There were many problems in the Articles of Confederation that could not be solved just by saying what you wanted. The delegates had to compromise on a lot of issues, so the northern states and the southern states would feel like their voices were heard. During the Constitutional Convention the delegates compromised on the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Great Compromise. Some of those compromises are still in effect today. The Great Compromise represented the interests of the people who wanted a strong national government and the interests of people who wanted a strong state government. Roger Sherman came up with the idea that took the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan into consideration. The decision that he came up with was amazing. He made the House of Representatives the house where the people had a voice because the amount of representatives each state had was based purely off of the population. Knowing that the people who wanted a strong national government would not be happy with the state having so much power he made the …show more content…
This compromise considered the southern states opinions and used them to make the southerners feel like they were being represented. The south wanted more representatives in congress and felt that their slaves should be counted just like every other person in the room. In contrast, the northern states wanted the slaves to not count as people but be counted as property, something that needed to be taxed. The delegates decided that the slaves would be counted as three fifths of a person instead of a whole because then the southern and smaller states would have more of an opportunity to have more representatives in congress and the northern and large states would not lose their advantage in congress. This compromise was used for many years after but soon got abolished despite the great compromise that was
The Articles of Confederation was the first federal foundational laws of the United States. It was composed due to the conflicting views of the politicians at the time and the need to unite the States during the war. Its development and resoluteness had a sluggish inception due to some Americans uncertainties of the government’s substantial central power and property demands by States. The Articles of Confederation was finally sanctioned on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles, each States stayed autonomous, with Congress having the final say over disputes. Congress was also given the ability to make accords and agreements, uphold armies and currencies. The Articles of Confederation did best with territorial expansion in the West, thanks to the Ordinances that were written for the Articles and the benefits they had. However, under the Articles, the central government had no power to impose taxes and manage commerce, because of this the government was consistently short of funds. Despite the lack of funding, money was still required for the war effort, and Congress' meantime solution was to print nearly $250 million paper currency, this led to major inflation in the States. This deficit urged legislators to find a solution; the Constitution of 1787. Both the Articles and the Constitution worked to preserve a free government, different from the tyrannical rule they have experienced from the British Parliament. Also, both documents allowed states the power to manage mercantilism,
Compromises were the foundation for the majority of early American history. Without compromise, the stability of the United States would have been undermined only a few years after it won its independence. The Three-Fifths Compromise in particular carried the nation on its back for years until the Civil War. If the Three-Fifths Compromise had not been implemented, the young nation easily could have fallen apart at the seams, leaving Northern and Southern states to duke it out over the issues of slavery nearly a hundred years before the Civil War.
This thought process is similar to the colonies thought process when it came to the intolerable acts. No taxation without representation. But the nonslave states argued that slaves should be counted the same as citizens to have a fair share of the tax burden. So in order to compromise they split the differences and came up with the Three-Fifths Compromise which made each slave get taxed as 3/5 of a citizen. But when it came to slave’s congressional representation both sides changed. The nonslave states didn’t want the slaves to count in determining the number of House representatives, but the slave states felt that each slave should be counted like every citizen was. So the Framers had to use the Three-Fifths Compromise again to settle this dispute. Both sides acted really hypocritical when it came to these two disputes has the nonslave states wanted slaves to count for taxes but not representation and then the slave states wanted them not to be taxed but be used in figuring the number of House representatives. At the time it is somewhat understandable because they needed to get rid of the Articles of Confederation but still wanted what was best for their
The 3/5th compromise was brought about by the question of how to count slaves when deciding sets for the House of Representatives (Monroe 65). Deciding how to count slaves would decide how many seats in the House of Representatives each state would get. If slaves were counted as part of the population then both the north and the south would have equal representation (Monroe 65). The fraction of 3/5ths was agreed upon when James Wilson thought of a way to count the slaves. His idea came from when Congress was trying to raise revenue, they decided that slaves were most likely to make 3/5th of what a free man would make (Monroe 65). Although the idea of one slave counting for less than one man is terrible to think about, this was the beginning
Ever since the United States was born into existence, it has been indirectly ran under two significant documents, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. On March 1st, 1781, the Articles of Confederation were put into full effect after being ratified by Maryland. Unfortunately, it only remained in effect until June 21st, 1788, when New Hampshire upheld the Articles of Confederation and it was formally replaced with the Constitution of the United States. While they were both federal documents in which held the formal name of their nation as The United States of America, they were also quite unique to their own. Unlike the Unicameral legislature of the Articles of Confederation, the legislature of the Constitution was Bicameral in
The Great Compromise was important in the US because it helped create a new form of government. Both the Virginia and New Jersey plans had supporters for forming the legislative branch. The people realized that they needed to make a compromise because it would be best for their country. The Great Compromise consisted mostly of the Virginia plan but also a bit of the New Jersey plan. The Virginia plan justified for an executive, legislative, and judicial branch and also proposed a recommended legislature where officials were number of electives of officials who were elected based on population size. Some states had a with this plan because the larger wealthier states would have more votes whiler the smaller states would have a disadvantage because they had smaller populations and therefore would only be permitted one vote. In the New Jersey plan the legislative branch would have power to regulate trade and tax foreign goods but it didn’t have as much power as in the virginia
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Congress knew that they would need a stronger and powerful government to beat Britain. During the Revolutionary War, drafts of the Articles of Confederation were presented before Congress, which were then edited and revised into the final draft that was approved in November 1777. After the war, the colonies were left with a central government that was unable to levy taxes and regulate trade. In his YouTube video, “The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course US History #8,” John Green states, “Both the national government and the individual state had racked up massive debt to pay for the war, and their main source of revenue became tariffs, but because Congress couldn’t impose them, states had to do it individually.” Since the central government was unable to pay for the war, the people had to pay for all the
After the Colonies defeated Great Britain in the Revolutionary war, the Americans needed to construct their own government. They then created a system that was completely different from King George’s rule. It was based on a document called the Articles of Confederation. At first, the Americans were delighted with it. However, the Founding Fathers who created it realized it had many problems, so they came together to revise them at the Constitutional Convention, which happens to be where our modern constitution comes from.
A major issue with the Articles of Confederation was the nature in which it came into existence. The states were still fighting a seemingly unwinnable war, so
The Articles of Confederation were chosen as the first government of that time because the people wanted to try and make it better than the tyrannical government they lived under previously. After the French and Indian War, the attacks and threats for invasion proved as a difficulty since there were many different, independent (state) governments and not one unified government. The colonists started thinking of creating a stronger central authority government to conduct and run wars, and deal with other threats effectively. Ben Franklin suggested the Albany Plan, but the plan was rejected since it would destroy the states’ power. Another plan, the Galloway Plan, was voted down by Congress. Finally, the Articles of Confederation was written,
Originally drafted in 1776, the Articles of Confederation served as being the nation's first constitution. This document instituted the United States as a sovereign nation; however, it proved to be inadequate. Lacking facilitation of an executive or judiciary branch, with no ability to raise revenue and no power to amend the Articles without unanimous state support, the federal government was not strong enough. The Articles of Confederation served to demonstrate to the delegates what short comings needed modification.
The states would be represented equally in the Senate, whereas the House would be represented according to the state’s population. After they settled the dispute on state representation, a new argument arose between the Southern and Northern states. Their opinions differed in terms of whether or not slaves would be counted in for state population. The Southern states said yes, they are included in the population whereas the Northern states claimed that they did not. From this came The Three-Fifths Compromise.
For over 150 years, America had been parts of the British economy to provide goods for mother country since 1607. However, finally in 1766, Patriots in the colonies declared independence against Great Britain. During and the following Revolutionary War, Americans continued to develop and amend the laws for independence and independent America. Preparation for independence wasn’t perfect, though, the Americans steadily build the methods of protecting themselves and regulating their own nation. The two major documents responsible for governing the United States, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution played a major role after the declaration of independence.
These two proposals increased tensions and debates between the large and small states. This issue was then solved by the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise used the idea of a
The Great Compromise of 1787 was also known as the Connecticut Compromise of the Sherman Compromise. It was proposed by Roger Sherman. The Great Compromise was an agreement between large states and small states that guaranteed them 2 representatives in the upper house and equal power in legislative structure. This agreement helped make sure that all legislative branches had the same amount of power and control. This plan helped balance out and separate the power between all