The 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention

During the Continental Convention Madison introduced The Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan embodied his principal proposals, including a legislature of two houses with differing terms of office and with representation favoring the large states. He wanted the national government clothed "with positive and compleat authority in all cases which require uniformity. " The upper house of the legislature was to have a veto on the state legislation, and he proposed a national executive. The new government would have the power to enforce its laws.

The Virginia Plan sparked debate over its legislative representative proposals. The plan proposed representation of the states by population. This proposition favored the larger states. The Jersey Plan also known as the smaller state plan rallied for equal representation for all states. A compromise was finally reached. One house of the legislature would consist of two representatives from each state. This satisfied the small states. The second house of the legislature would consist of representatives based on population, thus satisfying the larger states. The establishment of a fair measure to apply taxation and representation in the legislature was described in the Federalist Papers: The Apportionment of Members among the States. The government would conduct a census that would prevent the states from understating their population for taxation and overstating their population for representation. The “Great Compromise” resolving the issue of representation did not mean that the federalists and anti-federalists had come to agreement on the Constitution.

On May 25, 1787, fifty-five delegates from twelve states met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. Instead, they decided to totally scrap the Articles and create a new Constitution, known as "a bundle of compromises." Whatever these leaders ' personal desires, they had to compromise and adopt what was acceptable to the entirety of America, and what presumably would be suitable to the nation as a whole. There were many compromises made at the Constitutional Convention, such as representation, slavery, and laws concerning foreign/ interstate imports and exports.

During the constitutional convention, two plans were proposed to solve the problem of state representation in the government. The first of the two plans was the Virginia Plan, proposed by James Madison and the second being the New Jersey Plan, proposed by William Patterson. Both plans consisted of three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judiciary. however, the New Jersey Plan allowed for multiple executives. Additionally, the Virginia Plan had a bicameral legislature, both houses based on state's’ population or its wealth. The New Jersey Plan, on the other hand, has a unicameral legislature, with its single house giving a single vote to each state

55 delegates of twelve states wrote the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 and in 1788 the states ratified it. That gathering at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall brought nearly all of the nation’s most prominent men together, including Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and George Washington. Several of the men appointed had records of service in the army and in the courts and others were experienced in colonial and state government. When Thomas Jefferson found out who had been appointed he wrote “It is really an assembly of demigods” to John Adams. That summer in Philadelphia, the men, drew out a document defining the distinct powers for the the president, the federal courts and the Congress. This division of authority that was established is known as the principle of separation of powers, and it ensures that none of the branches of government can overstep their boundaries.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 marked the evolution from the Articles of Confederation to the U.S. Constitution. The ratification argument led to disagreements between the Federalists, who wanted to approve the Constitution, and Anti-Federalists, who opposed the document. The latter believed that the new system forced by the Constitution failed to protect the individual rights of citizens and threatened liberties.

Of the many plans to structure the government present the two that drew the most attention were the Virginia and the New Jersey Plans. Both of these plans were decimated by members of the convention for various reason. The plan from Virginia was viewed as a structure that would be more beneficial to larger states because it recommended an executive and judicial branches of government in addition to a two chambered congress with all representation based on the population of the state which was less beneficial to smaller states such as New Jersey. While the plan recommend called the New Jersey Plan would be just the opposite of the Virginia Plan since it called for a stronger national government to support the Articles of the Confederation with the ability to tax and regulate commerce between states. The New Jersey Plan also called for a single chambered congress and each state having one single vote. Deliberations lasted many weeks until finally

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the subsequent ratification of the constitution proved to be a more significant event in American political history than the Declaration of Independence. Many of the american leaders believed we needed to a new, stronger government. They had to persuade the states that stronger government was the right direction to ensure the country’s success.They did that with the constitutional convention but, To sway the states in the right direction documents such as the Federalist papers led the states to ratify the new U.S. Constitution. Which then led to the U.S. Constitution that we still live by to the day.

In May 1787, the Founding Fathers, who were made up of 55 delegates from one of the 13 states besides Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia for what would come to be called the Constitutional Convention [BRE]. When they met they intended to fix the consitution that was already in place, which was called the Articles of Confederation. This document had many weaknesses which ultimatly led to its downfall: it only had a legislative branch, so it could not hold trials or enforce laws, it could not raise taxes (it was able to raise money, however to do this the legislative branch had to ask the states for funds), it could not draft an army, so the federal government would have to use state militia, it could not control interstate or foreign commmerce,

The largest dispute between these two plans was over the differing population sizes. The Virginia Plan called for representation to be determined by the population of a state. This meant the larger the population, the more representatives it would have. This satisfied the bigger states but left smaller states like New Jersey with less representation. Alternately, the New Jersey Plan pushed for each state to have equal representation. The Virginia Plan called for a bicameral legislative branch while the New Jersey Plan wanted a unicameral legislative. With a bicameral legislative each state's amount of votes would be based on their population. With a unicameral legislative each state would be entitled to only one vote. These quarrels eventually led to the two plans being examined, and certain ideas merged to fulfill the needs of both

In the book “Decision in Philadelphia the Constitutional Convention of 1787” by Christopher Collier and James Collier present an exclusive glance at the creating of the Constitution and the events that made the Constitution the way people know it today. Christopher and James Collier begin with historical events that led up to Constitutional creation and a brief summation of the events that were taking place in the country during that time frame. The background that they give provides a good base for the information and allows the reader to see things through the eyes of someone living in the time. During that period, there were many challenges facing America at the time that would have collision on the constitutional convention and the outcomes that would shape the country. One of them being that there was very poor transportation routes and that adversely affected communications. For example the authors quote “The few interstate roads that existed were frequently nothing more than mile upon mile of mud wallow, cut by hundreds of streams, creeks, and rivers, most of which were unbridged, so they had to be forded, or crossed by ferry” (Collier, 1986, p.14). As a result, due to a lack of this foundation it was very challenging and time consuming for the citizens with travel and communication and diversity was usually unfamiliar to people. At the time people also faced challenges such as the country was divided by religion, ethics, language differences, and majorly economic

The Virginia Plan was favored by the big states. It envisioned a bicameral legislature with both houses having membership proportional to population. The New Jersey plan was favored by the small states. It called for each state's representation in each house to be equal to every other states. The delegates considered whether the legislature should be elected directly by the people or by the state legislatures. The usual arguments against allowing

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 contained many points but some of the main points consist of the Virginia plan, the New Jersey plan, and the great compromise. The Virginia plan was initiated by James Madison had a strong central government with legislature seats based on a state’s population. The New Jersey Plan was conducted by William Paterson also has a strong central government that endorsed equal representatives throughout the states. The great compromise was imitated to settle the disagreements between the north and south. The great compromise stated a two-house legislature the seats for one of the houses was based on population of the state and the other houses seats were distributed upon states. The great compromise set up a strong

I believe that within the Constitution, there should be equal representation of each state instead of representation proportional, corresponding to size, to each state’s population. I support the New Jersey plan which continued to follow the one-house legislature the Confederation, a voluntary association of independent states, went by. Every state only received one vote in this ideal situation. This plan also allowed Congress to set taxes as well as conduct trading which the Articles of Confederation did not have the power to do. Paterson was against the Virginia plan that wanted the state’s population to depend on the number of representatives it had. He said that the Convention should allow the states to continue with the equality they

The last half of the 18th century was very important for the United States. During this era, the nation was founded following the Declaration of Independence and drafting and ratification of the Constitution a decade later. The 1787 constitutional convention and ratification debate was very important in the making of the US Constitution. The dynamics, antagonism, considerations, process and the eventual consensus regarding the Constitution can be explained by discrete theories in political discourses. However, there are theories that fit best within this historical context and help better explain the process of the constitutional convention and ratification. This paper will talk about pluralist theory as a theoretical perspective that best explains the workings of the 1787 constitutional convention and ratification debate, as opposed to power elite theory. This will be achieved by looking at the premises of pluralist theoretical perspective, and the workings of the 1787 constitutional convention and ratification and then show how pluralist theory best captures the workings.