Creating the Constitution

May 1787- U.S. in a crisis

• War debts were piling up, economy was failing, unrest in the thirteen states

• In response to crisis- many of nations most respected citizens traveled to Philadelphia to serves as delegates to the Constitutional Convention

• George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison• Goal- design a government that can hold a nation

together. Agreed that a stronger national (Federal) government was needed.

• Got rid of articles of confederation

Madison’s Plan

• James Madison proposed a framework for a strong national government with 3 branches (legislative, judicial, executive)

• The legislative branch would have two parts: House of Representatives and the Senate.

• Called the Virginia Plan, the alliance of independent states would be replaced by a strong national government.

• Others feared national government would be to strong and take power away from states

The Great Compromise

• Delegates kept arguing over plans and feared a strong government

• Roger Sherman of Connecticut made a plan that called for a bicameral (2 house) legislature. The House of Representatives would be elected on the basis of state population. The Senate would have two senators from each state, regardless of its population.

The Three-Fifths Compromise

• How to count state population?• Southern States wanted to count each slave as

a person (to increase the # of representatives) The Northern states objected that this would give southern states more members in the House of Representatives and more power

• Compromised to count each slave as 3/5s of a person.

The Signing

• 39 delegates signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787.

• The Delegates are called “the Framers” because they framed, or shaped, our form of government