Name ______________
Period _____
The Constitutional Convention
Creating a new government
Important People at the Convention:
George Washington:
 Widely respected, elected
of the convention.
His presence gave greater importance to the convention.
James Madison
 Called the “Father of the Constitution, he wrote the
___________ Plan, and kept careful notes of the
proceedings.
Benjamin Franklin
 The oldest delegate at 82, he was a mediator, and helped
bring about
.
Edmund Randolph
 Governor of Virginia, leader of the
William Patterson
 Delegate from New Jersey, leader of the
states
states
Roger Sherman
 Delegate from Connecticut, he proposed the
______________ or Great compromise
Who was not there:
Thomas Jefferson & John Adams
 (Both were abroad as ambassadors)
Patrick Henry
 (Did not like the
__
of the convention (“I smell a
rat”)
No women, Native Americans, or African slaves.
 Were not part of the political process
Agreements at the Convention
Representation in government: The framers agreed that they
wanted a ______________ form of government where the
people would elect representatives to govern them.
Conflicts at the Convention:
Representation in government: How should the states be
represented in Congress?
Virginia plan
 Two
congress, representation based on
population- more people, more
.
New Jersey Plan
 One house congress, one vote per
.
The “Great Compromise”
Roger Sherman proposes a compromise, the Connecticut or
Great compromise
 Two house Congress
 Lower house (House of Representatives)representation based on
.
(More people more representatives)
 Upper house (Senate)
representationtwo senators per state.
Conflict over counting slaves a population
Should slaves be counted as part of the population when
determining representation in the House of Representatives?
 The Southern states wanted to count the ___________
because it would ___________ the number of representatives
they would have in Congress.
 The Northern states were _____________ counting slaves
because they had very _______.
3/5’s Compromise
out of every
count.
Approval and Ratification
slave would
Convention approved the new constitution and sent it to the states
for ratification.

of 13 states had to ratify the Constitution for it to go
into effect.
Two groups:
______________ were in favor of ratification of the new
Constitution. ________________ were opposed to it.
Anti Federalist arguments:
 No
of
people’s rights
to specifically state
Federalist arguments:
 Nation could not survive without a
central
government.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote a series
of
called the “
Papers” supporting the
Constitution.
Federalists agreed to add a
Constitution was ratified.
June 1788, New Hampshire became the
Constitution and it went into effect.
of
after the
state to ratify the
The Constitution fixes the weakness of the Articles of
Confederation
Government power:
 Articles:
were more powerful
 Constitution:
government more powerful
Division of Power:
 Articles: only
branch.
 Constitution: Three Branches: Legislative,
,
and Judicial
Articles and Constitution
Trade and Taxes
 Articles: Congress could not control
or
impose
.
 Constitution: Congress could control _________ and
impose ___________
Issuing money:
 Articles: Both
and national government
could issue money
 Constitution: Only
government can issue
money.