Which issue discussed at the constitutional

The delegates compromised by allotting specific responsibilities to the federal government while delegating all other functions to the states. Having fought a war against tyranny, Americans were suspicious of executive power.

The Convention held no fewer than 60 votes before the delegates agreed upon the Electoral College as the method of selecting the president. However, unspoken among the delegates was the knowledge that George Washington would become the first president , and they trusted him to define the office. Though the word "slavery" does not appear in the Constitution , the issue was central to the debates over commerce and representation. The Convention also debated whether to allow the new federal government to ban the importation of enslaved people from outside of the United States, including directly from Africa.

They ultimately agreed to allow Congress to ban it, should it choose, but not before twenty years had passed. Remarkably, it was one of the only clauses of the Constitution that could not be amended. Only in did the United States formally prohibit the international slave trade. Under the Articles of Confederation, the individual states competed against each other economically. They issued their own currencies and even levied taxes on each other's goods when they passed over state lines.

The Constitution they drafted has been successful for most of U. And it has brought remarkable stability to one of the most tumultuous forms of political activity: popular democracy. The challenge that all nations in the world have faced not only in drafting a constitution, but also creating a form of government that both provides stability to its nation and sufficient civic responsibility and liberty to its people, is enormous. Indeed, among the more than constitutions presently operating in the world today, few have been as successful in creating that delicate balance between governmental power and personal liberty among the citizens ruled by their government.

The remarkable achievement of the fifty-five men gathered in Philadelphia during the summer of was by no means inevitable. Looking back on their work that summer, we can identify a few factors that enabled them to achieve their success. Certainly among the most important was the quality of leadership among those most committed to strengthening the American government. The ringleader was the thirty-seven-year-old James Madison.

Standing only a few inches over five-feet tall, scrawny, suffering from a combination of poor physical health and hypochondria, and painfully awkward in any public forum, Madison nevertheless possessed a combination of intellect, energy, and political savvy that would mobilize the effort to create an entirely new form of continental union.

The Pennsylvania and Virginia delegates then met frequently during the days leading up to May Together these men would forge a radical new plan, the Virginia Plan, which would shape the course of events during that summer of By seizing the initiative, this small group of nationalist-minded politicians was able to set the terms of debate during the initial stages of the Convention—gearing the discussion toward not whether , but how —a vastly strengthened continental government would be constructed.

On May 28, , the state delegations unanimously agreed to a proposal that would prove invaluable in allowing men like Madison, Wilson, and Morris to move their plan forward. But the rule of secrecy gave to delegates the freedom to disagree, sometimes vehemently, on important issues, and to do so without the posturing and pandering to public opinion that so often marks political debate today. And it also gave delegates the freedom to change their minds; on many occasion, after an evening of convivial entertainment with one another, the delegates would return the following morning or even the following week or month, and find ways to reach agreement on issues that had previously divided them.

The rule of secrecy helped make the Constitutional Convention a civil and deliberative body, rather than a partisan one. It helped make compromise an attribute of statesmanship rather than a sign of weakness. It also became immediately clear that, however bold and innovative the plan may have been, there were many delegates in the room who had grave misgivings about some aspects of it.

For nearly four months, the delegates attempted to work through, and resolve, their disagreements. The most divisive of those issues—those involving the apportionment of representation in the national legislature, the powers and mode of election of the chief executive, and the place of the institution of slavery in the new continental body politic—would change in fundamental ways the shape of the document that would eventually emerge on September 17, The delegates haggled over how to apportion representation in the legislature off and on for more than six weeks between May 30 and July Those from large, populous states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania—supporters of the Virginia Plan—argued that representation in both houses of the proposed new congress should be based on population, while those from smaller states such as New Jersey and Delaware—supporters of the New Jersey Plan—argued for equal representation for each state.

The compromise that eventually emerged, one championed most energetically by the delegates from Connecticut, was obvious: representation in the House of Representatives would be apportioned according to population, with each state receiving equal representation in the Senate. In the final vote on the so-called Connecticut Compromise on July 16, five states supported the proposal; four opposed, including Virginia and Pennsylvania; and one state—Massachusetts—was divided.

James Madison and many of his nationalist colleagues were disconsolate, convinced that the compromise would destroy the very character of the national government they hoped to create. Building Democracy. In May, 55 delegates came to Philadelphia, and the Constitutional Convention began. Debates erupted over representation in Congress, over slavery, and over the new executive branch.

The debates continued through four hot and muggy months. But eventually the delegates reached compromises, and on September 17, they produced the U. Constitution, replacing the Articles with the governing document that has functioned effectively for more than years.

In in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the 13 states had agreed to establish a new central government under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. No other branch of government existed: no executive or judiciary. And the Congress had no power to regulate trade or to levy and collect taxes.

By , debts from the Revolutionary War were piling up, and many states had fallen behind in paying what they owed. States were imposing tariffs on each other and fighting over borders. Britain was angry because pre-war debts were not being paid, and it was refusing to honor the treaty that had ended the war the Paris Treaty of On May 25, the convention went into session at the Philadelphia statehouse. George Washington was elected the presiding officer.

And without the careful notes taken by James Madison, who attended every session and carefully transcribed the proceedings, today we would know little about how the Constitution came into being. Before the convention officially began, Madison and the other delegates from Virginia had drafted a plan—the Virginia Plan—for correcting the Articles of Confederation. Their plan went well beyond amendments and corrections and actually laid out a completely new instrument of government.

The plan provided for three separate branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch would have two houses, with the first house to be elected by the people of each state, and the second by the first house from a list created by the state legislatures. The general outline of the Virginia plan was well received. But the question arose over how to elect the members of the two houses of Congress. For half the summer, the convention debated this issue.

Some delegates strongly opposed having the people elect the lower house. Roger Sherman of Connecticut distrusted the notion of democracy. The most difficult issue, however, was the question of how the states were to be represented in Congress.

Should all the states have the same number of votes as they did under the Articles of Confederation where each state had one vote? This issue blocked the proceedings for many weeks. David Brearley of New Jersey said that representation based on population was unfair and unjust.

It is unjust. On June 30, the delegates from Connecticut proposed a compromise. Some delegates began to leave in protest, and a sense of gloom settled over the statehouse.

Intense debates lasted for two more weeks. Finally, the delegates came together and on July 16 agreed to the Connecticut compromise.

Representation in the lower house would be chosen by the people. Each state would have one representative for every 40, inhabitants later changed to one for every 30, Also each state would have at least one representative even if it did not have 40, inhabitants.

Each state would have two members in the Senate, chosen by the state legislature. The small states were jubilant, and the large states uncomfortable.

But from then on, things moved more smoothly. After arriving at a compromise on electing the legislature, the convention addressed the other parts of the Virginia Plan. The plan called for a national executive but did not say how long the executive should serve.