Creating and Ratifying the Constitution

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Creating and Ratifying the Constitution
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Constitutional Convention
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I. Compromise

• States Disagree
• How should states be represented?
• What about the economy (taxes)?
• Should slavery continue?
• How strong should the National Govt be?

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• Two house legislature (bicameral)
• Representation based on population
• more power to national government

• One house legislature (unicameral)
• Each state had equal representation
• More power to state governments

• Bicameral (2 house) representation
• equal representation in Senate
• House of Representative based on population
• Stronger national government

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II. Slavery

• South
• Wanted slaves to count as part of population
• Give them more representation (more power)
• North
• Wanted slaves to count for tax purposes
• Did not want slaves to count as representation
• Three-Fifths Compromise
• 3/5 of slave population would count towards
  representation
• Slaves could be imported until 1807
• The words slave and slavery never used in the
  Constitution

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III. The Living Constitution

• Federalist Government
• Sharing of power between the central government
  and its states
• All powers not assigned to national govt were
  given to the states

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III. The Living Constitution (cont)

• Checks and Balances
• Keeps one branch of govt from becoming too
  powerful
• Legislative - Congress
• Executive - President
• Judicial - Supreme Court

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IV. Ratifying the Constitution

• Bill of Rights
• Several states only ratified after being
  guaranteed a bill of rights section
• These rights would be added to the constitution
  as amendments
• 2/3 of both houses had to approve, then 3/4 of
  the states had to ratify
• 12 were originally proposed (1789) but ten were
  then ratified by the states (1791)