Unit 3: Birth of a Nation
Page 4
Drafting the Constitution—Conflict leads to Compromise
Nationalists Strengthen the Government
Shays’ Rebellion caused panic and dismay
throughout the nation. Every state had
debt-ridden farmers. Would rebellion
spread from Massachusetts elsewhere? It
was clearly time to talk about a stronger
national government. In order to prevent
abuse of power, the states had placed
such severe limits on the federal government and as a result, the federal government had become too weak.
ture with membership
based on each state’s
population. The voters
would elect the members
of the lower house, who
would then elect members of the upper house.
Delegates from the small
states objected the Virginia Plan because it gave
more power to states
with larger populations. Small states supCall For Convention
In May 1787, delegates from all the states ported William Paterson’s New Jersey
Plan, which proposed a single-house conexcept Rhode Island gathered at the
gress in which each state had an equal
Philadelphia State House—in the same
vote. The debate between the states
room in which the Declaraover representation was at a deadtion of Independence had
lock.
been signed 11 years earlier.
Delegates attending the conFinally, Roger Sherman, a political
vention included leaders
leader from Connecticut, suggested
such as James Madison, Alexthe Great Compromise, which ofander Hamilton, Ben Frankfered a two-house Congress to satisfy
lin, and George Washington.
James
both small and big states. Each state
In spite of the sweltering
Madison
The “Father” of would have equal representation in
heat, the windows were
the Senate, or upper house. The size
tightly closed to prevent out- our American
Constitution of population of each state would
siders from eavesdropping
determine its representation in the
on the discussions.
House of Representatives, or lower house.
Most delegates recognized the need to
Sherman’s plan pleased the interests of
strengthen the central government.
both big and small states and the plan is
Within the first five days fo the meeting,
still in effect today.
they gave up the idea of revising the Articles of Confederation and decided to
Slavery-Related Issues
form a new government.
Representation based on population raised
Big States vs. Small States
One big issue the delegates faced was
giving fair representation to both large
and small states. James Madison’s Virginia Plan proposed a bicameral legisla-
tives in the House. Northern delegates,
whose states had few slaves, disagreed.
Not counting Southern slaves would give
the Northern states more representatives
than the Southern states in the House of
Representatives. The delegates eventually
agreed to the Three-Fifths Compromise,
which basically meant that for every 5
slaves counted in the population only 3
would be counted in the census (official
count of state’s population).
The Three-Fifths Compromise settled the
political issue but not the economic issue
of slavery. Slaveholders, especially in the
South, worried that if Congress were given
power to regulate foreign trade, it might
do away with the slave trade. To resolve
this issue, the convention gave Congress
the power to control trade but prevented it
from interfering with the slave trade for at
least 20 years.
As a result, the institution of slavery was
firmly recognized and protected in the
U.S. Constitution, thereby giving slave
the question of whether slaves should be
owners legal rights to own slaves. This
counted as people. Southern delegates
compromise would set the stage for a fuwhose states had many slaves, wanted
ture conflict known as the Civil War that
slaves included in the population count
that determined the number of representa- would focus on the issues of states’ rights
and slavery.
Source: Civics In Practice: Principles of Government and Economics Gregory I. Masing: Holt, Rinehart and Winston 2007