How Did The Arguments During The Philadelphia Convention

Delegates have different views regarding the government failure to scrap of the Articles of Confederation and mark a new begining. The plans under development included the Virginia Plan that favoured large states and the New Jersey plan remedying small states. The Great Compromise was to benefit the small and large states together. Each of the plans would influence modern forms of the American legislature. To begin with, the focus on Madison’s original idea that led to the formation of Virginia Plan was an inclusive measure for active governments. The plan sought to respond to the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation. Articles of Confederation awarded plenty of power to the states instead of the national government (Vile 45).

The first plan is Virginia Plan, which was drafted on May 29, 1787, by James Madison and his fellow Edmund Randolph in the form of 15 resolutions. It was proposed to the Constitutional Convention by James Madison, who was a political theorist, American statesman, and the well-known fourth President of the United States. He was also the father of checks and balances, which helps to prevent the abuse of power between the branches. The Virginia Plan suggested that we should have a bicameral legislature in which contains two chambers. Besides, each state would have representatives based on the population – according to the Plan. This proposal is clearly an advantage for the large states because of their high population. More than that, they are going to have more representatives which means more power.

Of the many plans to structure the government present the two that drew the most attention were the Virginia and the New Jersey Plans. Both of these plans were decimated by members of the convention for various reason. The plan from Virginia was viewed as a structure that would be more beneficial to larger states because it recommended an executive and judicial branches of government in addition to a two chambered congress with all representation based on the population of the state which was less beneficial to smaller states such as New Jersey. While the plan recommend called the New Jersey Plan would be just the opposite of the Virginia Plan since it called for a stronger national government to support the Articles of the Confederation with the ability to tax and regulate commerce between states. The New Jersey Plan also called for a single chambered congress and each state having one single vote. Deliberations lasted many weeks until finally

The event that served as justification for the Philadelphia Convention was whether slaves should be counted as people or property. The purpose of this was so Southerners could gain more power. Of course, the Northerners were not for this, because it would result in their states no longer holding the same power. Although there was no expectation of permitting slaves the same rights as free men, the smaller states expected that the bigger states would render the smaller states voiceless, because of their increased representation. The first states delegated 70 people to the Constitutional Convention, however a number did not acknowledge or could not go. Out of that number, only 39 actually signed the Constitution. The voices that were missing

Another hot topic of the Constitutional Convention was representation in Congress. Smaller states opposed the Virginia Plan to determine representation by populations, believing that they would be overpowered by the larger states. In response, they proposed the New Jersey Plan, which proposed representation equal to each state. A committee of eleven men stepped in and developed the Great

The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was a secret meeting that took place between May and September of 1787. The reason of this meeting was to revise the Articles of Confederation. As well the problem from the Revolutionary War debt. The president of this convention was George Washington. Fifty four individuals attended which most of them were wealthy young persons who wanted to protect the economic of the state. The Constitution that arrived from the convention accepted a government with more limited powers, where each brand would check and balance the authority between the Judicial Executive and Legislative

The Southern states wanted to include slaves (who could not vote) in their population counts to increase their numbers of representatives but the Northern states did not support slavery and did not want to give the South too much power. The three-fifths compromise solved the issue of determining state population for assigning the number of representatives in the House for each state. It said that all slaves were worth three-fifths of a free person and this was added to the number of free people to create a population count. This was the method used for determining population for direct taxes as well. This allowed the South to make up forty-seven percent of the house so they were able to protect their own

During the Philadelphia Convention, there were two sides under representation, the Northern states and the Southern states. We can't forget about the original political parties, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Both sides had different economic systems, which led to disagreements during the convention. The North wanted the best for their economy and the South wanted the best for theirs. The two sides had many disagreements. They disagreed on two main points, on tariffs and slavery. The North and South couldn't agree with each other, so a compromise was made. This is known as the Connecticut Compromise, or The Great Compromise. The Framers made the compromise to try to give both parties what they wanted. They had the right ideas when

The Virginia Plan sparked debate over its legislative representative proposals. The plan proposed representation of the states by population. This proposition favored the larger states. The Jersey Plan also known as the smaller state plan rallied for equal representation for all states. A compromise was finally reached. One house of the legislature would consist of two representatives from each state. This satisfied the small states. The second house of the legislature would consist of representatives based on population, thus satisfying the larger states. The establishment of a fair measure to apply taxation and representation in the legislature was described in the Federalist Papers: The Apportionment of Members among the States. The government would conduct a census that would prevent the states from understating their population for taxation and overstating their population for representation. The “Great Compromise” resolving the issue of representation did not mean that the federalists and anti-federalists had come to agreement on the Constitution.

The House of Representatives uses the states' population to determine how many representatives each state receives in the House. In the southern states, they thought that everyone, including slaves, should be counted. The northern states did not think that it was fair to count the slaves in the total population, since there were a lot more slaves in the south than the north. Both sides agreed to the 3/5 Compromise. This compromise said that for every 5 slaves, they would be counted as 3 citizens. Therefore, 60% of the slave population would be used when the states' population is counted. Slavery in the United States lasted until towards the end of the Civil War and even some after the Emancipation Proclamation, since it only freed slaves in the South and not in the North.

55 delegates of twelve states wrote the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 and in 1788 the states ratified it. That gathering at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall brought nearly all of the nation’s most prominent men together, including Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and George Washington. Several of the men appointed had records of service in the army and in the courts and others were experienced in colonial and state government. When Thomas Jefferson found out who had been appointed he wrote “It is really an assembly of demigods” to John Adams. That summer in Philadelphia, the men, drew out a document defining the distinct powers for the the president, the federal courts and the Congress. This division of authority that was established is known as the principle of separation of powers, and it ensures that none of the branches of government can overstep their boundaries.

In May of 1787, fifty-five delegates from all states except for Rhode Island held a convention in Philadelphia (Henretta, 2012, pg.184). The convention later known as the Philadelphia Convention. The goal was to determine the future of the Republican Government. The nationalist composed of an elite group of well-educated men. Unfortunately, the most influential members such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, and Patrick Henry would not be attending (Henretta, 2012, pg. 185). The convention would back down from the demands of delegates from southern states. Without the importation of African slaves continued their states would not be part of the Union (Henretta, 2012, pg. 187). Leaving the southern states free to determine the legal ramifications of slavery in their own states. For the sake of more arguments, not for lack of concern. Delegates recognized the contradiction of slavers and the republican principle, but assume that it would eventually die out.

The next, more vital to the future of America, was the Three Fifths clause. The Three Fifths clause was set in place so that the southern states, which had significantly less people, get more say in the House of Representatives than their free, white population warranted. The Three Fifths clause added three fifths of the total slave population to the free population of the state in order to be more equal to the northern states whose population of free men was overwhelming to the amount in the southern states.

Small states delegates rejected the Virginia Plan since it was mainly a Utopia and would cause future flaws and disagreements between the states’ equal representation in government. Roche also mentions Alexander Hamilton’s effort to denounce both the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan stating that both plans were “inadequately centralist” (20). The author also applauds Madison’s “devotion to the art of politics” because he was able to create The Federalist essays although they contracted with his original views (22). John P. Roche then goes on to refer to the Electoral College as a compromise between every delegates’ ideas on how the president were to be