Dominique+Q.+-+Compromise+Reigns+Project

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Think about having to come up with an agreement that not only affected your life, but others’. Imagine having to argue for months to decide on one solution. This is what you would have gone through if you had been a part of the Constitutional Convention in May 1787.

The point of this convention was to revise the Articles of Confederation, the first written plan of government for the United States. “Shay’s rebellion shocked Congress into calling for a convention to consider ‘the situation of the United States’” (History Alive 105). Shay’s rebellion, a group of farmers that easily rebelled, showed that the United States government wasn’t strong enough to protect their own country. The citizens of the colonies were beginning to think that if it wasn’t strong enough to protect from within, then how would it protect from other formidable countries?

When deciding how states should be represented, the delegates had two arguments. The first was The Virginia Plan, which “called for a strong, national government with 3 branches, or parts” (History Alive 109). The legislative branch (Congress), made up of two houses, would make the laws. The executive branch would execute the laws, and the judicial branch would apply and interpret the laws. Congress’s two houses would be the House of Representatives and the Senate. The New Jersey Plan was similar except that there would only be one house of Congress and it wouldn’t be based on the state’s population. By combining both of the arguments together, the delegates created the Great Compromise. There would be three branches and Congress would have two houses. The House of Representatives would represent the people and the Senate would represent the states.

The South and North were on different sides on how slaves should be counted towards a state’s population. The North believed that slaves should be counted as property, while the South thought that they should be counted as people. “Southerners wanted as many representatives in the House as possible” (History Alive 111). The North believed that “slaves should be counted only as property that could be taxed like any other property” (History Alive 111). Finally, a compromise was introduced: the three-fifths compromise. This was that each slave would be counted as “three-fifths of a person when determining each state’s population” (History Alive 112).

Once again, the North and the South took different sides on how trade would be regulated. “To help business in the North” northern delegates believed that Congress should control trade, but the South was worried that Congress would tax southern exports or outlaw the slave trade (History Alive 112). The southern delegates “objected that their economies would collapse without a constant supply of fresh slaves” (History Alive 112). The agreement was that Congress would have the power to control trade, but with two limitations: they couldn’t place tax on exports going to other countries and they couldn’t interfere with the slave trade for 20 years.

The three compromises, which were made by the 55 delegates, are still in effect today. A new government was created “in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787” (History Alive 106).