Apush Chapter 13 Outline

People had many different opinions on the ratification of the Constitution. There were Federalists and Anti-Federalists that debated on many topics of the Constitution. The main reasons were: what type of government the United States of America should have, the people controlling our government, and some of the powers they should have. The Federalists were the ones who wanted change. They wanted to make changes to the government that was originally proposed. The Federalists wanted the government to protect the people, but not abuse their powers. They wanted to have the powers divided between the national and the state governments. The Constitution also stated that the government

The Federalists supported the ratification of the Constitution while the Anti Federalists were against it. This boiled down to simple beliefs held by both groups. Anti Federalists believed that the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and left state governments powerless. Anti Federalists were in favor of a weaker central governments and stronger local state governments. They believed that central government was too far removed from the people, and that the nation was too large, for it to serve them on a local state basis. This resulted in the fear that people’s voices would be taken away; this fear of oppression was only increased by the fact that the Constitution didn’t include a Bill of Rights. However, Federalists believed that a strong central government, accompanied by the Constitution, was needed after the Article of Confederation failed or the nation wouldn’t survive. In the eyes of the Federalists, a Bill of Rights was not needed because the Constitution did not put any limits on the rights of the citizens; however

The Articles of Confederation caused many problems for our founding fathers. There were many important factors that were abandoned in order to run a functional nation. Some of the problems were: no federal army, no national currency, the federal government could not tax, there were no centralized courts for interstate crimes, and it was extremely difficult to pass a law and almost impossible to pass an amendment. Lucky for us our founding fathers met in Philadelphia and discussed how they can approve on the Confederation. Eventually they came up with the Constitution of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Before the Constitution was created there was a lot of arguing and compromising done. Without compromise it would be impossible to

A. The Northwest Ordinance resolve the problem of the western lands by building a new structure for the government of the Northwest

With a final decision of five to four, the states passed the Great Compromise and it was officially adopted in July 16, 1781. The Great Compromise proposed that the United States would have a bi-cameral legislature instead of an unicameral legislature. There would be two houses: an upper house known as The Senate, and a lower house as The House of Representatives. There would be two senators per state, which favored the equality that small states were longing for. The number of House of Representatives per state would depend on how populous the state was according to the decennial census, giving citizens in large states equal power to citizens of small states. Senators were to be appointed by the State legislatures and would have six-year terms. Whereas the members of The House of Representatives are elected by the public vote and have two-year terms.

Virginia plan placed a lot of power in the legislative branch, and had a system very similar to the one we use today. The branch is split up into two houses, the House of Representatives, as well as the Senate. The number of officials in these institutions would be based solely on population, or their contribution to the federation. They would be voted on by the people, for the House of Reps, and the Senate would then be chosen by government officials. This was a very scary plan to the smaller states, who much rather favored the New Jersey plan. This option outlined a very equal playing field for all states. There is a one house legislature system, with equal representation across the board. All decisions were made based on the state’s

The Great Compromise occurred in the summer of 1787 and solved the debate about representation for the states. The founding of the modern political system was the result of the Great Compromise. The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plans differed in their approach to the representation of states, as will be seen later in the paper. The differences in the representative system divided the larger states from the smaller states. The argument was also fueled by the debates between Federalists and Anti-Federalists regarding the issue of representation along with many other ideas, principle, and policies. Therefore, the two different plans for representation had political interests behind each plan.

The Great Compromise means that Congress is built on 2 parts; the House of Representatives and the Senate. The power of Congress is a mixture of the House and the Senate where the House (Virginia plan) is based on population of state which helps the larger states while the Senate(New Jersey plan) is that every state has 2 representatives in which supports the smaller states. Doc D is from Article 1 Section 2 and 3 written in the constitution in 1787. According to Doc D, the house is,”Representatives… shall be apportioned...according to…(population)...The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative,” and,”The Senate of the United States shall be composed of 2 senators from each state's.” The authors of the Constitution explain that Congress’s power is split into two parts (the house and the senate) which the house is for bigger states while the senate is for smaller states which helped the states agree on the Constitution. The Constitution guards against tyranny because the larger states can’t have more power than the smaller states because Congress is build for both states have

[The great compromise is an agreement between the big states and the large states stating that in the house of representatives it is based on population big states liked this but in the senate each state has 2 and small states liked this.] [Doc D is an excerpt from the constitution. ] It is about the Great Compromise. According to Doc D “ Representatives… shall be apportioned.... According to population.

It established a strong central government but protected state autonomy and rights. The new plan of government divided power equally between the central government and the states. The Constitution created 3 branch's executive, judicial and legislative. Powers were shared between the states and central government. The national government had the power to tax and regulate trade. After a lengthy debate, three major compromises were decided that shaped the foundation of the U.S. Constitution. The first of the compromises was The Connecticut Compromise or better known as the Great Compromise. The Virginia Plan wanted representation based on the population of each state and the New Jersey Plan wanted equal representation for every state. It then decided that there would be two chambers in Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate would be based on equal representation and the House would be based on population.The Second of the Compromises was the Three-Fifths Compromise. This compromise was between southern and northern states in which each slave counted as three-fifths of a person in order to determine representation and taxation for the federal government. Lastly, the Slave Trade Compromise was what the north and south worked out which forbade Congress from banning the slave trade for 20 years. For the North, this meant the slave trade hypothetically

Representation in Congress was resolved when delegates from Virginia corrected the Articles of Confederation. Their plan went better than expected. The Virginia plan provided three branches of government. They struggled with how the states were to be represented in congress. Extreme debates over Connecticut’s compromise took place and after about two weeks the delegates finally came together and agreed to the Connecticut compromise on July 16th.

1. Explain the notion of “higher law,” by which the colonists felt they were entitled to certain “natural rights.” List these rights. Higher law is a moral or religious unwritten principle that is believed to be above the written law.

The major reason why Anti-federalists opposed the ratification of the new constitution was because they feared that it gave too much power to the national government. In an article called ‘Ratifying the constitution- Anti-federalists’ it states, “Having just succeeded in rejecting what they saw as the tyranny of British power, such threats were seen as a very real part of political life. To Anti-federalists the proposed Constitution threatened to lead

America’s first written constitution was the Articles of Confederation. The delegates to the Second Continental Congress drafted these Articles and created a confederation. A confederation refers to “a highly decentralized system in which the national government derives limited authority from the states rather than directly from citizens” (pg. 50). Under the Articles of Confederation, the states elect officials of the national government, but the states also have the authority to overrule that government’s decisions. According to the Articles, there was a single house of congress and each state was allowed one vote. Congress did have the power to set up a postal department, request the states to provide donations to help cover government expenses,

The Legislative Brach of the federal government is made up of two Chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. These two bodies draft and pass laws that, if signed by the President of the United States, govern the United States and it's citizens.