Constitutional Convention Dbq Analysis
In 1786 an incident in Massachusetts caused many Americans to question the national government. The rebellion led by Daniel Shay worried many Americans especially the wealthy, the nation's leaders realized there was a need for a stronger central government. In May of 1787 delegates from 12 states met in Philadelphia with the purpose to revise the Articles of the Confederation. The Articles had many weaknesses one of its main weaknesses was the power that each individual state had, along with each states representation in Congress. This would be known as the Constitutional Convention, the delegates present were all came from the upper class of American Society they were well educated and wealthy. These men came together with the mission of making
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In order to assuage this issue a representative of a large and small state presented proposals that of what they believed the representation should be. The Virginia Plan or large states plan was proposed by Edmund Randolph, and written by James Madison. This document recommended a bicameral legislature whose membership was determined by the size of that states free population. The lower house would be elected by the people and the upper house was to be chosen by the members of the lower house. An executive would be chosen by the legislature for an unspecified term and would not be reelected. A judiciary branch would consist of supreme courts and lower courts implemented by the legislature. The Virginia Plan put more power into the hands of the larger states. Each government would make specific powers to check and balance the other, making the branches …show more content…
The conflict derived from the fact that many states had a large population of slaves, counting these slaves would greatly effect a states population. States with large slave populations wanted all of their slaves to count in the population in contrast the states with low to no slaves wanted only the free population counted. The proposal that was adopted was the three-fifths compromise. With this every three out of five slaves would be counted for representation and taxation. The method for counting the population would be by a census every ten
In order to assuage this issue a representative of a large and small state presented proposals that of what they believed the representation should be. The Virginia Plan or large states plan was proposed by Edmund Randolph, and written by James Madison. This document recommended a bicameral legislature whose membership was determined by the size of that states free population. The lower house would be elected by the people and the upper house was to be chosen by the members of the lower house. An executive would be chosen by the legislature for an unspecified term and would not be reelected. A judiciary branch would consist of supreme courts and lower courts implemented by the legislature. The Virginia Plan put more power into the hands of the larger states. Each government would make specific powers to check and balance the other, making the branches …show more content…
The conflict derived from the fact that many states had a large population of slaves, counting these slaves would greatly effect a states population. States with large slave populations wanted all of their slaves to count in the population in contrast the states with low to no slaves wanted only the free population counted. The proposal that was adopted was the three-fifths compromise. With this every three out of five slaves would be counted for representation and taxation. The method for counting the population would be by a census every ten