USI.7

 media type="custom" key="29545969" align="right" =Explain the roles of various founders at the Constitutional Convention. Describe the major debates that occurred at the Convention and the "Great Compromise" that was reached.=

For more information, link to
 * ==== AP United States History 4 on the American Revolutionary Era ====
 * ====AP Government on the Constitution====

**A. Major Debates**

 * The distribution of political power
 * Virginia and New Jersey Plans
 * The Great Compromise
 * The rights of individuals
 * The Bill of Rights
 * The rights of states
 * Slavery
 * The Three-Fifths Compromise
 * See also Grade 5.22 **

**B. Founders**

 * Benjamin Franklin
 * Alexander Hamilton
 * James Madison
 * Dolley Madison
 * George Washington

**Women and the Constitution**

 * See also Grade 5.18 **

// Focus Questions: What were the roles of various founders at the Constitutional Convention? What were the major debates that occurred at the Convention? //
Click here an interactive graphic of the painting on the right side of the page, [|Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy], and other depictions of the signing from TeachingAmericanHistory.org



For primary source documents on the Constitution, see the Founders Constitution from the University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund.

Flip through this very thorough and comprehensive [|timeline] about the events surrounding the Constitutional Convention. Almost every event has a link connecting you with primary sources, or explanation and analysis of the event.

Which Founder are You? How does your personality most resemble one of the founders? Click here to take an online quiz from the National Constitution Center to compare personality traits with 12 delegates to the Constitutional Convention.


 * [[image:Screen Shot 2016-02-13 at 11.47.54 AM.png link="@http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution"]]Interactive Constitution **from the National Constitution Center allows readers to view the Constitution article by article with explanatory notes from Linda R.

Thomas Jefferson's Draft Constitution for Virginia(June 1776). In this document, never debated and now largely forgotten, Jefferson called for ending slavery, specified rights for native peoples, outlawing most capital punishment, eliminating any standing army, and not allowing politicians to run for reelection.

Linda Monk's The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution.

Elbridge Gerry who attended the Constitutional Convention but did not sign the Constitution was later the fifth Vice-President of the United States. Education Portal provides a quick video over-viewing the Constitutional Convention and the Great Compromise. It also comes with some quiz questions. There's also this quick and dirty run through of the events of the convention made by [|Hughes History] on YouTube; it's about 15 so it's a good length for showing it in class.

PBS has a documentary and primary documents (Abigail Adams' letter to John Adams to 'Remember the ladies') for the American Experience: John and Abigail Adams For more on the Constitutional Convention and the process of changing the government, see //Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788//, Pauline Maier, Simon & Schuster, 2010.
 * As historian Richard Brookhiser noted in his review of Maier's book, "both sides [Federalists and Anti-Federalists] won something. The Constitution prevailed, but the spirited resistance encouraged the First Congress to propose the amendments now known as the Bill of Rights" (The New York Times Book Review, October 31, 2010, p. 20).

[|Go here for names and pictures]of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, the 40 signers of the Constitution, and the 15 delegates to the Constitutional Convention who did not sign the Constitution from Wikimedia Commons.

Click here for a multimedia resource given by Joseph Ellis, an instructor at Mount Holyoke College, about the Revolutionary Generation



A. Major Debates
In 1787, delegates from the various states met in Philadelphia for what is now known as the Constitutional Convention. These delegates sought to unify the states by creating a constitution that would bring the states together under a cohesive government. Many debates took place at the Constitutional Convention over how the new government should operate.

Distribution of Political Power
The delegates from the various states were divided over how political power should be distributed. Two different plans of governmental structure were discussed.

The first plan proposed was the Virginia Plan, also called the "Large-State Plan", which called for a two-house, bicameral legislature (law-making body), a chief executive (the president), and a court system.
 * The Virginia Plan and The New Jersey Plan**
 * Our modern government is based in large part on this plan except in regard to legislative representation. The Virginia Plan held that state representation in the legislature should be proportional to its population. This meant that states with large populations would have more representation than states with small populations. Those who didn’t like the Virginia Plans could support the alternative New Jersey Plan.
 * The New Jersey Plan, also named to "Small-State Plan", called for a one-house or "unicameral" legislature where representation would be equal for all of the states. Each state would get one elected official and one vote.
 * The larger states tended to support the Virginia Plan because it would give them more power if representation was based on population, while the smaller states supported the New Jersey Plan because it would give them more power if representation was uniform across all states.

The Great Compromise
Conflict between large and small states over Congressional representation almost derailed the conference.
 * As a result, Benjamin Franklin created a committee to try and resolve conflicts relating to representation. On July 16, 1787, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth proposed a compromise between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans.
 * This compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise or Sherman's Compromise incorporated elements of both the Virginia and New Jersey Plan and was later adopted in the Constitution
 * From the Virginia plan, a bicameral legislature was adopted. Today, representation in the House of Representatives is based on population. The number of representatives a state has is based on its population.
 * From the New Jersey Plan, we have the Senate portion of Congress. Each state has two votes in the Senate.

A fantastic video discusses all of the debate that led to the Great Compromise.

Rights of individuals
By 1777, ten states had drafted and adopted their own constitutions. These constitutions addressed the rights of individuals including freedom of religion, a lack of property requirements to vote and power derived from the people.

The Constitution's greatest security for the protection of individual rights is the nation's foundational principles. The greatest power in this country is in the hands of the individual. Though the powers of government were expanded under the new constitution power is largest within the people, then the state, then the federal government. When the Constitution was drafted, some felt that the larger government required a set of outlined powers of the people.

The Bill of Rights, or the first ten Amendments to the Constitution include the basic rights of citizens. These include: 1. Freedom of Speech, Press, Petition, Religion, and peaceful protest 2. The Right to Bear Arms 3. No quartering of troops 4. No unreasonable search and seizure 5. Due Process, no self incrimination, no double jeopardy 6. Right to a Speedy Trial 7. Trial by Jury 8. No Cruel of Unusual Punishment 9. Rights of individuals not outlined in the Bill of Rights 10. Any powers not vested in the federal government are granted to the states and the people

Rights of States
The Articles of Confederation reflected a fear of tyranny or a strong central government.
 * As a result, the Articles placed most of the power in the very diverse states.
 * States acted as adjacent countries as opposed to states.
 * Federalists including John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton believed that the power of the federal government needed to be expanded to unify the nation. Their beliefs and ideas are present in The Federalist Papers.
 * Individuals who opposed the creation of a centralized federal government – for example, Patrick Henry - are known as Anti-Federalists.
 * Those who supported creating a strong national government as outlined in the Constitution were the Federalists. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay advocated the Federalist point of view.

A fun and interactive way to teach the Bill of Rights can be found here, it is an interactive website with lesson plans revolving around the Bill of Rights.

[[image:Rotating_globe-small.gif]]Slavery. For information on the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, see USI.5
The delegates also disagreed over whether slaves should be counted as part of the population when determining representation in Congress.
 * The southern states (where slaves made up a significant portion of the population) wanted them to count solely because it would give them more representation in Congress.
 * The northern states thought it was absurd that slaves would be counted since legally they were considered property, not citizens.
 * No delegate at the Convention considered making African-Americans full-fledged citizens.
 * The second aspect of the “Great Compromise” was to address this debate over whether or not slaves should be counted for determining representation. The committee decided on what is called the Three-Fifths Compromise: slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of determining representation and taxes.
 * Overview of the Three-Fifths Compromise from Digital History

According to Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, the Constitution was "defective from the start."
 * The word “slave” does not appear in the Constitution. The framers consciously avoided the word, recognizing that it would sully the document. Nevertheless, slavery received important protections in the Constitution.
 * The notorious three-fifths clause—which counted three-fifths of a state’s slave population in apportioning representation—gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.

Click [|here]for more resources on this issue.

Click here for a lesson plan on the Constitutional Convention, focusing on the issue of slavery

**At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, northern and southern delegates debated whether or not slaves would be counted as part of the state’s population. Disagreement over this question led to bitter tensions among delegates. To resolve the question referred to in the passage, delegates agreed to:** A. include all male slaves in population totals B. include no slaves in population totals C. count each slave as three-fifths of a person in population totals D. count slaves in the southern states but not in the northern states

Correct Answer: C (Question from the 2010 National Assessment of Education Progress Test)

**B. Founders**

**Click here for** photos of the Founding Fathers from Wikimedia Commons

i. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a delegate from Pennsylvania who played a critical role in helping resolve conflicts that emerged at the Constitutional Convention. He spearheaded a committee that helped solve debates between the various states over representation in the potential government. The committee was successful in resolving these conflicts by getting the delegates from the different states to compromise.

Ben Franklins' autobiography can be found here on [|Project Gutenberg]

To learn more about Benjamin Franklin peruse the PBS interactive site.

ii. Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) was one of the New York delegates at the constitutional convention.
 * Hamilton supported the constitution and campaigned for its ratification. He was one of the main authors of the Federalist Papers.
 * Although Hamilton fully supported the constitution, at the convention he put forth a plan that called for an executive to serve for life and to have veto power over all law.
 * He suggested that Senators also serve for life. Hamilton felt that since these people were elected to office and could be impeached, there was nothing wrong with a life term.
 * To Hamilton, what mattered was how the people got into office. In other words, they did not inherit their position as did the monarchy in England.

A brief biography of Hamilton's life can be found [|here.] and [|here]

To learn more about Alexander Hamilton peruse the New York Historical Society's Collection.

iii. James Madison
James Madison (1751-1836) was a delegate from Virginia at the Constitutional Convention.
 * In January of 1786 Madison had suggested that delegates from each state meet to discuss conflicts arising from the Articles of Confederation. This led to a meeting in Annapolis, Maryland where it was decided that a grand convention should be held to improve the Articles.
 * This grand convention was the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787.
 * Madison is remembered for speaking well and for taking careful notes, which are still used today to document the Convention. Madison played a critical role in writing the constitution. He defended the constitution with great fervor during the process of state ratification.
 * He wrote the majority of the Federalist Papers, which were a series of articles that presented argument in favor of ratifying the constitution. Madison authored the Bill of Rights - the first ten constitutional amendments which protect individuals form government abuses of power.

James Madison's wife Dolley Payne Todd Madison was famous for active social and political life as First Lady.

The details of her legacy and her role in her husbands' legacy can be found [|here. Courtesy of the National First Ladies' Library.]

See also [|The Dolley Madison Project]at the Virginia Center for Digital History

When [|Dolley Madison Took Command of the White House] details her actions during the 1814 British invasion of Washington, D.C.

Click here for a collection of James Madison's papers

===iv. George Washington=== George Washington (1732-1799) was a delegate from Virginia who attended the Constitutional Convention. He was elected the presiding officer of the Convention. Washington thought the Articles of Confederation were too weak (in light of Shays' Rebellion) and that there needed to be a stronger federal government. This motivated him to support the Constitution.

To learn more about George Washington peruse the official Mt. Vernon website.

The Papers of George Washington

See United States History I.22 for more information on George Washington's Presidency.

**Women and the Constitution**
While it is commonly believed that women were not mentioned at all during the Constitutional Convention, there was in fact one small reference made to them at a meeting on June 11, 1787.
 * Rutgers University professor Jan Lewis discusses the meaning and significance of this finding in this really fascinating [|article].


 * Women Who Shaped the Constitution**
 * Lesson Plan Focusing on Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren

The Women Behind the Signers

Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University, (2006). TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Retrieved April 8, 2007, Web site: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/ Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University (2006). teachingAmericanHistory.org. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Web site: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/delegates/age.html Steve, Mount (1995). Retrieved April 8, 2007, from USConstitution.net Web site: http://www.usconstitution.net/index.html Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. Retrieved April 8, 2007, from The Library of Congress Web site: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/continental/ Explore the Constitution. Retrieved April 8, 2007, from National Constitution Center Web site: http://www.constitutioncenter.org/explore/Welcome/index.shtml Constitution of the United States. Retrieved April 8, 2007, from The National Archives Experience Web site: http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html Constitutional Convention. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Web site: http://www.jmu.edu/madison/gpos225-madison2/adopt.htm Princeton University Press (1978). James Madison, Jr. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Web site: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/madison_james.html The Avalon Project at Yale Law School (1996-2007). Madison's notes from the Constitutional Convention. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Web site: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/debates/debcont.htm