Major Compromises to the new Constitution

November 15, 1777,

The first written constitution in America, or otherwise the Articles of Confederation, created the foundation of the later version we know as the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation left the states individual and independent from each other, for the fear of a danger to liberty from too much centralized power. We began with a one - house congress in each state, regardless of the size or population. The turnout for major decisions consisted of the approval from nine states out of the thirteen. The only power enlisted to the National Government could be summed down to declaring war, foreign affairs, and making treaties.

Many things were confusing in our time, including currency, which differed from state to state. For example, the National government had no real authority to currency, thus states printed their own money, which had the outcome of one currency being worthless in another state’s economy.

Another dispute came over the idea of westward expansion, which the Articles of Confederation established rules for its settlement. What made this most difficult is the misconception that the land was empty. While in fact, around 100000 Native Americans were spread across the westward front. Different treaties with the Natives were established and in result, large land was surrendered from both North and South Indian territories. With these events, Americans saw this as both a negative and positive thing; negative being the fact that there would be countless disputes with the Natives, but on the other hand, some saw this as positive from the increased land that could be cultivated for agriculture.

May 25, 1787,

The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia, where the opinions of many were finally spoken in public, giving us the opportunity to have change in our favor. Discussions were held between fifty- five of the most ‘prominent men’, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin.

It was almost immediately agreed on that the new government would have a legislative, executive, and judicial branch to balance out the different powers. Issues like currency arose from the inability of Congress to repay gold/silver with paper money, thus giving Federalist a greater argument to establish for a stronger national government. Congress would be enabled to raise money, States would be prohibited from interfering with rights of property, and the representation of the people would come directly from the government.

Still searching for the right balance of power, George Mason proposed the Virginia plan. The Virginia plan included the “creation of a two – house legislature with a state’s population determining its representation in each.” Smaller states opposed this idea in fear that larger states would overpower them, so they decided to adopt the New Jersey plan. It consisted of a “single- house Congress in which each state cast one vote…” The ending compromise included a two house Congress where there was two members of the Senate for each state, and a ‘House of Representatives’ that reflected the amount of population.

Out of four months of debates, the Constitution consisted of two basic principles which included federalism, and a system called checks and balances which made sure that no branch of the national government was given too much power. The new Constitution allowed “Congress to levy taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, declare war, deal with foreign nations and Indians, and promote the ‘general welfare’.”

The new Constitution also proclaimed the national legislation the “supreme Law of the Land.” The powers that generally went to state government went mostly to education and law enforcement. Although the debates continue to this day, over the balance of power between the national government and state government. To prevent the dominating of any specific power, the system of checks and balances comes to play, as stated earlier. The President, has the ability to veto laws that Congress enacts, and it would take two- thirds of the legislative majority to pass over his objection. Judges within the Federal government were to picked by the president himself, but to be approved by Congress. “The president could be impeached the House and removed from office by the Senate for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’.”

Even though it was important, the governmental structure wasn’t the only thing included in the discussions at the Constitutional Convention. Another issue that caused separation was slavery, which seemed to be contradictory to the constitution and many ways. The phrases that included anything about slavery did not exist in the constitution. On January 1, 11808, Congress was finally allowed to prohibit any further slave importations. Also there came a few rules attached to this one, including the fugitive slave law. It stated that even if a slave were to escape from their bondage to a place where slavery was abolished, they were to still be considered a slave. The constitution included that the national government had no power to interfere with states’ slavery.

September 17, 1787,

The final document of the constitution was signed by thirty- nine of the forty- five delegates who stayed in Philadelphia at the time. It was then sent to the states for ‘ratification’. Thus the transition took place from a weak national government, to one who supported each other through the idea of checks and balances. From the Articles of Confederation to the new Constitution, a lot of necessary changes were made, to enable the U.S. to change for the better in a sense.

Citations: Give Me Liberty! By Eric Foner third edition

page 259-272