What was a characteristic of the government under the Articles of Confederation?
Use this Narrative with the Constitutional Convention Lesson and after students have done The Articles of Confederation, 1781 Primary Source activity. Show
The 1787 Constitutional Convention traces its origins to early September 1786, when Virginia congressman James Madison and eleven other delegates interested in increasing the powers of the national government met at a tavern in Annapolis, Maryland. Although attended by representatives of only five states – New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia – the Annapolis Convention issued a report, written by Alexander Hamilton, citing “important defects in the system of the federal government” under the Articles of Confederation. Members proposed a convention in Philadelphia the following May to discuss possible improvements to the Articles. In February, Congress endorsed the idea. Members of Congress and others were increasingly concerned that the Articles of Confederation was inadequate. The Articles placed strict limits on the power of the national government, which had a unicameral legislature of equally represented states, no independent executive, no national judiciary, no power to tax or regulate interstate commerce, and limited ability to raise armies for defense. Congress needed supermajorities to pass certain laws and unanimity to pass amendments. During the Confederation period in the 1780s, states ignored congressional requisitions for taxes, passed tariffs on each other, nearly went to war over trade and territorial disputes, and routinely overlooked the provisions of the 1783 peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War. Members of the Virginia delegation, including Washington and Madison, arrived in Philadelphia early. Believing the states were too powerful compared to the central government, they met with the Pennsylvania delegation and drafted a plan of government, largely of Madison’s design. This Virginia Plan was guided by the goal of creating a much stronger national government to govern the country more effectively. On Friday, May 25, 1787, the delegates assembled in the Pennsylvania State House. All agreed the Articles of Confederation had numerous weaknesses that needed to be addressed, but they disagreed strongly on the appropriate solutions. First, the convention unanimously selected Washington to preside as president, and his prestige legitimized the gathering in the minds of many. The delegates then decided to allow each state delegation one vote and to conduct the proceedings in secret to allow greater candor in free and open debate. On Tuesday, May 29, Virginian Edmund Randolph introduced the fifteen resolutions of the Virginia Plan. This plan proposed an independent executive, a national judiciary, and a bicameral Congress. Representation would be proportional to population in both houses. The plan also included a national veto over state laws to prevent injustice in the states. Finally, it proposed to send the work of the convention to popular ratifying conventions in the states rather than to state legislatures. Madison knew the Virginia Plan went beyond Congress’s instructions merely to revise the Articles, so he wanted the people’s representatives to approve it. He wanted to avoid the state legislatures, however, suspecting they would oppose the plan’s strengthening of the national government at the expense of their own governments. The Virginia Plan immediately sparked contention over the consolidation of power in the national government and the shape of Congress. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina asked whether the plan “meant to abolish the state [governments] altogether.” Madison responded that a stronger national government was necessary to “provide for the safety, liberty, and happiness” of the people. Although the delegates accepted a bicameral Congress without debate, they disagreed over whether the state legislatures or the people would elect its members. Madison wanted the House to be elected by popular vote, based on the principle of republican self-government. “The great fabric to be raised would be more stable and durable, if it should rest on the solid foundation of the people themselves.” Although he also continued to support a national congressional veto on the laws of the states as “absolutely necessary to a perfect system,” this clause was eventually defeated. The large and small states, and the North and South, deadlocked over the issue of representation. The large states wanted both houses of Congress to be based on population size, whereas the smaller states (which had generally smaller populations) wanted equal representation and one vote per state. George Read of Delaware even threatened to leave the convention if proportional representation were accepted. A further split developed when the South wanted to count slaves fully as human beings for purposes of representation; the northern states argued that slaves were property and wanted to count them for taxes but not representation. On June 15, William Paterson of New Jersey offered an alternative to the Virginia Plan that maintained state sovereignty based on the federal principle. This New Jersey Plan preserved the unicameralism, equal representation, and weak executive of the Articles. Paterson did offer to strengthen the powers of the national Congress over taxation and regulation of trade, however, as well as to make federal treaties the supreme law of the land. The delegates made little headway in attempting to create a national executive. Rival ideas about how many individuals would serve as executive (one or many), the length of the term of office, and the mode of election (by the people, the states, or Congress) were all debated for weeks. Randolph feared a single executive would be the “fetus of monarchy” and preferred a plural executive. George Mason, also from Virginia, asked whether the convention meant “to pave the way to hereditary monarchy.” Believing that an energetic single executive would actually better prevent tyranny than a weak one, Pennsylvanian James Wilson answered that “Unity in the executive . . . would be the best safeguard against tyranny.” The floor of the State House was not the only arena where the delegates debated their principles and tried to find common ground. They held informal discussions at dinners and in taverns in the evenings and on weekends. Still, they could find little ground for compromise, and some feared their differences might never be resolved. A special committee of eleven was appointed to break the impasse. On Monday, July 16, the convention agreed to the special committee’s proposals in the form of the Connecticut Compromise, which created a bicameral Congress that was partly national, partly federal. The House of Representatives would be based upon proportional representation and would serve as the source of spending bills, adhering to the principle of no taxation without popular representation. Five slaves would count as three free persons for purposes of calculating representation. In the Senate, all states would have two votes, with senators elected by state legislatures. This became known as the Great Compromise. On Thursday, July 26, the convention adjourned for several days to allow a Committee of Detail to reconcile and organize all the resolutions that had been accepted up to that point. On August 6, the committee offered a report that, during the coming month, the convention painstakingly debated line by line. For instance, the committee said Congress could never prohibit or tax the international slave trade. But Mason thought the slave trade immoral and called it a “nefarious traffic.” Gouverneur Morris, a New Yorker representing Pennsylvania, said it was conducted “in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity.” John Rutledge of South Carolina countered by arguing for economic self-interest: “If the Convention thinks that [North Carolina], [South Carolina,] and Georgia will ever agree to the plan, unless their right to import slaves be untouched, the expectation is vain. The people of those states will never be such fools as to give up so important an interest.” The delegates eventually compromised and banned congressional interference with the international slave trade for only one generation, until 1808. The convention then resolved the remaining contentious points. The executive branch would have a single president, who served a four-year term, was eligible for re-election, could veto laws passed by Congress, and would have broad powers over foreign policy and war making. The president would be elected by an electoral college, to which each state would choose, in whatever manner its legislature decided, electors equal in number to the sum of its members of the Senate and House of Representatives. In addition, a national judiciary was conceived and its jurisdiction established. On September 8, Congress appointed a Committee of Style to draft the Constitution, which enumerated the powers of Congress and was largely the work of Governor Morris. Starting on September 12, Congress debated the wording of the Constitution for three days. The end was in sight, but Mason strenuously argued for a bill of rights to protect essential liberties and offered to draft it himself. Many delegates argued that state constitutions already had protections, and the state delegations unanimously rejected Mason’s proposal. Mason, Randolph, and Elbridge Gerry thus registered their opposition to the document by refusing to sign. Mason said he would “sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands.” Several delegates admitted that, although imperfect, the document was the best that could be achieved and urged their fellow delegates to sign. (a) George Mason, (b) Edmund Randolph, and (c) Elbridge Gerry all refused to sign the Constitution, claiming it gave too much power to the national government. On September 17, thirty-nine delegates from twelve states signed the Constitution as written. Besides the three who did not, some had gone home. The remaining delegates then retired to the City Tavern, where they dined together and, as Washington noted in his diary, “took a cordial leave of each other.” The framers of the Constitution had drafted a document that created a stronger republican government embodying the principles of popular sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and limited government. If ratified, this “new order of the ages” would become the fundamental law of the land. But first the people’s representatives had to approve it through a deliberative process conducted in state ratifying conventions. Watch this BRI Homework Help video on the Constitution for a comprehensive review of key issues in the development of the constitution, including representation (state vs. population and how slaves should be represented), checks and balances, federal versus state powers, and the Bill of Rights. Review Questions1. Which of the following was not an item for debate during the Constitutional Convention?
2. During the Constitutional Convention, states were divided in their arguments as
3. During the Constitutional Convention, the idea to base representation on population and have ratification take place in special conventions was part of which plan?
4. The idea to maintain the Articles of Confederation’s equal representation between the states and a very weak executive branch in this new Constitution was
5. Who lent his prestige to the convention by acting as the leader?
6. Which of the following was not a weakness of the Articles of Confederation?
7. The primary difference between the Articles of Confederation and the proposed new Constitution was the
8. Which of the following statements best describes the new Constitution?
Free Response Questions
AP Practice Questions
James Madison, Vices of the Political System of the United States, April 1787 Refer to the excerpt provided.1. According to James Madison, which of the following statements was not a problem with the government under the Articles of Confederation?
2. Which of the following characteristic of the 1787 Constitution directly addressed the issues Madison outlined in the excerpt provided?
Benjamin Franklin, September 17, 1787 3. Which of the following items discussed during the Constitutional Convention was not a “local interest,” as described by Franklin in the excerpt provided?
4. Which of the following best represents Franklin’s intention when discussing this new Constitution?
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution Refer to the excerpt provided.5. Taken together, these two sections of Article 1 might be applied to allow the government to do which of the following?
6. Which of these problems under the Articles of Confederation is most closely related to remedies provided in the Article 1, Sections 1 and 8 excerpts provided?
Preamble of the Articles of Confederation, 1781
Preamble of the United States Constitution, 1787 Refer to the excerpt provided.7. A historian might use the excerpts provided to demonstrate
8. What historical event relates to the change in the powers of the national government articulated in the excerpts provided?
Primary Sources“Articles of Confederation. Primary Documents in American History.” Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html “Constitution of the United States: A Transcription.” National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript Madison, James. “Vices of the Political System of the United States, April, 1787.”Founders Online, National Archives and Records Administration. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-09-02-0187 Madison, James. Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/stream/jamesmadisonsnot00scot/jamesmadisonsnot00scot_djvu.txt Suggested ResourcesBeeman, Richard. Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. New York: Random House, 2009. Berkin, Carol. A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution. New York: Harcourt, 2002. Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787. Boston: Little Brown, 1966. Brookhiser, Richard. James Madison. New York: Basic, 2012. Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin, 2004. Ellis, Joseph J. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution. New York: Knopf, 2015. Farrand, Max. The Framing of t Save to My LibraryShare Duration30 minStandards Topics: 3.7 Articles Show moreGrade Level9, 10, 11, 12Period EraThe Founding, 1780sTopicConstitutionRelated ContentLife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of HappinessIn our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment. What were the characteristics of the Articles of Confederation quizlet?Terms in this set (7). Each state had only one vote in Congress, regardless of size. ... . Congress didnt have the power to tax. ... . Congress didnt have the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. ... . there was no executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress. ... . No national court system.. What are the characteristics of a Confederation?The characteristics of confederations also are highlighted by distinguishing them from federations.. No Authority to Legislate for Individuals. ... . No Independent Revenue Sources. ... . Sovereignty Retained by the Member States. ... . Member-State Citizenship. ... . Written Document. ... . Expressly Delegated Powers.. What are 3 main points of the Articles of Confederation?Article 1: Created the name of the combined 13 states as The United States of America. Article 2: State governments still had their own powers that were not listed in the Articles of Confederation. Article 3: The combined states were responsible for helping to protect each other from attacks.
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