Transcript 8.2: Creating the Constitution

Creating the Constitution
A MR. AYALA PRESENTATION
Creating the Constitution
 I) Why a new Constitution?
 A) Articles of Confederation were too weak
 B) Shay’s Rebellion showed how a small group of farmers
could threaten the national government
Creating the Constitution
 II) The Constitutional Convention
 A)took place in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 B) many famous people including George Washington
(president of the Convention), Ben Franklin, and James
Madison (known as the father of the Constitution)
 C) No women, African Americans, or Native Americans were
invited
Creating the Constitution
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D) delegates needed to make a government that protected
peoples rights and needed to maintain order at the same time
1) did not want a tyrannical government like what they lived under
British rule
 2) government had to be limited but how?
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Creating the Constitution
 Stretch break! 30 seconds
 WAKE UP!
Creating the Constitution
 III) Two Plans emerge
Creating the Constitution: The Virginia Plan
 A) The Virginia plan

1) 3 branches of government
 A) executive branch: enforces the laws
 B) legislative branch: makes laws
• i) two bodies each based representation on population
C) judiciary branch:judges laws
 D) Large states liked this plan. Why?
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Creating the Constitution
 B) New Jersey Plan
 1) 3 branches
 2) only one body in the legislature with one vote per state
 3)Small states liked this. Why?
Creating the Constitution
 C) The Great Compromise (or the Connecticut
Compromise)
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
1) Two bodies in the legislature: an upper body with equal
representation; a lower body with representation based on
population
2) 3 branches
Creating the Constitution
 IV) Slavery and Representation
 A) representation in the lower house in the legislature is based
on population; how do you count slaves?
1) Southern State: wanted slaves to count
 2) Northern States: not citizens so do not count.
 3) Why is this an issue?
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Creating the Constitution
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B) Three-Fifths Compromise: compromise that 3/5 of the slave
population will be counted towards population
C) slavery could not be banned until 1808
Creating the Constitution
 V) Regulating Trade
 A) New National government could regulate trade among
states and foreign powers, but no export taxes