Ap Us History Dbq Research Paper

Question: Was the Constitution written to be a landmark document or was it simply a compilation of compromises?

After the American Revolution had ended in 1783, the states were left in a vulnerable position. Although the states had won the war and gained their independence, there was still a huge war deficit, fear of invasion from England or other countries like France or Spain, a virtually non-existent army of 600 men, no strong trade route to bring in money, Indian hostilities and a very weak economy. The majority of Americans did not want a national government, they were afraid to establish one after fighting a long war to gain independence from England. Initially the Articles of Confederation had served as a united agreement between the states but gave each independent state the right to govern
Then the great compromise was reached on June 29, 1787. This was a combination of the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan Connecticut Compromise, which stated that there would be two houses (bicameral). One house would have equal representation and the other would be based on population. It was called the Connecticut Compromise because Roger Sherman, who had offered a compromise dealing with the issues of slavery and representation, was from Connecticut. Members of the House of Representatives (lower house) would be appointed among the states according to population and would be elected by the people. Members of the Senate (upper house) would be chosen by the lower house and would have an equal number of representatives for each state. The House has the power to originate all bills for raising or spending money (they write the bills to be passed) and the Senate favors the smaller states with two senators for each state. This compromise also included the Three-Fifths Compromise which tackled the issue of slaves being