The Constitutional Convention took place in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
of Virginia and
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
of New York, was to create a new
Frame of Government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
of Virginia, former commanding general of the
Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
in the late
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(1775–1783) and proponent of a stronger national government, to become President of the convention. The result of the convention was the creation of the
Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
, placing the Convention among the most significant events in
American history
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...
.
The convention took place in the old Pennsylvania State House (now known as
Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. At the time, the convention was not referred to as a ''constitutional convention''. It was contemporarily known as the Federal Convention, the Philadelphia Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia. Nor did most of the delegates arrive intending to draft a new constitution. Many assumed that the purpose of the convention was to discuss and draft improvements to the existing Articles of Confederation, and would not have agreed to participate otherwise. Once the convention began, however, most of the delegates – though not all – came to agree in general terms that the goal would be a new system of government, not simply a revised version of the Articles of Confederation.
Several broad outlines were proposed and debated, most notably Madison's
Virginia Plan and
William Paterson's
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan (also known as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Principally authored by William Paterson of Ne ...
. The Virginia Plan was selected as the basis for the new government, and the delegates quickly reached consensus on a general blueprint of a federal government with three branches (
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
,
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dire ...
, and
judicial) along with the basic role of each branch. However, disagreement over the specific design and powers of the branches delayed progress for weeks and threatened the success of the convention. The most contentious disputes involved the legislature, specifically the composition and election procedures for the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
as the upper legislative house of a
bicameral
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
, and whether ''
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
'' was to be defined by a state's geography or by its population. The role of the executive was also hotly debated, including the key issues of whether to divide the
executive power among three people or vest the power in a single chief executive to be called the President; how a president would be elected; the length of a presidential term and the number of allowable terms; what offenses should be impeachable; and whether judges should be chosen by the legislature or the executive. Finally, slavery was also a contentious issue, with the delegates debating the insertion of a fugitive slave clause; whether to allow the abolition of the slave trade; and whether slaves were to be counted in proportional representation. Most of the time during the convention was spent on deciding these issues.
Progress was slow until mid-July, when the
Connecticut Compromise resolved enough lingering arguments for a draft written by the
Committee of Detail to gain acceptance. Though more modifications and compromises were made over the following weeks, most of this draft can be found in the finished version of the Constitution. After several more issues were debated and resolved, the Committee of Style produced the final version in early September. It was voted on by the delegates, inscribed on parchment with engraving for printing, and
signed by 39 of 55 delegates on September 17, 1787. The completed proposed Constitution was printed in several copies for review which began the debates and
ratification process. Soon after it was also
printed in newspapers for public review.
Historical context
![United States 1789-03 to 1789-08 eastern](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/United_States_1789-03_to_1789-08_eastern.jpg)
During the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, the
thirteen American states replaced their
colonial governments with
republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
an constitutions based on the principle of
separation of powers
Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typic ...
, organizing government into
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
,
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dire ...
and
judicial branches. These revolutionary constitutions endorsed
legislative supremacy by placing most power in the legislature—since it was viewed as most representative of the people—including power traditionally considered as belonging to the executive and judicial branches. State
governors
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...
lacked significant authority, and state courts and judges were under the control of the legislative branch.
After
declaring independence from Britain in 1776, the thirteen states created a permanent alliance to coordinate American efforts to win the
Revolutionary War. This alliance, the United States, was to be governed according to the
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
, which was more of a treaty between independent countries than a national constitution. The Articles were adopted by the
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...
in 1777 but not finally ratified by all states until 1781.
Under the Articles, the United States was essentially a federation of independent republics, with the Articles guaranteeing state sovereignty and independence. The Confederation was governed by the
Congress of the Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States of America during the Confederation period, March 1, 1781 – Mar ...
, a
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
legislature whose members were chosen by their state legislatures and where each state was entitled to one vote. Congress's powers were limited to waging war and directing foreign affairs. It could not levy taxes or tariffs, and it could only request money from the states and could not force delinquent states to pay. Since the Articles could only be amended by a unanimous vote of the states, each state had effective
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
power over any proposed change. A
super majority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority r ...
(nine of thirteen state delegations) was required for Congress to pass major legislation such as declaring war, making treaties, or borrowing money. The Confederation had no executive or judicial branches, which meant the Confederation government lacked effective means to enforce its own laws and treaties against state non-compliance. It soon became evident to nearly all that the Confederation government, as originally organized, was inadequate for managing the various problems confronting the United States.
Once the crucial task of winning the war had passed, states began to look to their own interests rather than the country's. By the mid-1780s, states were refusing to provide Congress with funding, which meant the government could not meet the interest on its foreign debt, pay the soldiers stationed along the Ohio River, or defend American navigation rights on the Mississippi River against Spanish interference. In 1782, Rhode Island vetoed an amendment that would have allowed Congress to levy taxes on imports to pay off federal debts. A second attempt was made to approve a federal impost in 1785; however, this time it was New York which disapproved.
The Confederation Congress also lacked the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. Britain, France and Spain imposed restrictions on American ships and products, while the U.S. was unable to coordinate retaliatory trade policies. When Massachusetts and Pennsylvania placed reciprocal duties on British trade, neighboring states such as Connecticut and Delaware established
free ports to gain an economic advantage. Some states even began applying customs duties against the trade of neighboring states. In 1784, Congress proposed an amendment to give it powers over foreign trade; however, it failed to receive unanimous approval by the states.
Many upper-class Americans complained that state constitutions were too democratic and, as a result, legislators were more concerned with maintaining popular approval than doing what was best for the nation. The most pressing example was the way state legislatures responded to calls for economic relief. Many people were unable to pay taxes and debts due to a post-war economic depression that was exacerbated by a scarcity of gold and silver
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
s. States responded by issuing
paper currency, which often
depreciated in value, and by making it easier to defer tax and debt payments. These policies favored debtors at the expense of creditors, and it was proposed that Congress be given power to prevent such
populist laws.
When the government of Massachusetts refused to enact similar relief legislation, rural farmers resorted to violence in
Shays' Rebellion
Shays Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts and Worcester in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades. The ...
(1786–1787). This rebellion was led by a former Revolutionary War captain,
Daniel Shays
Daniel Shays (August 1747 September 29, 1825) was an American soldier, revolutionary and farmer famous for allegedly leading Shays' Rebellion, a populist uprising against controversial debt collection and tax policies in Massachusetts in 1786 ...
, a small farmer with tax debts, who had never received payment for his service in the
Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
. The rebellion took months for Massachusetts to put down, and some desired a federal army that would be able to put down such insurrections.
These and other issues greatly worried many of the
Founders
Founder or Founders may refer to:
Places
*Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium
* Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...
that the Union as it existed up to that point was in danger of breaking apart. In September 1786, delegates from five states met at the
Annapolis Convention and invited all states to a larger convention to be held in Philadelphia in 1787. The Confederation Congress later endorsed this convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation". Rhode Island was the only state that refused to send delegates, though it would become the last state to ratify the Constitution, in May 1790.
Operations and procedures
![Independence_Hall_10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Independence_Hall_10.jpg)
Originally planned to begin on May 14, the convention had to be postponed when very few of the selected delegates were present on that day due to the difficulty of travel in the late 18th century. On May 14, only delegates from Virginia and Pennsylvania were present. It was not until May 25 that a
quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...
of seven states was secured and the convention could begin inside the
Pennsylvania State House
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts.
It ...
. New Hampshire delegates would not join the convention until July 23, more than halfway through the proceedings.
Among the first things that the Convention did were to choose a presiding officer, unanimously electing
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
to be the president of the convention and to select
James McHenry
James McHenry (November 16, 1753 – May 3, 1816) was a Scotch-Irish American military surgeon, statesman, and a Founding Father of the United States. McHenry was a signer of the United States Constitution from Maryland, initiated the recommend ...
to be the convention's secretary. The Convention then adopted rules to govern its proceedings. Each state delegation received a single vote either for or against a proposal in accordance with the majority opinion of the state's delegates. This rule increased the power of the smaller states.
When a state's delegates divided evenly on a motion, the state did not cast a vote. Throughout the convention, delegates would regularly come and go. Only 30 to 40 delegates were present on a typical day, and each state had its own quorum requirements. Maryland and Connecticut allowed a single delegate to cast its vote. New York required all three of its delegates to be present. If too few of a state's delegates were in attendance, the state did not cast a vote. After two of New York's three delegates,
John Lansing, Jr.
John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. (January 30, 1754 – vanished December 12, 1829), a Founding Father of the United States, was an attorney, jurist, and politician.
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Lansing was trained as a lawyer, and was long in ...
and
Robert Yates (politician)
Robert Yates (January 27, 1738 – September 9, 1801) was an American politician, attorney, jurist, and surveyor. As a delegate representing New York at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Yates is considered a Founding Father of the United ...
, abandoned the convention on July 10 with no intention of returning, New York was unable to vote on any further proposals, although
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
would continue to occasionally speak during the debates.
The rules allowed delegates to demand reconsideration of any decision previously voted on. This enabled the delegates to take
straw vote
A straw poll, straw vote, or straw ballot is an ad hoc or unofficial vote. It is used to show the popular opinion on a certain matter, and can be used to help politicians know the majority opinion and help them decide what to say in order to gain ...
s to measure the strength of controversial proposals and to change their minds as they worked for consensus. It was also agreed that the discussions and votes would be kept secret until the conclusion of the meeting. Despite the sweltering summer heat, the windows of the meeting hall were nailed shut to keep the proceedings a secret from the public.
Although
William Jackson was elected as secretary, his records were brief and included very little detail. Madison's ''
Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787
''Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787'' was James Madison's record of the daily debates held by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention, which resulted in the drafting of the current United States Constitution. Madison's journal ...
,'' remain the most complete record of the convention, along with notes kept by Yates through mid-July. Due to the pledge to secrecy, Madison's account was not published until after his death in 1836, while Yates's notes on the convention's first two months were published in 1821.
Madison's blueprint
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
of Virginia arrived in Philadelphia eleven days early and determined to set the convention's agenda. Before the convention, Madison studied republics and confederacies throughout history, such as ancient Greece and contemporary Switzerland. In April 1787, he drafted a document titled, "Vices of the Political System of the United States," which systematically evaluated the American political system and offered solutions for its weaknesses. Due to his advance preparation, Madison's blueprint for constitutional revision became the starting point for the convention's deliberations.
Madison believed the solution to America's problems was to be found in a strong central government. Congress needed compulsory taxation authority as well as power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. To prevent state interference with the federal government's authority, Madison believed there needed to be a way to enforce the federal supremacy, such as an explicit right of Congress to use force against non-compliant states and the creation of a federal court system. Madison also believed the method of representation in Congress had to change. Since under Madison's plan, Congress would exercise authority over citizens directly—not simply through the states—representation ought to be apportioned by population, with more populous states having more votes in Congress.
Madison was also concerned with preventing a
tyranny of the majority. The government needed to be neutral between the various
factions or interest groups that divided society—creditors and debtors, rich and poor, or farmers, merchants and manufacturers. Madison believed that a single faction could more easily control the government within a state but would have a more difficult time dominating a national government comprising many different interest groups. The government could be designed to further insulate officeholders from the pressures of a majority faction. To protect both national authority and minority rights, Madison believed Congress should be granted veto power over state laws.
Early debates
![Pinckney Plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Pinckney_Plan.png)
While waiting for the convention to formally begin, Madison sketched out his initial proposal, which became known as the
Virginia Plan and reflected his views as a strong
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
. The Virginia and Pennsylvania delegates agreed with Madison's plan and formed what came to be the predominant coalition within the convention. The plan was modeled on the state governments and was written in the form of fifteen resolutions outlining basic principles. It lacked the system of
checks and balances that would become central to the US Constitution. It called for a supreme national government and was a radical departure from the Articles of Confederation. On May 29,
Edmund Randolph, the governor of Virginia, presented the Virginia Plan to the convention.
The same day,
Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney may refer to:
* Charles Pinckney (South Carolina chief justice) (died 1758), father of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
* Colonel Charles Pinckney (1731–1782), South Carolina politician, loyal to British during Revolutionary War, fath ...
of South Carolina introduced his own plan that also greatly increased the power of the national government; however, the supporters of the Virginia Plan ensured that it, rather than Pinckney's plan, received the most consideration. Many of Pinckney's ideas did appear in the final draft of the Constitution. His plan called for a bicameral legislature made up of a House of Delegates and a Senate. The popularly elected House would elect senators who would serve for four-year terms and represent one of four regions. The national legislature would have veto power over state laws. The legislature would elect a chief executive called a president. The president and his cabinet would have veto power over legislation. The plan also included a national judiciary.
On May 30, the Convention agreed, at the request of
Gouverneur Morris, "that a national government ought to be established consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive and Judiciary". This was the convention's first move towards going beyond its mandate merely to amend the Articles of Confederation and instead produce an entirely new government. Once it had agreed to the idea of a supreme national government, the convention began debating specific parts of the Virginia Plan.
Congress
![EdmundRandolph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/EdmundRandolph.jpeg)
The Virginia Plan called for the unicameral Confederation Congress to be replaced with a
bicameral
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
Congress. This would be a truly national legislature with power to make laws "in all cases to which the separate states are incompetent." It would also be able to veto state laws. Representation in both houses of Congress would be
apportioned according either to ''quotas of contribution'' (a state's wealth as reflected in the taxes it paid) or the size of each state's non-slave population. The
lower house
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
of Congress would be directly elected by the people, while the
upper house
An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...
would be elected by the lower house from candidates nominated by state legislatures.
Proportional representation
Immediately after agreeing to form a supreme national government, the delegates turned to the Virginia Plan's proposal for proportional representation in Congress. Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the most populous states, were unhappy with the one-vote-per-state rule in the Confederation Congress because they could be outvoted by the smaller states despite representing more than half of the nation's population. Nevertheless, the delegates were divided over the best way to apportion representatives. Quotas of contribution appealed to southern delegates because they would include
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
property, but
Rufus King
Rufus King (March 24, 1755April 29, 1827) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and was one of the signers of the Unit ...
of Massachusetts highlighted the impractical side of such a scheme. If the national government did not impose
direct taxes (which, for the next century, it rarely did), he noted, representatives could not be assigned. Calculating such quotas would also be difficult due to lack of reliable data. Basing representation on the number of "free inhabitants" was unpopular with delegates from the South, where forty percent of the population was enslaved. In addition, the small states were opposed to any change that decreased their own influence. Delaware's delegation threatened to leave the Convention if proportional representation replaced equal representation, so debate on apportionment was postponed.
On June 9,
William Paterson of New Jersey reminded the delegates that they were sent to Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, not to establish a national government. While he agreed that the Confederation Congress needed new powers, including the power to coerce the states, he was adamant that a confederation required equal representation for states. James Madison records his words as follows:
Bicameralism
On May 31, the delegates discussed the structure of Congress and how its members would be selected. The division of the legislature into an upper and lower house was familiar and had wide support. The
British Parliament had an elected
House of Commons and a hereditary
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. All the states had bicameral legislatures except for Pennsylvania. The delegates quickly agreed that each house of Congress should be able to originate bills. They also agreed that the new Congress would have all the legislative powers of the Confederation Congress and veto power over state laws.
There was some opposition to the popular election of the lower house or
House of Representatives.
Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 18 ...
of Massachusetts and
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...
of Connecticut feared the people were too easily misled by
demagogue
A demagogue (from Greek , a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from , people, populace, the commons + leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, e ...
s and that popular election could lead to mob rule and anarchy.
Pierce Butler Pierce or Piers Butler may refer to:
*Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond (c. 1467 – 26 August 1539), Anglo-Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland
*Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye (1652–1740), Anglo-Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland
*Pi ...
of South Carolina believed that only wealthy men of property could be trusted with political power. The majority of the convention, however, supported popular election.
George Mason of Virginia said the lower house was "to be the grand depository of the democratic principle of the government."
There was general agreement that the upper house or
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
should be smaller and more selective than the lower house. Its members should be
gentlemen
A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...
drawn from the most intelligent and virtuous among the citizenry. Experience had convinced the delegates that such an upper house was necessary to tame the excesses of the democratically elected lower house. The Virginia Plan's method of selecting the Senate was more controversial. Members concerned with preserving state power wanted state legislatures to select senators, while
James Wilson of Pennsylvania proposed direct election by the people. It was not until June 7 that the delegates unanimously decided that state legislatures would choose senators.
Three-Fifths ratio
On the question of proportional representation, the three large states still faced opposition from the eight small states. James Wilson realized that the large states needed the support of the
Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...
states of Georgia and the Carolinas. For these southern delegates, the main priority was protection of
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. Working with
John Rutledge
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additiona ...
of South Carolina, Wilson, along with
Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney may refer to:
* Charles Pinckney (South Carolina chief justice) (died 1758), father of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
* Colonel Charles Pinckney (1731–1782), South Carolina politician, loyal to British during Revolutionary War, fath ...
of South Carolina and
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...
of Connecticut, proposed the
Three-Fifths Compromise on June 11. This resolution apportioned seats in the House of Representatives based on a state's free population plus three-fifths of its slave population. Nine states voted in favor, with only New Jersey and Delaware against. This compromise would give the South at least a dozen additional congressmen and electoral college votes. That same day, the large-state/slave-state alliance also succeeded in applying the three-fifths ratio to Senate seats (though this was later overturned).
Executive branch
As English law had typically recognized government as having two separate functions—law making embodied in the legislature and law executing embodied in the king and his courts—the division of the legislature from the executive and judiciary was a natural and uncontested point. Even so, the form the executive should take, its powers and its selection would be sources of constant dispute through the summer of 1787. At the time, few nations had nonhereditary executives that could serve as models. The
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
was led by a
stadtholder
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
, but this office was usually inherited by members of the
House of Orange
The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current dynasty, reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the Politics and governm ...
. The
Swiss Confederacy had no single leader, and the
elective monarchies
An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected monarch, in contrast to a hereditary monarchy in which the office is automatically passed down as a family inheritance. The manner of election, the nature of candidate qualifications, and th ...
of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
and
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
were viewed as corrupt.
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
had yet to fully evolve
parliamentary democracy
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
; the King directed policy and chose his ministers directly, irrespective of Parliament's wishes, and "prime minister" was merely an informal title at the time.
As a result of their colonial experience, Americans distrusted a strong chief executive. Under the Articles of Confederation, the closest thing to an executive was the
Committee of the States
A Committee of the States was an arm of the United States government under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The committee consisted of one member from each state and was designed to carry out the functions of government while the ...
, which was empowered to transact government business while Congress was in recess. However, this body was largely inactive. The revolutionary state constitutions made the governors subordinate to the legislatures, denying them executive veto power over legislation. Without veto power, governors were unable to block legislation that threatened minority rights. States chose governors in different ways. Many state constitutions empowered legislatures to select them, but several allowed direct election by the people. In Pennsylvania, the people elected an
executive council and the legislature appointed one of its members to be chief executive.
The Virginia Plan proposed a national executive chosen by Congress. It would have power to execute national laws and be vested with the power to make war and treaties. Whether the executive would be a single person or a group of people was not defined. The executive together with a "convenient number" of federal judges would form a
Council of Revision with the power to veto any act of Congress. This veto could be overridden by an unspecified number of votes in both houses of Congress.
Unitary executive
![James-wilson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/James-wilson.png)
James Wilson feared that the Virginia Plan made the executive too dependent on Congress. He argued that there should be a single,
unitary executive
The unitary executive theory is a theory of United States constitutional law which holds that the President of the United States possesses the power to control the entire federal executive branch. The doctrine is rooted in Article Two of the Un ...
. Members of a multiple executive would most likely be chosen from different regions and represent regional interests. In Wilson's view, only a single executive could represent the entire nation while giving "energy, dispatch, and responsibility" to the government.
Wilson used his understanding of civic virtue as defined by the
Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Enlightenment ( sco, Scots Enlichtenment, gd, Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century ...
to help design the presidency. The challenge was to design a properly constituted executive that was fit for a republic and based on civic virtue by the general citizenry. He spoke 56 times calling for a chief executive who would be energetic, independent, and accountable. He believed that the moderate level of class conflict in American society produced a level of sociability and inter-class friendships that could make the presidency the symbolic leader of the entire American people. Wilson did not consider the possibility of bitterly polarized
political parties
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
. He saw
popular sovereignty as the cement that held America together linking the interests of the people and of the presidential administration. The president should be a man of the people who embodied the national responsibility for the public good and provided transparency and accountability by being a highly visible national leader, as opposed to numerous largely anonymous congressmen.
On June 1, Wilson proposed that "the Executive consist of a single person." This motion was seconded by Charles Pinckney, whose plan called for a single executive and specifically named this official a "president". Edmund Randolph agreed with Wilson that the executive needed "vigor", but he disapproved of a unitary executive, which he feared was "the
foetus of monarchy". Randolph and George Mason led the opposition against a unitary executive, but most delegates agreed with Wilson. The prospect that George Washington would be the first president may have allowed the proponents of a unitary executive to accumulate a large coalition. Wilson's motion for a single executive passed on June 4. Initially, the convention set the executive's term of office to seven years, but this would be revisited.
Election and removal
Wilson also argued that the executive should be directly elected by the people. Only through direct election could the executive be independent of both Congress and the states. This view was unpopular. A few delegates such as Roger Sherman, Elbridge Gerry, and Pierce Butler opposed the direct election of the executive because they considered the people too easily manipulated. However, most delegates did not question the intelligence of the voters; rather, what concerned them was the slowness by which information spread in the late 18th century. Due to a lack of information, the average voter would be too ignorant about the candidates to make an informed decision.
Sherman proposed an arrangement similar to a
parliamentary system
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
in which the executive should be appointed by and directly accountable to the legislature. A majority of delegates favored the president's election by Congress for a seven-year term, though there was concern that this would give the legislature too much power. Southern delegates supported selection by state legislatures, but this was opposed by nationalists such as Madison who feared that such a president would become a
power broker
In political science, a power broker is a person who influences people to vote towards a particular client (i.e. elected official or referendum) in exchange for political and financial benefits. Power brokers can also negotiate deals with other p ...
between different states' interests rather than a symbol of national unity. Realizing that direct election was impossible, Wilson proposed what would become the
electoral college—the states would be divided into districts in which voters would choose electors who would then elect the president. This would preserve the separation of powers and keep the state legislatures out of the selection process. Initially, however, this scheme received little support.
The issue was one of the last major issues to be resolved. Resolution was achieved by adjustment to the electoral college proposal. At the time, before the formation of modern political parties, there was widespread concern that candidates would routinely fail to secure a majority of electors in the electoral college. The method of resolving this problem, therefore, was a contested issue. Most thought that the
House of Representatives should then choose the president since it most closely reflected the will of the people. This caused dissension among delegates from smaller states, who realized that this would put their states at a disadvantage. To resolve this dispute, the Convention agreed that the House would elect the president if no candidate had an electoral college majority, but that each state delegation would vote as a bloc, rather than individually.
The Virginia Plan made no provision for removing the executive. On June 2,
John Dickinson
John Dickinson (November 13 Julian_calendar">/nowiki>Julian_calendar_November_2.html" ;"title="Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar">/nowiki>Julian calendar November 2">Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar" ...
of Delaware proposed that the president be removed from office by Congress at the request of a majority of state legislatures. Madison and Wilson opposed this state interference in the national executive branch. Sherman argued that Congress should be able to remove the president for any reason in what was essentially a
vote of no-confidence. George Mason worried that would make the president a "mere creature of the legislature" and violate the separation of powers. Dickinson's motion was rejected, but in the aftermath of the vote there was still no consensus over how an unfit president should be removed from office.
On June 4, the delegates debated the Council of Revision. Wilson and
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
of New York disagreed with the mixing of executive and judicial branches. They wanted the president to have an absolute veto to guarantee his independence from the legislative branch. Remembering how colonial governors used their veto to "extort money" from the legislature,
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
of Pennsylvania opposed giving the president an absolute veto. Gerry proposed that a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress be able to overrule any veto of the Council of Revision. This was amended to replace the council with the president alone, but Madison insisted on retaining a Council of Revision and consideration of the veto power was postponed.
Judiciary
In the English tradition, judges were seen as agents of the king and his court who represented him throughout his realm. Madison believed that in the American states, this direct link between state executives and judges was a source of corruption through
patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
, and thought the link had to be severed between the two, thus creating the "third branch" of the judiciary which had been without any direct precedent before this point.
On June 4, delegates unanimously agreed to a national judiciary "of one supreme tribunal and one or more inferior tribunals". The delegates disagreed on how federal judges should be chosen. The Virginia Plan called for the national legislature to appoint judges. James Wilson wanted the president to appoint judges to increase the power of that office.
On June 13, the revised report on the Virginia Plan was issued. This report summarized the decisions made by the delegates in the first two weeks of the convention. It was agreed that a "national judiciary be established, to consist of one supreme tribunal". Congress would have the power to create and appoint inferior courts. Judges were to hold office
"during good behavior", and the Senate would appoint them.
Alternative plans
![New Jersey Plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/New_Jersey_Plan.png)
The small state delegates were alarmed at the plan taking shape: a supreme national government that could override state laws and proportional representation in both houses of Congress. William Paterson and other delegates from New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and New York created an alternative plan that consisted of several amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Under the
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan (also known as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Principally authored by William Paterson of Ne ...
, as it was called, the Confederation Congress would remain unicameral with each state having one vote. Congress would be allowed to levy tariffs and other taxes as well as regulate trade and commerce. Congress would elect a plural "federal executive" whose members would serve a single term and could be removed by Congress at the request of a majority of state governors. There would also be a federal judiciary to apply US law. Federal judges would serve for life and be appointed by the executives. Laws enacted by Congress would take precedence over state laws. This plan was introduced on June 15.
![Hamilton Plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Hamilton_Plan.png)
On June 18,
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
of New York presented his own plan that was at odds with both the Virginia and New Jersey plans. It called for the constitution to be modeled on the
British government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
. The bicameral legislature included a lower house called the Assembly elected by the people for three year terms. The people would choose electors who would elect the members of a Senate who served for life. Electors would also choose a single executive called the governor who would also serve for life. The governor would have an absolute veto over bills. There would also be a national judiciary whose members would serve for life. Hamilton called for the abolition of the states (or at least their reduction to sub-jurisdictions with limited powers). Some scholars have suggested that Hamilton presented this radical plan to help secure passage of the Virginia Plan by making it seem moderate by comparison. The plan was so out of step with political reality that it was not even debated, and Hamilton would be troubled for years by accusations that he was a
monarchist
Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...
.
On June 19, the delegates voted on the New Jersey Plan. With the support of the slave states and Connecticut, the large states defeated the plan by a 7–3 margin. Maryland's delegation was divided, so it did not vote. This did not end the debate over representation. Rather, the delegates found themselves in a stalemate that lasted into July.
Apportionment
Connecticut Compromise
![Roger Sherman 1721-1793 by Ralph Earl](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Roger_Sherman_1721-1793_by_Ralph_Earl.jpeg)
On several occasions, the Connecticut delegation—Roger Sherman,
Oliver Ellsworth and
William Samuel Johnson
William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fir ...
—proposed a compromise that the House would have proportional representation and the Senate equal representation. A version of this compromise had originally been crafted and proposed by Sherman on June 11. He agreed with Madison that the Senate should be composed of the wisest and most virtuous citizens, but he also saw its role as defending the rights and interests of the states. James Madison recorded Sherman's June 11 speech as follows:
On June 29, Johnson made a similar point: "that in one branch, the people ought to be represented; in the other, the states." Neither side was ready yet to embrace the concept of
divided sovereignty
Dual federalism, also known as layer-cake federalism or divided sovereignty, is a political arrangement in which power is divided between the federal and state governments in clearly defined terms, with state governments exercising those powers ...
between the states and a federal government, however. The distrust between large and small state delegates had reached a high point, exemplified by comments made on June 30 by
Gunning Bedford Jr. As reported by Robert Yates, Bedford stated:
Grand Committee
![Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Benjamin_Franklin_by_Joseph_Siffrein_Duplessis.jpg)
As the convention was entering its second full month of deliberations, it was decided that further consideration of the prickly question of how to apportion representatives in the national legislature should be referred to a committee composed of one delegate from each of the eleven states present at that time at the convention. The members of this "Grand Committee," as it has come to be known, included
William Paterson of New Jersey,
Robert Yates of New York,
Luther Martin
Luther Martin (February 20, 1748, New Brunswick, New Jersey – July 10, 1826, New York, New York) was a politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who left the Constitutional Convention early because he felt the Cons ...
of Maryland,
Gunning Bedford Jr. of Delaware,
Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut,
Abraham Baldwin of Georgia,
Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 18 ...
of Massachusetts,
George Mason of Virginia,
William Davie
William Richardson Davie (June 20, 1756 – November 29, 1820) was a Founding Father of the United States, military officer during the Revolutionary War, and 10th Governor of North Carolina, from 1798–1799. A member of the Federalist Party ...
of North Carolina,
John Rutledge
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additiona ...
of South Carolina and
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
of Pennsylvania. The committee's composition heavily favored the smaller states, as even the large state delegates tended to be more moderate.
While the Convention took a three-day recess in observance of the
Fourth of July holiday, the Grand Committee began its work. Franklin proposed and the committee adopted a compromise similar to the Connecticut plan. Membership in the House would be apportioned by population, with members elected from districts of forty thousand people. Each state would have an equal vote in the Senate. To gain large state support, however, Franklin proposed that the House of Representatives have exclusive power to originate bills concerned with raising money or government salaries (this would become the
Origination Clause
The Origination Clause, sometimes called the Revenue Clause,Wirls, Daniel and Wirls, Stephen. The Invention of the United States Senate', p. 188 (Taylor & Francis 2004). is Article I, Section 7, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The clause says ...
).
Revisiting the three-fifths ratio
The committee presented its report on July 5, but the compromise was not immediately adopted by the convention. For the next eleven days, the Convention stalled as delegates attempted to gain as many votes for their states as possible. On July 6, a five-man committee was appointed to allocate specific numbers of representatives to each state. It called for a 56-member House of Representatives and used "
e number of blacks and whites with some regard to supposed wealth" as a basis of allocating representatives to each state. The Northern states had 30 representatives while the Southern states had 26. Delegates from non-slave states objected to counting slaves as they could not vote.
On July 9, a new committee was chosen to reconsider the allocation of representatives. This time there were eleven members, one from each state. It recommended a 65-member House with allocation of representatives based on the number of free inhabitants and three-fifths of slaves. Under this new scheme, Northern states had 35 representatives and the South had 30. Southern delegates protested the North's greater representation and argued that their growing populations had been underestimated. The Committee of Eleven's report was approved, but the divergent interests of the Northern and Southern states remained obstacles to reaching consensus.
On July 10, Edmund Randolph called for a regular
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
on which to base future reallocation of House seats. During the debate on the census, South Carolina delegates Pierce Butler and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney sought to replace the three-fifths ratio with a full count of the slave population. They argued that slave property contributed to the wealth of the Southern states and as such should be used in calculating representation. This irritated Northern delegates already reluctant to support the three-fifths compromise. James Wilson, one of the authors of the three-fifths compromise, asked, "Are slaves to be admitted as Citizens? Then why are they not admitted on an equality with White Citizens? Are they admitted as property? Then why is not other property admitted into the computation?"
After fierce debate, the delegates voted to apportion representation and
direct taxation based on all free inhabitants and three-fifths of the slave population. This formula would apply to the existing states as well as any states created in the future. The first census would occur six years after the new federal government began operations and every ten years afterwards.
Great Compromise adopted
On July 14, John Rutledge and James Wilson attempted to secure proportional representation in the Senate. Charles Pinckney proposed a form of semi-proportional representation in which the smaller states would gain more representation than under a completely proportional system. This proposal was defeated.
In a close vote on July 16, the convention adopted the Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise) as recommended by the Grand Committee. On July 23, the convention decided that each state should have two senators rather than three. It rejected a proposal by Luther Martin of Maryland that senators from the same state cast a single joint vote, which was the practice in the Confederation Congress. Martin believed this was necessary if the Senate was to represent the interests of the states. Instead, the convention gave senators individual voting power. This accomplished the nationalist goal of preventing state governments from having a direct say in Congress's choice to make national laws. The final document was thus a mixture of Madison's original "national" constitution and the desired "federal" Constitution that many of the delegates sought.
Other issues
Federal supremacy
On July 17, the delegates worked to define the powers of Congress. The Virginia Plan asserted the supremacy of the national government, giving Congress authority "to legislate in all cases to which the separate States are incompetent" and stating that congressional legislation would take precedence over conflicting state laws. In a motion introduced by Gunning Bedford, the Convention approved this provision with only South Carolina and Georgia voting against. Four small states—Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland—accepted the expansion of congressional power. Later in life, Madison explained that this was a result of the Great Compromise. Once the small states were assured they would be represented in the new government, they "exceeded all others in zeal" for a strong national government.
The Virginia Plan also gave Congress veto power over state laws. Madison believed this provision was crucial to prevent the states from engaging in irresponsible behavior, such as had occurred under the Confederation government. Gouverneur Morris feared the congressional veto would alienate states that might otherwise support the Constitution. Luther Martin argued that it would be too impractical and time-consuming, asking "Shall the laws of the states be sent up to the general legislature before they shall be permitted to operate?"
The Convention rejected the congressional veto. In its place, Martin proposed language taken from the New Jersey Plan that was unanimously approved by the convention: "that the Legislative acts of the US made by virtue and pursuance of the articles of Union, and all treaties made and ratified under the authority of the US shall be the supreme law of the respective States . . . and that the . . . States shall be bound thereby in their decisions".
President's selection and removal
In June, the delegates voted to let Congress appoint the executive, but there remained concerns that this would make the executive branch subservient to the legislature. On July 17, the Convention returned to the topic. Direct election by the people was defeated by a nine to one vote. Luther Martin then proposed an amended version of James Wilson's idea for an electoral college, first introduced in June. Wilson had proposed that people vote for electors who would then select the president. Martin's version called for state legislatures to choose electors, but this was also defeated. Later, on July 19, Elbridge Gerry unsuccessfully proposed that governors choose electors, a policy that would have increased state influence over the presidency.
After reaffirming Congressional selection, the delegates voted to allow the president to serve multiple terms, a reversal of their earlier decision to limit the president to serving a single, seven–year term.
James McClurg
James McClurg (1746 – July 9, 1823) was an American physician and Founding Father who served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention which drafted the United States Constitution in 1787. McClurg served as the 18th, 21st, and 24th mayor of ...
of Virginia went further and proposed that the president serve a lifelong term "during good behavior". McClurg believed this would protect the independence of the executive branch, but this was rejected for being too close to monarchy.
The Convention decided that the method of removing an unfit president would be legislative
impeachment
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements.
In ...
. At the time, impeachment was used by the British Parliament to depose the king's
ministers
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
(see
Impeachment in the United Kingdom
Impeachment is a process in which the Parliament of the United Kingdom may prosecute and try individuals, normally holders of public office, for high treason or other crimes and misdemeanours. First used to try William Latimer, 4th Baron Latim ...
).
Appointing judges
Needing a break from discussing the presidency, the delegates once again considered the judicial branch on July 18. They were still divided over the method of appointment. Half of the Convention wanted the Senate to choose judges, while the other half wanted the president to do it. Luther Martin supported Senate appointment because he thought that body's members would defend the interests of the individual states.
Nathaniel Gorham suggested a compromise—appointment by the president with the "
advice and consent
Advice and consent is an English phrase frequently used in enacting formulae of bills and in other legal or constitutional contexts. It describes either of two situations: where a weak executive branch of a government enacts something previo ...
of the Senate". While the meaning of "advice and consent" was still undefined, the proposal gained some support. On July 21, Madison offered an alternative compromise—the president would appoint judges but the Senate could veto an appointment by a two-thirds majority. This proposal would have made it very hard for the Senate to block judicial appointments. Madison's proposal failed to garner support, and the delegates ended by reaffirming that the Senate would appoint judges.
On July 21, Wilson and Madison tried unsuccessfully to revive Madison's
Council of Revision proposal. While judges had a role in reviewing the constitutionality of laws, argued Gorham, mixing the policy judgments of the president with the legal judgments of a court would violate separation of powers. John Rutledge agreed, saying "judges ought never to give their opinion on a law till it comes before them".
Amendments and ratification
The delegates recognized that a major flaw with the Articles of Confederation was that any constitutional amendment required unanimous approval of the states. On July 23, the convention endorsed the need for a different way of amending the Constitution, but it was not prepared to vote on specifics.
It also discussed how the completed Constitution would become law. Oliver Ellsworth and William Paterson argued that state legislatures should ratify the Constitution to align with precedent under the Articles of Confederation and because the legislatures represented the will of the people. Nathaniel Gorham argued that state legislators would reject the Constitution to protect their own power. George Mason believed that state legislatures lacked the authority to ratify the new Constitution because they were creations of the state constitutions.
Mason argued that only the people acting through specially called state conventions could authorize a new government. Madison agreed with Mason. He considered the Articles of Confederation to be a mere treaty among the states, but a true constitution could only be adopted by the people themselves. By a vote of nine to one, the delegates voted to submit the Constitution to state ratifying conventions.
First draft
The Convention adjourned from July 26 to August 6 to await the report of the
Committee of Detail, which was to produce a first draft of the Constitution. It was chaired by
John Rutledge
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additiona ...
, with the other members including
Edmund Randolph,
Oliver Ellsworth,
James Wilson, and
Nathaniel Gorham.
Though the committee did not record minutes of its proceedings, three key surviving documents offer clues to the committee's handiwork: an outline by Randolph with edits by Rutledge, extensive notes and a second draft by Wilson, also with Rutledge's edits, and the committee's final report to the convention.
From this evidence it is thought that the committee used the original Virginia Plan, the decisions of the convention on modifications to that plan, and other sources, such as the
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
, provisions of the state constitutions, and even
Charles Pinckney's plan, to produce the first full draft,
which author
David O. Stewart
David O. Stewart (born April 2, 1951) is an American author and attorney who writes both nonfiction historical narratives and historical fiction and lives in Potomac, Maryland. His historical works include ''George Washington: The Political Rise ...
has called a "remarkable copy-and-paste job."
Randolph adopted two rules in preparing his initial outline: that the Constitution should only include essential principles, avoiding minor provisions that would change over time, and that it should be stated in simple and precise language.
Much of what was included in the committee's report consisted of numerous details that the convention had never discussed but which the committee correctly viewed as uncontroversial and unlikely to be challenged; and as such, much of the committee's proposal would ultimately be incorporated into the final version of the Constitution without debate.
Examples of these details included the
Speech and Debate Clause, which grants members of Congress immunity for comments made in their jobs, and the rules for organizing the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, Rutledge, himself a former state governor, was determined that while the new national government should be stronger than the Confederation government had been, the national government's power over the states should not be limitless; and at Rutledge's urging, the committee went beyond what the convention had proposed. As Stewart describes it, the committee "hijacked" and remade the Constitution, altering critical agreements the Convention delegates had already made, enhancing the powers of the states at the expense of the national government, and adding several far-reaching provisions that the convention had never discussed.
The first major change, insisted on by Rutledge, was meant to sharply curtail the essentially unlimited powers to legislate "in all cases for the general interests of the Union" that the Convention only two weeks earlier had agreed to grant the Congress. Rutledge and Randolph worried that the broad powers implied in the language agreed on by the convention would have given the national government too much power at the expense of the states. In Randolph's outline the committee replaced that language with a list of 18 specific "enumerated" powers, many adopted from the Articles of Confederation, that would strictly limit the Congress' authority to measures such as imposing taxes, making treaties, going to war, and establishing post offices.
Rutledge, however, was not able to convince all the members of the committee to accept the change. Over the course of a series of drafts, a catchall provision (the "
Necessary and Proper Clause
The Necessary and Proper Clause, also known as the Elastic Clause, is a clause in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution:
Since the landmark decision '' McCulloch v. Maryland'', the US Supreme Court has ruled that this clause gr ...
") was eventually added, most likely by Wilson, a nationalist little concerned with the sovereignty of individual states, giving the Congress the broad power "to make all Laws that shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."
Another revision of Wilson's draft also placed eight specific limits on the states, such as barring them from independently entering into treaties and from printing their own money, providing a certain degree of balance to the limits on the national government intended by Rutledge's list of enumerated powers.
In addition, Wilson's draft modified the language of the
Supremacy Clause adopted by the convention, to ensure that national law would take precedence over inconsistent state laws.
These changes set the final balance between the national and state governments that would be entered into the final document, as the Convention never challenged this dual-sovereignty between nation and state that had been fashioned by Rutledge and Wilson.
Another set of radical changes introduced by the Committee of Detail proved far more contentious when the committee's report was presented to the convention. On the day the convention had agreed to appoint the committee, Southerner Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, had warned of dire consequences should the committee fail to include protections for slavery in the Southern states, or allow for taxing of Southern agricultural exports.
In response to Pinckney and his fellow Southern delegates, the committee had included three provisions that explicitly restricted the Congress' authority in ways favorable to Southern interests. The proposed language would bar the Congress from ever interfering with the slave trade. It would also prohibit taxation of exports, and would require that any legislation concerning regulation of foreign commerce through tariffs or quotas (that is, any laws akin to England's "
Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, were a long series of English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce between other countries and with its own colonies. The ...
") pass only with two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress. While much of the rest of the committee's report would be accepted without serious challenge on the Convention floor, these last three proposals provoked outrage from Northern delegates and slavery opponents.
The final report of the committee, which became the first draft of the Constitution, was the first workable constitutional plan, as Madison's Virginia Plan had simply been an outline of goals and a broad structure. Even after it issued this report, the committee continued to meet off and on until early September.
Further modifications and concluding debate
Another month of discussion and relatively minor refinement followed, during which several attempts were made to alter the Rutledge draft, though few were successful. Some wanted to add property qualifications for people to hold office, while others wanted to prevent the national government from issuing paper money.
Madison in particular wanted to push the Constitution back in the direction of his Virginia plan.
One important change that did make it into the final version included the agreement between northern and southern delegates to empower Congress to end the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
starting in 1808. Southern and northern delegates also agreed to strengthen the
Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause in the United States Constitution, also known as either the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labor Clause, is Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3, which requires a "person held to service or labor" (usually a slave, appre ...
in exchange for removing a requirement that two-thirds of Congress agree on "navigation acts" (regulations of commerce between states and foreign governments). The two-thirds requirement was favored by southern delegates, who thought Congress might pass navigation acts that would be economically harmful to slaveholders.
Once the convention had finished amending the first draft from the Committee of Detail, a new set of unresolved questions were sent to several different committees for resolution. The Committee of Detail was considering several questions related to ''
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'',
freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...
, and an executive council to advise the president. Two committees addressed questions related to the slave trade and the assumption of war debts.
A new committee was created, the Committee on Postponed Parts, to address other questions that had been postponed. Its members, such as Madison, were delegates who had shown a greater desire for compromise and were chosen for this reason as most in the Convention wanted to finish their work and go home.
The committee dealt with questions related to the taxes, war making, patents and copyrights, relations with indigenous tribes, and Franklin's compromise to require money bills to originate in the House. The biggest issue they addressed was the presidency, and the final compromise was written by Madison with the committee's input.
They adopted Wilson's earlier plan for choosing the president by an electoral college, and settled on the method of choosing the president if no candidate had an electoral college majority, which many such as Madison thought would be "nineteen times out of twenty".
The committee also shortened the president's term from seven years to four years, freed the president to seek re-election after an initial term, and moved
impeachment trials from the courts to the Senate. They also created the office of the vice president, whose only roles were to succeed a president unable to complete a term of office, to preside over the Senate, and to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate. The committee transferred important powers from the Senate to the president, for example the power to make treaties and appoint ambassadors.
One controversial issue throughout much of the convention had been the length of the president's term, and whether the president was to be
term limit
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...
ed. The problem had resulted from the understanding that the president would be chosen by Congress; the decision to have the president be chosen instead by an electoral college reduced the chance of the president becoming beholden to Congress, so a shorter term with eligibility for re-election became a viable option.
Near the end of the convention, Gerry, Randolph, and Mason emerged as the main force of opposition. Their fears were increased as the Convention moved from Madison's vague Virginia Plan to the concrete plan of Rutledge's Committee of Detail.
Some have argued that Randolph's attacks on the Constitution were motivated by political ambition, in particular his anticipation of possibly facing rival
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...
in a future election. The main objection of the three was the compromise that would allow Congress to pass "navigation acts" with a simple majority in exchange for strengthened slave provisions.
Among their other objections was an opposition to the office of vice president.
Though most of their complaints did not result in changes, a couple did. Mason succeeded in adding "high crimes and misdemeanors" to the impeachment clause. Gerry also convinced the convention to include a second method for ratification of amendments. The report out of the Committee of Detail had included only one mechanism for constitutional amendment that required two-thirds of the states to ask Congress to convene a convention for consideration of amendments. Upon Gerry's urging, the Convention added back the Virginia Plan's original method whereby Congress would propose amendments that the states would then ratify.
All amendments to the Constitution, save the
21st amendment, have been made through this latter method.
Despite their successes, these three dissenters grew increasingly unpopular as most other delegates wanted to bring the convention's business to an end and return home. As the convention was drawing to a conclusion, and delegates prepared to refer the Constitution to the Committee on Style to pen the final version, one delegate raised an objection over civil trials. He wanted to guarantee the right to a jury trial in civil matters, and Mason saw in this a larger opportunity. Mason told the Convention that the constitution should include a
bill of rights, which he thought could be prepared in a few hours. Gerry agreed, though the rest of the committee overruled them. They wanted to go home, and thought this was nothing more than another delaying tactic.
Few at the time realized how important the issue would become, with the absence of a bill of rights becoming the main argument of the
anti-Federalist
Anti-Federalism was a late-18th century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed History of the United States Constitution#1788 ratification, the ratification of the 1787 United St ...
s against ratification. Most of the convention's delegates thought that states already protected individual rights, and that the Constitution did not authorize the national government to take away rights, so there was no need to include protections of rights. Once the Convention moved beyond this point, the delegates addressed a couple of last-minute issues. Importantly, they modified the language that required spending bills to originate in the House of Representatives and be flatly accepted or rejected, unmodified, by the Senate. The new language empowered the Senate to modify spending bills proposed by the House.
Drafting and signing
![Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Scene_at_the_Signing_of_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States.jpg)
Once the final modifications had been made, the Committee of Style and Arrangement was appointed "to revise the style of and arrange the articles which had been agreed to by the house." Unlike other committees, whose members were named so the committees included members from different regions, this final committee included no champions of the small states. Its members mostly supported a strong national government and were unsympathetic to calls for states' rights.
They were
William Samuel Johnson
William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fir ...
(Connecticut),
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
(New York),
Gouverneur Morris (Pennsylvania),
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
(Virginia), and
Rufus King
Rufus King (March 24, 1755April 29, 1827) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and was one of the signers of the Unit ...
(Massachusetts). On Wednesday, September 12, the report of the "committee of style" was ordered printed for the convenience of the delegates. For three days, the Convention compared this final version with the proceedings of the convention. The Constitution was then ordered engrossed on Saturday, September 15 by Jacob Shallus, and was submitted for signing on September 17. It made at least one important change to what the convention had agreed to; King wanted to prevent states from interfering in contracts. Although the Convention never took up the matter, his language was now inserted, creating the
contract clause
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, known as the Contract Clause, imposes certain prohibitions on the states. These prohibitions are meant to protect individuals from intrusion by state governments and to keep ...
.
Gouverneur Morris is credited, both now and then, as the chief draftsman of the final document, including the stirring preamble. Not all the delegates were pleased with the results; thirteen left before the ceremony, and three of those remaining refused to sign:
Edmund Randolph of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
,
George Mason of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, and
Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 18 ...
of
. Mason demanded a
Bill of Rights if he was to support the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was not included in the Constitution submitted to the states for ratification, but many states ratified the Constitution with the understanding that a bill of rights would soon follow.
Shortly before the document was to be signed, Gorham proposed to lower the size of congressional districts from 40,000 to 30,000 citizens. A similar measure had been proposed earlier, and failed by one vote.
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
spoke up here, making his only substantive contribution to the text of the Constitution in supporting this move. The Convention adopted it without further debate. Gorham would sign the document, although he had openly doubted whether the United States would remain a single, unified nation for more than 150 years.
Ultimately, 39 of the 55 delegates who attended (74 had been chosen from 12 states) ended up signing, but it is likely that none were completely satisfied. Their views were summed up by
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
, who said, "I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. ... I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. ... It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies ..."
![Constitution Sesquicentennial 1937 Issue-3c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Constitution_Sesquicentennial_1937_Issue-3c.jpg)
Rhode Island never sent delegates, and two of New York's three delegates did not stay at the convention for long. Therefore, as George Washington stated, the document was executed by "eleven states, and Colonel Hamilton."
Washington signed the document first, and then moving by state delegation from north to south, as had been the custom throughout the convention, the delegates filed to the front of the room to sign their names.
At the time the document was signed, Franklin gave a persuasive speech involving an
anecdote on a sun that was painted on the back of Washington's
Chippendale chair
Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779) was a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled ''The Gentleman and Cab ...
.
["Rising Sun" in ''The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of America's Founding'', Vol. 1 (ed. John R. Vile: ABC-CLIO, 2005), p. 681.] As recounted in Madison's notes:
Whilst the last members were signing it Doctr. Franklin looking towards the Presidents Chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have said he, often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.
The Constitution was then submitted to the states for ratification, pursuant to its own
Article VII.
Slavery
Slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
was one of the most difficult issues confronting the delegates. Slavery was widespread in the states at the time of the convention.
At least a third of the convention's 55 delegates owned slaves, including all of the delegates from Virginia and South Carolina.
Slaves comprised approximately one-fifth of the population of the states,
and apart from northernmost New England, where slavery had largely been eliminated, slaves lived in all regions of the country.
However, more than 90% of the slaves
lived in the South, where approximately 1 in 3 families owned slaves (in the largest and wealthiest state, Virginia, that figure was nearly 1 in 2 families).
The entire agrarian economy of the South was based on slave labor, and the Southern delegates to the convention were unwilling to accept any proposal that they believed would threaten the institution.
Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise
![JohnDickinson4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/JohnDickinson4.gif)
Whether slavery was to be regulated under the new Constitution was a matter of such intense conflict between the North and South that three Southern states, Georgia and the two Carolinas, refused to join the Union if slavery were not to be allowed. Delegates opposed to slavery were forced to yield in their demands that slavery be outlawed within the new nation. However, they continued to argue that the Constitution should prohibit the states from participating in the international slave trade, including in the importation of new slaves from Africa and the export of slaves to other countries. The Convention postponed making a final decision on the international slave trade until late in the deliberations because of the contentious nature of the issue. During the convention's late July recess, the Committee of Detail had inserted language that would prohibit the federal government from attempting to ban international slave trading and from imposing taxes on the purchase or sale of slaves. The convention could not agree on these provisions when the subject came up again in late August, so they referred the matter to an eleven-member committee for further discussion. This committee helped work out a compromise: Congress would have the power to ban the international slave trade, but not for another twenty years (that is, not until 1808). In exchange for this concession, the federal government's power to regulate foreign commerce would be strengthened by provisions that allowed for taxation of slave trades in the international market and that reduced the requirement for passage of navigation acts from two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress to simple majorities.
Three-Fifths Compromise
Another contentious slavery-related question was whether slaves would be counted as part of the population in determining representation of the states in the Congress, or would instead be considered property and as such not be considered for purposes of representation.
Delegates from states with a large population of slaves argued that slaves should be considered persons in determining representation, but as property if the new government were to levy taxes on the states on the basis of population.
Delegates from states where slavery had become rare argued that slaves should be included in taxation, but not in determining representation.
Finally, delegate
James Wilson proposed the
Three-Fifths Compromise, a measure eventually adopted by the convention.
Framers of the Constitution
Fifty-five delegates attended sessions of the Constitutional Convention, all of whom are considered the Framers of the Constitution, though only 39 delegates actually signed.
The states had originally appointed 70 representatives to the convention, but a number of the appointees did not accept or could not attend, leaving 55 who would ultimately craft the document.
Almost all of the 55 Framers had taken part in the Revolution, with at least 29 having served in the Continental forces, most in positions of command. All but two or three had served in colonial or state government during their careers. The vast majority (about 75%) of the delegates were or had been members of the Confederation Congress, and many had been members of the Continental Congress during the Revolution. Several had been state governors.[ Only two delegates, ]Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...
and Robert Morris, would sign all three of the nation's founding documents: Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
, and U.S. Constitution.[
More than half of the delegates had trained as lawyers (several had even been judges), although only about a quarter had practiced law as their principal occupation. Other delegates included merchants, manufacturers, shippers, land speculators, bankers, and financiers. Several were physicians and small farmers, and one was a minister.][ Of the 25 who owned slaves, 16 depended on slave labor to run the plantations or other businesses that formed the mainstay of their income. Many of the delegates were landowners with substantial holdings, and most were comfortably wealthy. George Washington and Robert Morris, for example, were among the wealthiest men in the entire country.][
Their depth of knowledge and experience in self-government was remarkable. As Thomas Jefferson in Paris semi-seriously wrote to John Adams in London, "It really is an assembly of demigods."]
*Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
** Oliver Ellsworth*
** William Samuel Johnson
William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fir ...
** Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...
*Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
** Richard Bassett
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
** Gunning Bedford Jr.
Gunning Bedford Jr. (1747 – March 30, 1812) was an American Founding Father, delegate to the Congress of the Confederation (Continental Congress), Attorney General of Delaware, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 which drafted ...
** Jacob Broom
Jacob Broom (October 17, 1752 – April 25, 1810) was an American Founding Father, businessman, and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. As a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was a signer of the United States Constituti ...
** John Dickinson
John Dickinson (November 13 Julian_calendar">/nowiki>Julian_calendar_November_2.html" ;"title="Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar">/nowiki>Julian calendar November 2">Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar" ...
** George Read George Read may refer to:
* George Reade (colonial governor) (1608–1671), politician, judge, and Acting Governor of Virginia Colony
* George Read (American politician, born 1733) (1733–1798), lawyer, signer of Declaration of Independence and U ...
* Georgia
** Abraham Baldwin
** William Few
** William Houstoun*
** William Pierce*
*Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
** Daniel Carroll
Daniel Carroll (July 22, 1730May 7, 1796) was an American politician and plantation owner from Maryland and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He supported the American Revolution, served in the Confederation Congress, was a dele ...
** Luther Martin
Luther Martin (February 20, 1748, New Brunswick, New Jersey – July 10, 1826, New York, New York) was a politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who left the Constitutional Convention early because he felt the Cons ...
*
** James McHenry
James McHenry (November 16, 1753 – May 3, 1816) was a Scotch-Irish American military surgeon, statesman, and a Founding Father of the United States. McHenry was a signer of the United States Constitution from Maryland, initiated the recommend ...
** John Francis Mercer
John Francis Mercer (May 17, 1759 – August 30, 1821) was an American lawyer, planter, and politician from Virginia and Maryland, who served as Maryland's governor, as well as terms in the Continental Congress (representing Virginia), U.S. Hou ...
*
** Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723 – November 16, 1790) was a politician, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signer of the United States Constitution. He was a leader for many years in Maryland's colonial government, but, when confl ...
*
** Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 18 ...
*
** Nathaniel Gorham
** Rufus King
Rufus King (March 24, 1755April 29, 1827) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and was one of the signers of the Unit ...
** Caleb Strong*
*New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
** Nicholas Gilman
Nicholas Gilman Jr. (August 3, 1755May 2, 1814) was an American Founding Father, a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the U.S. Constitution, represent ...
** John Langdon
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
*New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
** David Brearley
David Brearley (often misspelled as ''Brearly'') (June 11, 1745 – August 16, 1790) was an American Founding Father, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, a delegate from New Jersey to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which dra ...
** Jonathan Dayton
** William Houston
William Churchill Houston ( 1746 – August 12, 1788), a Founding Father of the United States, was a teacher, lawyer and statesman. Houston served as a delegate representing New Jersey in both the Continental Congress and Constitutional Conventio ...
*
** William Livingston
William Livingston (November 30, 1723July 25, 1790) was an American politician who served as the first governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) during the American Revolutionary War. As a New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress, he sig ...
** William Paterson
*New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
** Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
** John Lansing Jr.
John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. (January 30, 1754 – vanished December 12, 1829), a Founding Father of the United States, was an Attorney at law, attorney, Judge, jurist, and politician.
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Lansing was trained as a ...
*
** Robert Yates*
*North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
** William Blount
** William Richardson Davie*
** Alexander Martin
Alexander Martin (October 17, 1740November 2, 1807) was the fourth and seventh Governor of North Carolina from 1782 to 1784 and from 1789 to 1792. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Martin is considered a Founding Father ...
*
** Richard Dobbs Spaight
Richard Dobbs Spaight (March 25, 1758September 6, 1802) was an American Founding Father, politician, planter, and signer of the United States Constitution, who served as a Democratic-Republican U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 10th con ...
** Hugh Williamson
Hugh Williamson (December 5, 1735 – May 22, 1819) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father, physician, and politician. He is best known as a signatory to the U.S. Constitution, and for representing North Carolina ...
*Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
** George Clymer
** Thomas Fitzsimons
** Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
** Jared Ingersoll
Jared Ingersoll (October 24, 1749 – October 31, 1822) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and statesman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a signer of the United States Constitution. He serv ...
** Thomas Mifflin
Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744January 20, 1800) was an American merchant, soldier, and politician from Pennsylvania, who is regarded as a Founding Father of the United States for his roles during and after the American Revolution. Mifflin was ...
** Gouverneur Morris
** Robert Morris
** James Wilson
*South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
** Pierce Butler Pierce or Piers Butler may refer to:
*Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond (c. 1467 – 26 August 1539), Anglo-Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland
*Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye (1652–1740), Anglo-Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland
*Pi ...
** Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (February 25, 1746 – August 16, 1825) was an American Founding Father, statesman of South Carolina, Revolutionary War veteran, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he signed the United States Constit ...
** Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney may refer to:
* Charles Pinckney (South Carolina chief justice) (died 1758), father of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
* Colonel Charles Pinckney (1731–1782), South Carolina politician, loyal to British during Revolutionary War, fath ...
** John Rutledge
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additiona ...
*Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
** John Blair
** James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
** George Mason*
** James McClurg
James McClurg (1746 – July 9, 1823) was an American physician and Founding Father who served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention which drafted the United States Constitution in 1787. McClurg served as the 18th, 21st, and 24th mayor of ...
*
** Edmund Randolph*
** George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
** George Wythe*
*Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
**''Rhode Island did not send delegates to the Convention.''
(*) ''Did not sign the final draft of the U.S. Constitution. Randolph, Mason, and Gerry were the only three present in Philadelphia at the time who refused to sign.''
Several prominent Founders
Founder or Founders may refer to:
Places
*Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium
* Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...
are notable for ''not'' participating in the Constitutional Convention. Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
was abroad, serving as the minister to France. John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
was in Britain, serving as minister to that country, but he wrote home to encourage the delegates. Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...
refused to participate because he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy." Also absent were Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
, John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...
and John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first ...
. Many of the states' older and more experienced leaders may have simply been too busy with the local affairs of their states to attend the convention, which had originally been planned to strengthen the existing Articles of Confederation, not to write a constitution for a completely new national government.
In popular culture
* The 1989 film '' A More Perfect Union'', which portrays the events and discussions of the Constitutional Convention, was largely filmed in Independence Hall.
* In the 2015 Broadway musical ''Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
'', Alexander Hamilton's proposal of his own plan during the Constitutional Convention was featured in the song "Non-Stop", which concluded the first act.
See also
* Constitution Day (United States)
* Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution
* ''The Federalist Papers
''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The co ...
''
* Founders Online
Founders Online is a research website providing free access to a digitized collection representing the papers of seven of the most influential figures in the founding of the United States. Among the 185,000 documents available through the website ...
* Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the Am ...
* History of the United States Constitution
The United States Constitution has served as the supreme law of the United States since taking effect in 1789. The document was written at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention and was ratified through a series of state conventions held in 1787 and ...
* National Constitution Center
* Syng inkstand
The Syng inkstand is a silver inkstand used during the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the United States Constitution in 1787. Besides paper documents, it is one of four still-existing objects that were pres ...
* Timeline of drafting and ratification of the United States Constitution
* United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rais ...
References
Notes
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Further reading
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External links
Notes of debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison
Founders Online: Correspondence and Other Writings of Seven Major Shapers of the United States
TeachingAmericanHistory.org Constitutional Convention Topics
National Constitution Center
Lesson Plan: Constitutional Convention
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
Constitutional Convention Broadside Collection
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
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American Revolution
Conventions in Philadelphia
American constitutional conventions
Drafting of the United States Constitution
1787 in Pennsylvania
Political compromises in the United States