many oppose the Virginia plan because it would give the national government greater power than the states. Therefor, an opponent arose making the Convention more of a dispute than a peaceful meeting, which was its initial intent.

The Virginia plan was an idea that made larger states more powerful than the smaller ones. So the smaller states took a stand and introduced their own idea: The New Jersey Plan. This plan was very much like previous one. It called for three branched of government and also gave Congress the power to tax. It did however keep one feature of the Articles of Confederation that the larger states did not like which was that every state would continue to have an equal vote in a unicameral Congress (not divided into the House and Senate like the Virginia Plan called for) no matter how large the population. The New Jersey was created not exactly to make a stronger government but to let the makers of the Virginia plan know that the states should remain the most powerful governments in America.

The Convention was deadlocked. Half supported one plan and half supported the other. Soon the environment at the Convention became hostile, aggressive, and competitive. Finally, a solution emerged with the name of the Great Compromise. The Compromise combined the major points of the New Jersey and Virginia Plans. It established the present day arrangement in which the legislative branch would be made up of two houses (called for in the Virginia Plan): the House of Representatives and the Senate. But in one chamber, the House of Representatives, each state would have a number of representatives that corresponded to the size of its population. In the other, the Senate, every state would have an equal number of representatives (called for in the New Jersey Plan).

The Compromise was approved on July 16, settling the arguments and disputes among the delegates, but arising a question among the states. How should the slaves who were so numerous in the southern states be counted. If they were all counted and included in the general population, the southern states would have greater power in the House of Representatives even though their voting population was small. If they were to be not counted at all, the southern states would be weak. With that, the second conflict arose out of what was supposed to be a solution. But the delegates once again came to the rescue with a formula known as the Three-fifths Compromise. Under this plan, the slaves would be counted, but then the total would be multiplied by three-fifths. With that problem resolved, the delegates moved on.

Among other issues that the convention touched was the agreement that Congress had the power to regulate interstate and foreign trade. The southern states, which were not as densely populated as the northern states, feared that giving Congress the power to regulate trade might adversely affect their economy. They demanded the legislation affecting commerce be determined only by two-thirds majority votes, but also consented to eliminate this requirement when the northern states agreed to constitutional clauses prohibiting