interstate commerce. The delegates soon recognized that these issues were only part of a much larger issue that could be addressed by nothing less than a revision of the Articles. The Annapolis delegates called for a constitutional convention, which met in Philadelphia in May 1787. The task of revision grew into a project of building anew. By the end of May, the delegates agreed that what was required was a genuine national government, not a mere hopeful confederation of states.
Constitutional Convention
Fifty-five delegates convened in Philadelphia and elected George Washington as president of the convention. just as Washington had held the Continental Army together during the long trial of revolution, so now he managed the disputatious delegates with dignity and fairness.
The Virginia Plan
While some delegates held out for a simple revision of the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia delegation, led by Edmund Randolph, introduced the Virginia Plan, which proposed the creation of a central federal government consisting of a bicameral legislature, an executive branch, and a judicial branch. The executive was to be elected by the members of the legislature, who, in turn, were elected by the citizens. The Virginia Plan further specified that representation in the bicameral legislature would be proportionate to state population—a provision that worried and angered representatives of the smaller states.
The New Jersey Plan
As debate raged over the Virginia Plan, William Paterson of New Jersey introduced a plan labeled with the name of his state. The New Jersey Plan retained most of the Articles of Confederation, and it gave all the states equal representation in the legislature, but it added a separate and independent Supreme Court. Now the debate became even more lengthy, tangled, and heated.
Connecticut Compromise
At last, Roger Sherman, delegate from Connecticut, proposed a compromise between the two plans. This so-called Great Compromise called for a bicameral legislature; however, the “upper house” of this body, the Senate, would provide each state with equal representation, whereas representation in the “lower house,” the House of Representatives, would provide representation proportionate to each state’s population. Moreover, the chief executive—the president—would not be elected by the representatives in the legislature, but by an Electoral College.
Three-Fifths of a Person
Any number of additional compromises remained to be made, but the stickiest involved apportioning representation in the House of Representatives. The more representatives a state could claim, the more influential it would be in the federal government. If representation was to be proportional to population, the South wanted its slaves counted as population. The North objected, arguing that the slaves should be excluded entirely from the calculation.
A peculiar-sounding solution was reached. Embodied in the Constitution as Article 1, Section 2, the “Three-Fifths Compromise” manages delicately to avoid the word slave altogether: “Representation and direct taxes will be apportioned among the several states according to respective numbers determined by adding to the whole number of free persons including those bound to service for a set number of years and excluding Indians not taxed three-fifths of all other persons.” For purposes of levying taxes and apportioning representatives, slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.
Federalist Papers
With the compromises in place, William Johnson (secretary of the Convention), Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Rufus King, and Gouverneur Morris wrote the actual Constitution document, the product of three and a half months of debate. When 38 of the 55 Convention delegates approved the document, it was sent to Congress, Which submitted it to the states for ratification.
Thus began an uphill battle. Those who supported the proposed Constitution were called Federalists those opposed, Anti-Federalists. Although Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey instantly ratified the document, a total of nine states had to ratify in order for the Constitution to become law. The process was hotly contested in many states and nowhere more so than in the key states of Virginia and New York. To convince New York voters to ratify, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay collaborated on a series of essays collectively called The Federalist Papers, published during 1787-88 in various New York newspapers under the name “Publius.”
The Federalist Papers is a brilliant defense of the Constitution. The tenth essay penetrated to the very heart of the principal Anti-Federalist argument that the nation was simply too big to be regulated by a central government. Madison argued that precisely because the nation was so large, it would be most effectively governed by a strong central government, which would prevent any single special interest from taking control. Essays 15 through 22 deftly analyzed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
Virginia ratified the Constitution by a close vote of 89 to 79, but only after the framers promised to add a “Bill of Rights” to satisfy the Anti-Federalist argument that the Constitution failed to address the rights of individuals. In the meantime, The Federalist Papers tipped the balance in New York—though just barely. The vote was 30 to 27.
Father of His Country
When New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution on June 21, 1788, the document became law, but it was not put into effect officially until March 4, 1789. The next month, the U.S. Senate convened to count ballots cast by members of the Electoral. College for the first president of the United States. The result surprised no one. George Washington had been unanimously elected, and John Adams became his vice president. It was, in fact, with the understanding that Washington would be elected that the framers of the Constitution entrusted so much power to the chief executive. Washington had amply demonstrated not only a genius for leadership in commanding the Continental Army, but his skill as a statesman in presiding over the Constitutional Convention. Equally important, Washington had made manifest the character of a true republican. Too often, revolutions are followed by new tyrants and tyrannies. It was clear to Congress and the people of the United States that Washington was no tyrant.
