Chapter 5
Things that are key in this chapter…
• The Articles of Confederation
• The Constitutional Convention
• The New Constitution
• The Bill of Rights
Some issues (DWTD)
• What will the relationship between the states and the federal government be?
• The states are reluctant to unite and lose their individuality.
3 BIG ISSUES IN THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
• How will states be represented?
• How will power be shared?
• Who will get lands in the West?
The Articles ofConfederation
Were weak because that is what the colonies wanted.
The federal government could:
-declare war, make peace, sign treaties, borrow money, set weights and measures, create a postal service, deal w/ natives.
The federal government could not:
-enforce it’s laws, tax, create national courts.
Lands in the West were an issue!!!
• The colonies CEDED all of their lands to the federal government.
• Two key laws were made to control those lands.
• Established a plan for surveying and dividing the land.
• Look at the map of states the existed before it!!
• Created the process for dividing land into territories.
• Set requirements for the admission of new states.
• What about the natives?
How a territory becomes a state?
• 1. Congress appoints a territorial governor and judges.
• 2. When a territory has 5,000 voting residents, they can write a temporary constitution and elect a government.
• 3. When the pop. reaches 60,000 free inhabitants, the residents write a constitution and when it is approved, they can become a state.
The government faced some problems it couldn’t solve!!!
Constitutional Convention
• The states realized that they needed to make some changes
• So they met in Philadelphia in 1787.
The Constitutional The Constitutional ConventionConvention
© Shawn McCusker
A few facts…
• They were only supposed to fix the Articles of Confederation.
• They met from May to September in 1787.
• The meeting was secret!!! People knew they were meeting but they did not share details.
First they agree to…
• Scrap the Articles of Confederation.
• Create 3 Branches of Government. Why?
ExecutiveExecutive
LegislativeLegislative
JudicialJudicial
• How will the states be represented in the government?
• Small States and Large States disagreed.
2 plans were proposed
• The New Jersey Plan
– Each State would get equal representation in Congress
– This would make smaller states more powerful.
• The Virginia Plan
– Each state would get representation based upon population
– This would give large states greater representation.
The Result was…
• The Great CompromiseThe Great Compromise– Proposed by Roger ShermanProposed by Roger Sherman
• Created a bicameral legislature. Created a bicameral legislature. The House of The House of
RepresentativesRepresentativesThe SenateThe Senate
Representation by pop.
Equal representation
• The framers of the Constitution did not trust the common man.
• Why?
• The common man was a simple farmer.
So in order to “protect” the country they created…
• The Electoral College
• The indirect election of Senators
• States created land ownership requirements in order to vote.
• Should Slaves count towards the population of southern states.
• Get ready for hypocrisy at it’s best.
The North and South disagree
• The SOUTH says The SOUTH says that they Should that they Should be counted as part be counted as part of the population.of the population.
• How is this How is this different from what different from what they usually they usually believe about believe about slaves?slaves?
• The North says The North says that they should that they should not be counted .not be counted .
• What if they just What if they just agreed?agreed?
The 3/5 Compromise
• 3/5 of the slave population would 3/5 of the slave population would be counted towards the be counted towards the population of southern states.population of southern states.
• This means that each slave This means that each slave counts as 3/5 of a person.counts as 3/5 of a person.
After the Constitutional Convention
• The Constitution is released to the public. 9 states must ratify it before it takes effect.
• Two sides form.
• Supporters of the Constitution= Federalists
• People opposed are called Anti-Federalists.
The Federalist The Federalist PapersPapers
And so..
• In Late 1787 the constitution is adopted by the states…
• But only after they promise to make a list of rights reserved to the people.
• 1789- The Bill of Rights is adopted.