Farewell Address. Z: the Continental Convention. Constitutional Convention. Objections of Edmund Randolph. Objections to the Constitution. Cato I. Federal Farmer I. Cato II. An Old Whig I. Letter to Edmund Randolph with Objections to the C An Old Whig II. Centinel II. A Republican I. An Old Whig IV. An Old Whig V. An Old Whig VI. An Officer of the Late Continental Army. Philadelphiensis I.
Brutus, Jr. Cato IV. An American: The Crisis. Brutus on Mason's Objections. Timothy Pickering and the Letters from the Federal Maryland Farmer. Philadelphiensis II. A Countryman III. Speech to Maryland State House of Delegates. Philadelphiensis III. A Countryman IV. Cincinnatus VI. Philadelphiensis IV. Agrippa VI. Philadelphiensis V. A Countryman V. Reasons of Dissent from the Proposed Constitution. One of the People: Antifederalist Arguments. Centinel VI.
Philadelphiensis VI. Brutus VI. Genuine Information I. Agrippa IX. Genuine Information II. Genuine Information III. Genuine Information IV. Centinel IX. Brutus VIII. Philadelphiensis VII. Agrippa XII Part 1. Genuine Information V. Centinel X. Agrippa XII Part 2. Genuine Information VI.
Centinel XI. Agrippa XII Part 3. Genuine Information VII. A Copy of a Letter from Centinel. Philadelphiensis VIII. Centinel XII. Genuine Information IX. Agrippa XIV Part 2. Agrippa XV. Brutus No. The Slave Trade Clause. Notes on Debates in Congress. John Jay to Thomas Jefferson. Virginia General Assembly Commissioning Delegates Letter to David Humphreys. John Jay to George Washington.
Letter to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Edmund Randolph to James Madison. Letter to Edmund Randolph. James Madison to Edmund Randolph. Vices of the Political System of the United States. The Rules of the Convention.
The Virginia Plan. Variant Texts of the Virginia Plan. Summary of Letters from Jay, Knox and Madison. The Judiciary. The Madison-Sherman Exchange. The Two Authorizations Revisited. The Hamilton Plan. Partly National, Partly Federal. The Gerry Committee Report.
The Three-Fifths Clause Revisited. The Fugitive Slave Clause. The Committee of Detail Report. A Foreign Spectator I. Atticus I. A Foreign Spectator IV. A Foreign Spectator VI. Creating the Electoral College. The Powers of Congress.
The Signing of the Constitution. Call for state ratifying conventions by Confederat Cato No. Debates on the Legislative Branch. Federal Farmer No. Federal Farmer, No. State Constitutions. Draft Constitution for Virginia. New Jersey Constitution.
Massachusetts Bill of Rights. A Sermon on the Commencement of the Constitution. Letter to Reverend Francis Adrian Vanderkemp. On paper, Congress—the central authority—had the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war, and regulate currency, but in practice these powers were sharply limited because Congress was given no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops.
By , it was apparent that the Union would soon break up if the Articles of Confederation were not amended or replaced.
Five states met in Annapolis, Maryland , to discuss the issue, and all the states were invited to send delegates to a new constitutional convention to be held in Philadelphia. The building, which is now known as Independence Hall, had earlier seen the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Articles of Confederation. The assembly immediately discarded the idea of amending the Articles of Confederation and set about drawing up a new scheme of government.
Revolutionary War hero George Washington , a delegate from Virginia , was elected convention president. During an intensive debate, the delegates devised a brilliant federal organization characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress, as more-populated states sought proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation.
The problem was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house House of Representatives and equal representation of the states in the upper house Senate.
On September 17, , the Constitution was signed. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? In the ensuing debate, Hugh Williamson from North Carolina rejected this idea. Gouverneur Morris and Hamilton argued that the delegates needed to sign the Constitution. Franklin then made the final motion to sign the document, which was approved by 10 of the state delegations.
You can read more about how the Convention came about here. The Constitution was written out by Gouverneur Morris, a delegate from Pennsylvania. This task, as it turned out, gave him control over the actual punctuation of certain clauses in the Constitution. The famous "We the People" preamble is also credited to Morris. Finally, on September 17, , 39 of the 55 delegates signed the new document -- with many of those who refused to sign objecting to its lack of a bill of rights which would come along a few years later in the form of the first 10 amendments of the Constitution , and at least one delegate refused to sign because the document, as written, codified and protected slavery and the slave trade.
Much of the debate between the delegates was conducted in secret to make sure that those involved spoke their minds. Two plans vied for the form the new legislature would take: the Virginia Plan, supported by most of the larger states, which broke out representation based on each state's population; and the New Jersey Plan, generally preferred by smaller states, which gave each state an equal vote in Congress, regardless of population.
Ultimately, the delegates settled on "the Great Compromise," in which it was decided that the House of Representatives would represent the people according to a given state's population, and the Senate would be apportioned equally to represent the states.
The plan also called for an independent judiciary, and decided that the President would be elected by the Electoral College. They did indeed -- here's the process the founders established for amending the Constitution a process made intentionally difficult and involved to prevent arbitrary, one-off changes :.
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