The Constitution and the New Republic
Chapter 6: The Constitution and the New Republic
By the late 1780’s most Americans were not satisfied with the deficiencies of the Articles of confederation. In 1787, they created the Constitution. It derived most of its principles from state documents. Americans agreed that the document was nearly perfect, but disagreed on how to interpret it.
Framing A New Government
Advocates of Centralization
People thought that they had fought the war to avoid tyranny and now they wanted to keep government mostly in their states where they could control it. But the more wealthy groups were calling for a national government. Many soldiers wanted their pay for the war. artisans wanted to replace various state tariffs with one national tax and merchants wanted to place different state policies under a single national one. By 1786, it obvious that the Confederation needed to change and even advocates of the system agreed. One reformer was Alexander Hamilton, and he was unhappy with the Articles of Confederation and the weak central government.
Divided Convention
55 delegates from all the states except Rhode Island attended the convention in Philadelphia. The convention chose George Washington to preside over the sessions. Virginia had sent James Madison, its intellectual leader. His plan was a legislature of two houses. In the lower house, the states would be represented to their population and in the other house members would be elected by the lower house members. thus the smaller states would have little representation. William Patterson’s plan was to have a one house Congress in which each state would have equal representation, but Congress would have powers to tax ad regulate commerce. The Virginia Plan remained the basis of the discussion, but they conceded a point by agreeing to permit the members of the upper house to be elected by state legislatures rather than by the lower house. Thus, each state would have at least one member in the upper house. Many
By the late 1780’s most Americans were not satisfied with the deficiencies of the Articles of confederation. In 1787, they created the Constitution. It derived most of its principles from state documents. Americans agreed that the document was nearly perfect, but disagreed on how to interpret it.
Framing A New Government
Advocates of Centralization
People thought that they had fought the war to avoid tyranny and now they wanted to keep government mostly in their states where they could control it. But the more wealthy groups were calling for a national government. Many soldiers wanted their pay for the war. artisans wanted to replace various state tariffs with one national tax and merchants wanted to place different state policies under a single national one. By 1786, it obvious that the Confederation needed to change and even advocates of the system agreed. One reformer was Alexander Hamilton, and he was unhappy with the Articles of Confederation and the weak central government.
Divided Convention
55 delegates from all the states except Rhode Island attended the convention in Philadelphia. The convention chose George Washington to preside over the sessions. Virginia had sent James Madison, its intellectual leader. His plan was a legislature of two houses. In the lower house, the states would be represented to their population and in the other house members would be elected by the lower house members. thus the smaller states would have little representation. William Patterson’s plan was to have a one house Congress in which each state would have equal representation, but Congress would have powers to tax ad regulate commerce. The Virginia Plan remained the basis of the discussion, but they conceded a point by agreeing to permit the members of the upper house to be elected by state legislatures rather than by the lower house. Thus, each state would have at least one member in the upper house. Many