What were 3 major issues and solutions reached at the Constitutional Convention?

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention did not represent a cross-section of 1787 America.  The Convention included no women, no slaves, no Native Americans or racial minorites, no laborers.  As one historian noted, it was a "Convention of the well-bred, the well-fed, the well-read, and the well-wed."  The delegates included some  very well-known figures from American history, such as George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.  Other prominent Americans of the time, who might be expected to have been in Philadelphia, did not attend for various reasons.  Prominent non-attendees include John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.  The links below offer more information on the delegates.

The Theory Behind Madison's Plan

James Madison

James Madison believed that protection for liberty lay in the structure of government, not in a listing of "parchment" guarantees.  As he saw it, the primary threat to liberty in the past had come from oppressive majorities capturing the reigns of power.  Madison's solution, as he proposed it in Philadelphia, was to "enlarge the sphere" by  transferring much power to the federal government.  Because the nation is comprised of many more and more diverse communities of interests than are individual states, it becomes much more difficult for any one interest group to become a majority and capture control of power.  Rather than see competing factions as a danger, Madison saw the saving multiplicity of interests as a protection for liberty: "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."  Madison further aimed to block the ability of an oppressive majority from working its will against minorities by dividing power within the national government into three relatively co-equal branches, each of which would be given weapons to fight the other.  Even if a majority were to capture one branch, Madison reasoned, it could only do limited harm if the other branches remained out of its domination.

Philadelphia in 1787
Map of Philadelphia
in 1787
(TeachingAmericanHistory.org)
Visit the above map and explore the Philadelphia of the delegates.  Click on the images of Independence Hall,  Mary House's Boarding House, and the Indian Queen Tavern.

Questions for Class Discussion1. Did the Convention exceed its authority?  How to you begin to answer such a question?
2.  If the Convention did exceed its authority, should it have anyway?  Does it matter whether the Convention acted beyond the powers given to it?
3.  Would the United States have been better off if the Virginia Plan had been adopted as presented?  If the New Jersey Plan had been adopted?
4.   Has our constitutional system worked more or less as Madison hoped it would?  In what respects, if any, do you think Madison would be disappointed?
5.  What was the greatest failing of the Constitutional Convention?  Why?

Signing of the Constitution, September 17, 1787

Ben Franklin's Comments on the Signing,
As Reported in the Notes of James Madison

Doctor Franklin, looking toward the President's 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 sun from a setting sun.  I have, said he, often in the course of this session, and the vissitudes 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 at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.

Battle for Ratification: The Federalists vs the Anti-Federalists

Ratification came only after a hard-fought battle between those favoring adoption of the new Constitution (the Federalists) and those opposed (the Anti-Federalists).  The Anti-Federalists had many complaints.  They argued that the national government, and especially the president, had too much power.  They complained that the six-year terms of senators were far too long.  They demanded to know why delegates failed to include a declaration of individual rights.  The Federalists tried to answer each of these objections, and one such attempt to do so, The Federalists Papers, stands as major work of political philosophy.  After easy victories in a few states, the Federalists carried the day by winning close votes for ratification in Massachusetts (187-168) with the able assistance of Samuel Adams, in Virginia (88-80) over the strenuous arguments of Patrick Henry, and in New York (30-27).

Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government faced many challenges in conducting foreign policy, largely due to its inability to pass or enforce laws that individual states found counter to their interests. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American War of Independence, stipulated that debts owed by Americans to British subjects were to be honored, and also stipulated that former British loyalists could bring forth suits in U.S. courts to recover confiscated property. These provisions were unpopular and many states blocked their enforcement. This led to British refusal to vacate military forts in U.S. territory. Additionally, after the war, British traders flooded U.S. markets with British goods, to the detriment of American importers and manufacturers. The Confederation Congress lacked the authority to regulate this trade, and intrastate trade was further hampered by states’ own attempts to impose import duties on goods from elsewhere in the United States. Lastly, the Spanish Government, which controlled New Orleans, barred American ships from navigating the Mississippi River. Southern delegates to the Confederation Congress wanted to lift this ban, while coastal merchants, especially in the northeast, were willing to make concessions in exchange for a treaty with otherwise favorable commercial terms. The large majorities necessary for ratification of such measures under the Articles of Confederation often resulted in the deadlock along sectional lines between North and South.

The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

In attempting to resolve such issues, as well as problems arising from the payment of debts from the Revolutionary War and other domestic issues, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a model of government that relied upon a series of checks and balances by dividing federal authority between the Legislative, the Judicial, and the Executive branches of government. The framers of the Constitution had originally imagined a weak presidency and a strong legislature divided into a House of Representatives and the Senate. Under the Articles of Confederation, considerable minor paperwork had bogged down important business enough that legislators decided to establish an executive branch to deal with routine paperwork. When writing the Constitution, the framers expected the Senate to handle important issues, particularly the ratification of treaties, while the Executive would attend to matters of lesser consequence. However, as deliberations continued, the Executive branch acquired more power to deal with some of the issues that had been a source of sectional tension under the Articles of Confederation—and so the President acquired the authority to conduct foreign relations. The two-thirds clause for ratification of treaties in the Senate, as opposed to a simple majority, allowed the South a greater voice in these matters and assuaged concerns about the attempts to abandon navigation of the Mississippi.

The Constitution does not stipulate existence of departments within the executive branch, but the need for such departments was recognized immediately. Congress passed legislation creating the Department of Foreign Affairs in its first session in 1789, and in the same year changed the name to the Department of State after it added several additional domestic duties to the Department.

After the ratification of the Constitution in 1789, the machinery of state had been designed, but not yet tested and put to use. The provisions for management of foreign affairs would be put to the test in 1794, when the Senate had the opportunity to accept or reject the controversial treaty with Great Britain negotiated by John Jay.

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