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.