Creating the Constitution

Fifty-five delegates from 12 states met in Philadelphia in 1787. They were men with much governmentt and bussiness experience.

The Decision to Write a New Constituition



The delegates me to change the Articles of Conrederation and picked George Washington to be their leader. They soon decided not to just change the Articles but to write a new constitution
The delegates were known as Framers. They got ideas for the Constitution from many sources. Some ideas came from ancient Greek and Roman governments. They also got ideas from French and British philosophers like Montesquieu and Locke. Mostly the Framers drew on their own experiences.


The Virginia and New Jersey Plans

The delegates from Virginia were the first to suggest a plan. The Virginia Plan, written by James Madison, called for three branches-an executive, a bicameral legislature, and courts. The number of representatives to the legislature was linked to a State's wealth and population. States with few people were against this plan.
The New Jersey Plan, presented by William Paterson, called for a government without a seperation of powers. In its unicameral legislature, each State had the smae number of representatives.


Compromises

Connecticut's delegates came up with the Connecticut Compromise, calling for two house in Congress. In the Senate, all States would have the same number of representatives. In the House of Representatives, States with more people would have more representatives. People called this plan the Great Compromise.
The Framers also argued over how to count African-American slaves in the population. Southern States wanted to count slaves because this would give them more representatives in the House. States without slaves thought this was unfair. The result was the

Three-Fifths Compromise, which said that States could count three-fifths of their slaves.
There were many compromises in the Constitution. See the chart on page 14. It earned the nickname-"Bundle of Compromises." The Framers did agree on most things. Benjamin Franklin said the Constitution was not perfect but it was the best they could write at the time.