MEAP 8th Grade – Day 7Monday, September 30, 2013

The Articles of Confederation set up the first central government in the United States. (1781-1788) After the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress met to decide how the new country should be run. 

The Articles of Confederation In creating the Articles, many Americans feared a

strong central government because of the abuses they had suffered while under British rule.

The Articles gave more powers to the states and created a national government consisting solely of a single house of Congress in which each state would

have one vote. The Articles prohibited the national government

from levying taxes, regulated the sale of government-owned land to settlers, and required unanimous

consent from all states in order to make amendments.

The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional ConventionFrom May 25 until September 17, 1787, 55 

delegates from different states met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Constitutional Convention. 

The delegates had wanted to improve the Articles of Confederation, under which the central government of 

the U.S. did not have enough power to govern effectively. 

Instead of improving the Articles, the delegates ended up creating the U.S. Constitution as a new framework of government to replace the Articles.

The Great Compromise The Virginia Plan called for a strong bicameral (two-body)

legislative branch, with each state's representation based on its population.

The smaller states, however, felt that a population-based legislature would not give them any real representation, so the New

Jersey Plan was offered; there would be a unicameral (one-body) legislative branch with equal representation among every state.

The disagreement was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, often called the Great Compromise. This plan called for a bicameral legislative branch in which the House of Representatives had state

representation based on population (to satisfy the large states) while the Senate had equal state representation (to satisfy the small

states).

The Great Compromise

Three-Fifths Compromise

Three-Fifths CompromiseDelegates from the North and South disagreed as to

whether slaves should be counted in a state's population, since slaves did not have the rights of

citizens. Northern delegates believed that slaves should not

be counted as part of the state's population because it would hugely increase the representation of southern

states in the House. The delegates compromised and determined that 3/5 of a state's slave population would count toward

its actual population.

Federalists and Anti-FederalistsTwo political groups formed based on whether the

Constitution should be ratified.The Federalists supported the Constitution because

it would create a stronger federal government. The Anti-Federalists, on the other hand, wanted

states to have more power; they opposed the Constitution because they thought the federal

government had too much power.

Federalists and Anti-Federalists

The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

supported the Federalist viewpoint and anonymously wrote a set of 85 essays called the Federalist Papers.

These essays were published with the goal of explaining how the new government would work and to convince

Americans to ratify the Constitution. Federalists felt that the rights of individuals would be

protected by the constitutional provision of the separation of powers, which divided the governmental power into three branches and gave each branch the ability to check the other branches. This ability, known as checks and balances, would

keep any one branch from obtaining total power.

The Bill of Rights

The Bill of RightsAnti-federalists did not support the Constitution

because they believed it gave the central government too much power over states and

individuals. In order to address these concerns, the Anti-

Federalists supported the addition of a bill of rights to the Constitution, which would guarantee the rights

and liberties of individuals.