UNITED STATES

The Constitution provided the main framework of the United States government byoutlining the three main branches of our government and both powers and limits tostate and national government.

May 25, 1787The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia convened starting with delegates from seven states to discuss revising the Articles of Confederation. Eventually, all states but Rhode Island were represented.

September 17, 1787All 12 state delegates approve the Constitution, 39 delegates out of the 42 present sign it.

Duration time to make the Constitution: about 4 months

Originally the plan at the constitutional convention was to revise the Articles ofConfederation because of the conflicts it had been causing but they ended up

writinga Constitution.

• Collage of the major important people that wrote the constitution or were part of it

From top to bottom, left to right: James Madison of Virginia, George Mason of Virginia, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Alexander Hamilton of New York, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and George Washington of Virginia

Delegates at the Constitutional

Convention

• To provide a base of the American government • Outlines the branches of government as well as

the powers and limits of states and national government

• Created a system of Checks and Balances to make sure that the government did not evolve into a tyranny from having too much power

• The Great Compromise between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan

• Constitution and the Bill Of Rights- a cohesive pair

Key Ideas/Principles:

• A system to make sure that all branches have equal power and to prevent one branch of government from becoming too powerful

• A main power given by the checks and balances system is to have the right to check on other branches

Diagram of how each branch can check on each other to maintain equal power

Virginia Plan: •Strong centralized national government•Bicameral legislature : two houses•One house would be directly elected by the people and the other house would be nominated by the state legislatures

New Jersey Plan:•Weak decentralized national government•Building off of the Articles of Confederation, but amending some that are unfit •Each state would have a vote in congress•Unicameral legislature

The Great Compromise:•Bicameral legislature•One house would be elected by the people based on population and the other house has two senators per state appointed by state legislatures

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The Great Compromise

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The Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution because they were afraid it would allow the government to be too powerful

The only way Anti-Federalists would approve of it is if a Bill of Rights was created passed with the Constitution

September 25, 1789, the Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution protecting rights of individuals

Bill of Rights

The Constitution was a significant part our United States historybecause it founded our Government. Not only has it formed thefoundation of our country but impacted everything in United Stateshistory. If the Constitution was not ratified on September 17, 1787then we could still be living by the Articles of Confederation whichwe all know caused some problems, for example Shay’s Rebellion. Ifwe were living by the government set up by the Articles ofConfederation then who knows if America would have evensurvived, today although we are not in the best economy right nowwe still have many positive aspects. For example we have a verystrong functioning government and judicial system.

Why is the Constitution important?

A Wordle on the Constitution ofthe United States. It

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What did the Wordle mean?As you know the main purpose of the Constitution is to lay out allaspects of our government and outline the powers and limits given tothe national government. Within the Wordle of the Constitution thereare many key words that are shown in extra big font or in bold whichrelating to those main ideas. A few are president, United States,Congress, section, power, representatives, amendment and state.Among the very large words there are a few smaller ones like House,Senate, powers, and legislature. If I did not know what theConstitution was or what it did then I could infer from the mostcommon words that it maintained equal representation within thestates (in the House and Senate), balancing powers of Congress, states,and the president and allowing amendments/changes if necessary.

Louisiana PurchaseIn 1803 Napoleon offered to sellTheir territory in the United StatesBecause the French needed to payoff for funds they needed tocontinue fighting in Europe.Jefferson knew that theconstitution did not state whetherOr not he had the right to buy landFor America and Jefferson hadalways been a strict constructionist.

As a strict constructionist he believed that if the power to do something was not stated within the Constitution then you cannot assume you have the power to do so and this is exactly the type of conflict he was in. In the end he did follow through and the major addition of land to the United States that almost doubled the size became known as the Louisiana Purchase. Although Jefferson’s actions went against his own beliefs he knew this would benefit the United states so he could not refuse.

CitationsData - Online1. (2000). Constitution of the United States. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from : http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-

constitution-of-united-states.html2. (2010). National Constitution Center. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from Amtrak: http://constitutioncenter.org/3. Mount, S. (1995). The United States Constitution. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from : http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html4. , (n.d.). The Great Compromise. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from New York Times Company:

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/f/greatcompromise.htm5. Oak Hill Publishing, (2003). Constitution Day 2010. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from : http://www.constitutionday.cc/

Pictures - Online6. (2003). Fair and Impartial Courts. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from Convio: http://data.lambdalegal.org/images/fcp_checks-

balances_lg.gif7. , (n.d.). Bill of Rights . Retrieved October 23, 2010, from Wordpress: http://grannygeek.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Bill-of-Rights.gif8. , (n.d.). The Louisiana Purchase Agreement. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from Amazon:

http://thomaslegion.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/louisiana_purchase_treaty_agreement.jpg

Data – Textbook9. Brinkley, A. (2003). American History. McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Programs:10. Feinberg, J. (2009). Wordle. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from : http://www.wordle.net/

Sound:11. www.televisiontunes.com