This essay is a review of the Decisions in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. The body of this work will highlight a few of the differences found in Collier and Collier’s Decision in Philadelphia (2007) and Middlekauff’s The Glorious Cause (2005) and paint a picture for the reason for the convention, the need for a change from the Articles of Confederation, as well as some of the key takeaways from the Constitution that impact us still today. The Decision in Philadelphia highlights well the overarching theme of compromise. Compromise was and still is the cornerstone to the government in the United States of America. This essay will showcase this theme over and over as it was critical to allow for the collective good to succeed. Webster’s dictionary defines compromise as the settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions. Compromise is further defined as the blending qualities of different things, those different things were the ideals, principles, and values of the Constitution’s framers. A Nation in Jeopardy A Nation in jeopardy we were in 1786. The rebellion had ended and America had become her own sovereign Nation, but she was struggling to keep the herself upright due to the infancy of truly being independent. America had no safety net and there were pockets of doubt that circulated the questions of “did we do the right thing”. The disparity that existed between each of the sovereign states and the lack
What were the two main compromises of the Constitutional Convention and how did they affect the government?
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was held to address problems in governing the United States which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation since it’s independence from Britain. Fifty-five delegates from the states attended the convention to address these issues. The delegates consisted of federalists who wanted a strong central government to maintain order and were mainly wealthier merchants and plantation owners and anti-federalists who were farmers, tradesmen and local politicians who feared losing their power and believed more power should be given to the states. The Constitutional Convention dealt with the issue of the debate between federalists and anti-federalists. The debates, arguments and compromises
The Revolutionary War effectively ended on October 17th, 1781. Having successfully won independence, that task shifted to maintaining independence. The newly independent ‘United’ States, faced an array of issues, and proved to be anything but united under the existing Articles of Confederation. In hindsight, analyzing the arguments against the articles, as well as the
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.
This book tells the story of the Philadelphia convention, in the summer of 1787. Throughout, Stewart uses descriptive language to portray the delegates, both remembered —such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton— and forgotten —such as James Wilson and George Mason— in the turmoil of creating the United States constitution. It illustrates both the great conflicts and high-stake compromises that those delegates faced, all ultimately dominated by one inelegantly polarizing issue: slavery. With calculated endorsement by influential delegates such as Franklin and Washington, who
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.
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 1787 Constitutional Convention was paramount in unifying the states after the Revolutionary War. However, in order to do so, the convention had to compromise on many issues instead of addressing them with all due haste. This caused the convention to leave many issues unresolved. Most notably were the issues of slavery, race, secession, and states’ rights. Through the Civil War and the Reconstruction, these issues were resolved, and in the process the powers of the federal government were greatly expanded.
The founding fathers of the United States Constitution wrote it to be a national law to the whole country; however, research has shown that the founding fathers have stated on several occasions that the Constitution should be revised from time to time in order to better suite the current time period. In “A More Perfect Constitution,” Larry Sabato discusses twenty-three new proposals and revisions that would benefit today’s government. Given these facts, it is a necessary development as America begins the 21st century to call together a constitutional convention in order to discuss Sabato’s new proposals to the Constitution. There are three major revisions that will most benefit the national
In the book “A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution” by Carol Berkin she explains the constitution from start to finish from how it all began, to the debates inside the convention and finally the end product. Berkin takes the reader and puts him directly in the middle of the convention of 1786; throughout the book you can feel the excitement, the frustration, the tensions between delegates and the overall commitment to making a new government work for all.
Recently, in the City of Philadelphia, home of the Continental Congress and the Liberty Bell representatives of the many states met in the same locations and the men who, just so recently, met there to declare us free from English tyranny and produce one of the greatest political documents in the history of human governance. All of us together followed the words of those men who met in Philadelphia and fought for our liberty and the idea of self-governance. And together, we all won the Revolutionary War and established a new nation on the earth. For several years we were guided by the Articles of Confederation, but as we were all new to the practice of self-governance (which itself was a new idea, so we had no real models to copy) many problems emerged which the Articles were not fit to solve.
On May 27, 1787, 55 men crowded into a sweltering room in Philadelphia, to make decisions that would change America’s future. They were there to write the Constitution, which would require many compromises- including the most important one of all, the Great Compromise. Without the Great Compromise, America would be extremely different, and it may not have survived this long! This compromise made up most of our entire government, and without it, our government may have seemed unfair for many of the smaller states. This essay will tell you about the main components that made up the Great Compromise, and what it is compared to its main building blocks.
Throughout American history there are numerous stories of great compromises which change the course of historical events. Some of these stories do not accurately depict the essence of the compromise after it had been made. Knowledge of these stories uncover the questions of what effects and impacts do those compromises have after they run their course. Furthermore, how are these compromises reached. Joseph Ellis describes multiple compromises in his National Bestseller Founding Brothers and how simply but dramatically the compromises impact the young, growing nation and government.
There were many disagreements and compromises that occurred while in the process of creating the Constitution. Some were: the debate over slavery, the debate of the Virginia plan and the New Jersey plan, and the disagreement about the amount of time the president should work. There was a huge debate over slavery and the states were torn between abolishing slavery and owning slaves. A three-fifths clause was created so that slaves would be considered part of the state’s population. Three-fifths of the slave population was a compromise where some of the slaves would be counted “in determining each state’s representation in the House of Representatives and its
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.