Constitutional Convention Dbq

The United States Constitution is the document embodying the laws and principles by which our country is governed, and the founders who established it fought doubt and opposition to have it ratified. These federalists believed in a new form of government to unite the divided states into one country. The government would have one executive leader, with divided powers and rights reserved to the states. Following the months long Constitutional Convention, a system was finally decided.
Before the constitution, the nation comprised of states governing themselves like independent countries, but they were still joined under a confederation. There was no president or judicial branch, and the powers of central government were limited. By 1787, the

constitution could no longer efficiently serve its purpose. The congress was weak, and couldn’t solve the arguments breaking out between the states. It couldn’t pay back its debts to other countries from the war, and couldn’t even pay back the American soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War. The unpaid soldiers were beginning to protest, and most had problems with the current governmental situation. They were having trouble maintaining a national army. The people in power were unable to stop the anarchy, and decided changes must be made.
But some preferred a small government, and believed that a strong national government would rival a monarchy and limit the rights of its citizens, like Britain once did. Despite this, after they became independent from Britain many realized that they needed a strong central government to remain stable and keep the states united. The Constitutional Convention was held in February of 1787 to discuss the idea of such a government.
The convention’s original purpose was to revise the Articles of Confederation, which was the current laws and principles of the land.

It was missing important components needed to hold the country together, and the federalists believed they needed a new and different government to keep the states together. Anti-federalists felt the constitution would give the federal government too much power. The idea of replacing the Articles all together was controversial; people didn’t want all their hard work to be for nothing. And even if they did write the Constitution; what if It didn’t work and the Articles of the Confederation were already

scrapped?
Even George Washington was reluctant to attend, he did see the need for a strong government, but he was worried the convention wouldn’t successfully achieve its goals once they were established. But it was decided he would lead the convention and with 55 delegates from 12 states, create a new form of government. They gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to decide the future of America’s union. Washington stayed quite during the convention, allowing the delegates to debate together and come to a compromise without bias. he would keep order and be the deciding vote on many proposals. James Madison quickly proved himself a leader during the convention.
Madison proposed a plan for the national government.

On the first day of the convention, he had the Virginian governor, Edmund Randolph, read off his 3-part plan, called the “Virginia Plan”. He proposed the 3 branches of government; Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The first would create laws, and states with bigger populations would have more votes than smaller ones. The second would consist of the president, who would enforce the laws the legislative branch makes. He would be elected by U.S citizens and the electoral college. The third would be a court system, who interpret the laws according to the constitution. Madison believed there should be a system of checks and balances so no branch had more power than the

other.
His proposal was not at first taken on by the delegates, his proposal was very different than their confederation, and something so new or different could likely fail if it had any problems. In the current Confederation Congress, all states were equal and had one vote each. Many were not sure about this new idea, but this system would from the foundations of the U.S Constitution.
The convention went on for many weeks, and the delegates met 5 or six days every week. All discussions in the convention were kept secret from the public, to avoid national worry. The delegates from small states feared being overpowered, and wanted the same amount of representatives as the larger states. Another issue was southern delegates wanting to include slaves in their population count. Eventually, the convention reached an end, and it was decided many components of Madison’s plan would be included in the constitution, and created a system of divided powers.
Madison, however, did not believe a bill a rights was necessary, unlike George Mason who proposed the idea. He thought that since the rights came naturally, they didn’t need to be addressed, Mason and 3 other delegates refused to sign the document. The final document held 39 signatures. 9 out of 13 states had to ratify the Constitution in order for it to become legal and official. Copies of the document were released to the public and sent to newspapers nationwide. Many people were angry, and thought this new system was synonymous to the one in Britain they had fought so hard to be rid of. Many agreed with the constitution, but their only request was to have a Bill of Rights. James Madison promised that changes could be made to the Constitution, ones that could limit the feared power of government and add a bill of rights. Some states trusted Madison’s promise, and agreed to ratify.
A year after the Convention, the Constitution came into full affect as the supreme law of the land. The following year, George Washington was elected president.