3.8 The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification

Weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation convinced many national leaders that the United States needed a stronger central government. The Constitutional Convention created a new federal system, and ratification debates centered on representation, federal power, and individual rights.

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled, argued, and finally agreed in this room, styled in the same manner as during the Convention. Photograph of the Assembly Room, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Image Courtesy of Wikimedia. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

What to Know About the Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification

• Despite limited attendance, the Annapolis Convention called for a meeting in Philadelphia, where delegates from 12 states proposed a new Constitution.
• The Virginia Plan called for two houses with population-based representation, while the New Jersey Plan called for one house with equal representation for each state.
• The Great Compromise created a two-house Congress with House representation based on population and equal Senate representation for each state.
• The Three-Fifths Compromise counted each enslaved person as three-fifths of a free person for House representation and direct taxes. Congress could not end the international slave trade until 1808, but slavery remained legal.
• The Electoral College gave states electors based on their representation in Congress, and the completed Constitution went to the states for ratification in 1787.
• During ratification, Anti-Federalists, who opposed adopting the Constitution, clashed with Federalists, who defended it in the Federalist Papers, written mainly by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Federalists won adoption by promising to add a Bill of Rights that would list individual rights and explicitly limit federal power.

Creating the Constitution

The Annapolis Convention

To review what could be done about the country's inability to solve major problems, George Washington hosted a conference at his home in Mt. Vernon, Virginia. Representatives agreed that the problems were serious enough to hold a meeting later in Annapolis, Maryland so that all the states could be represented. Only five states sent representatives to the Annapolis Convention. Despite the limited attendance, the convention did produce a report recommending that a new convention be held the following year in Philadelphia "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation."

The Constitutional Convention

The convention was attended by 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states. Rhode Island did not send any representatives. The convention lasted for 4 months, and the delegates, many of them experienced and prominent leaders, engaged in intense and prolonged debate. In the end, they proposed a new framework for government, known as the Constitution of the United States.

The delegates knew they needed a new set of laws, but there were debates about how to go about making them. How would power be divided?

Debates over Ratification

One of the main debates at the Constitutional Convention was how to balance the power between the states in the new government. As you know, the Articles of Confederation had given each state an equal vote in the Confederation Congress, but this led to difficulties in passing legislation and achieving consensus on important issues.

During the convention, several different plans for representation in Congress were proposed:

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The Virginia Plan

The Virginia Plan, largely written by James Madison, was introduced by Edmund Randolph at the Constitutional Convention, representing the interests of the larger states:

• Structure: Proposed a completely new government with three separate branches:
  • Executive branch to enforce laws
  • Legislative branch to make laws
  • Judicial branch to interpret laws
• Legislative design: Called for a bicameral (two-house) legislature:
  • Both houses would have representation based on state population
  • Lower house would be elected directly by the people
  • Upper house would be chosen by the lower house
• Power distribution: Favored the more populous states:
  • Population-based representation gave more influence to states like Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania
  • Smaller states viewed this as threatening their sovereignty and interests
• Federal authority: Expanded national government powers to address weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation:
  • Power to regulate interstate commerce
  • Authority to collect taxes
  • Ability to enforce federal laws

The Virginia Plan became the starting point for debate at the Constitutional Convention, though it would later be modified through compromise with opposing proposals from smaller states.

The New Jersey Plan

The New Jersey Plan was proposed by William Paterson and others from the state of New Jersey:

• It called for a unicameral legislature with equal representation for each state.
• While it kept a unicameral legislature with equal representation for each state, the New Jersey Plan still expanded federal authority beyond the Articles of Confederation by granting Congress the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, levy certain taxes and duties, and make federal law supreme over conflicting state laws.
• It was proposed to give more power to the smaller states, as it wanted one vote for each state regardless of population.

The Great Compromise

After much debate, the Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, was negotiated:

• Proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut
• It combined elements of the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.
• It established a bicameral legislature with a different method of representation in each house.
• The lower house, the House of Representatives, would be apportioned according to population.
• The upper house, the Senate, would have equal representation for each state, with each state having two senators.
• This compromise resolved the disagreement over how much power each state should have in the new government and helped get the Constitution ratified.

Looks familiar? This is how we established our government with a bicameral Congress, representing both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans. It allowed for equal representation in Congress and balanced the power of small and large states.

The Three-Fifths Compromise

Now that a framework for Congress was established, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention discussed the representation of slave states.

The Three-Fifths Compromise determined how enslaved people would be counted in terms of representation and taxation. The compromise was reached between the northern states, which were generally more industrialized and had fewer enslaved people, and the southern states, which were more agrarian and had more enslaved people.

Image Courtesy of Nigerian Scholars

The compromise stated that for the purpose of determining representation in the House of Representatives, and for the purpose of apportioning direct taxes, each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a free person. The compromise was intended to address the concerns of the southern states that their representation in Congress would be diminished if enslaved people were not counted at all, while also addressing the concerns of the northern states that counting enslaved people fully would give the southern states too much representation.

Ending the Slave Trade

The delegates at the Constitutional Convention compromised on the slave trade, and the Constitution included a provision that prohibited Congress from banning the international slave trade until 1808. The delegates also settled on the federal government's role in slavery itself. The Fugitive Slave Clause required that people who escaped enslavement be returned to those who claimed them, so the national government protected slavery even though the Constitution avoided using the word. However, in 1807, the U.S. Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which banned the importation of enslaved people from Africa and the foreign slave trade, effectively ending it on January 1, 1808. This is important to note that this did not end slavery itself in the U.S. and it was still legal for people to own enslaved people within the states, it just limited the importing of enslaved people from Africa.

The Electoral College

The Convention delegates also agreed to establish a system of electing the president, which was later known as the Electoral College. The purpose of this was to serve as a compromise between election by Congress and direct popular vote, while giving smaller states some added weight. Under this system, each state is allotted a number of electors based on its representation in Congress, and the candidate who receives a majority of the electoral votes becomes president. (Today that majority is 270 of 538 electoral votes, a total in place since the 1964 election.)

Image Courtesy of Election Reformers Network

As you know, the electoral college system has been the source of much controversy and criticism, with some arguing that it can lead to an election of a candidate who did not receive the most popular votes and that it gives disproportionate power to the small states over larger states. There have been some proposals and attempts in the past to change or replace the Electoral College system.

The Constitution was finished on September 17, 1787, and then sent to the states for ratification.