“Great Compromise”: provided a dual system of congressional representation. In the House of Representatives each state would be assigned a number of seats in proportion to its population. In the Senate, all states would have the same number of seats.…
The time for a new government came about in times of fear, many men such as William Livingston wondered “if the republic could even survive another decade” for Henry Knox made an excellent point in declaring “Our present federal government is a name, a shadow, without power, or effect”. Meantime the relationship between the states was poor and there was an uncertainty if they would even remain united what with the debts, the economic turmoil, and the slow realization that without England they had no protection from the outside world. The question on everyone’s mind was, is there anything that can be done to save their country? 55 delegates gathered in hopes of answering this question with a brilliant solution of their own.…
Article 1 of the constitution covers the purpose and the organization of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Though there are ten sections in the Article and numerous subparagraphs, this paper will focus on the structure, and a few of the subparagraphs concerning its function. We will begin with the organization since this should be covered before the responsibilities are addressed; this starts in the second section, with how the house will be selected, the requirements to be selected, and how the proportions should be arranged. This was an extremely sensitive subject for many of the delegates at the time of the framing of the constitution due to representation.…
Wechsler, H. (1954). Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Role of the States in the Composition and Selection of the National Government, The. Colum. L. Rev., 54, 543.…
One of the more interesting parts of the book comes early in which the author tells the reader of how there were many states that were using militias to control the events occurring in the states. In many of my previous reading there had been mention of the states controlling their own laws and being able to enforce them but I was unaware of the extent. I was also unaware that in Massachusetts that the government and the proceedings were being controlled by the merchants and the upper class. It was interesting to read about how there could be such a diverse set of governments ruling different parts of the country with virtually no centralization. When the congress was first formed and the laws were laid out there was only a requirement for the states to meet once a year in November and that put an unnecessary burden of the delegates to try and align their thinking with other states.…
The Great Compromise/Connecticut Plan had a vision of a two house legislature. The House of Representatives and the Senate. The selection process for the House of Representatives would be based on a state’s population, and the Senate selection process would be the similar for all states. Roger Sherman, a politician from Connecticut, suggested this plan and based its framework on both the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan. It created a process with the desire for a fair, balanced, and practical plan of action to appoint a State legislature which took into account the population size, and to eliminate any potential favoritism that could be gained by states based on their respective sizes. The importance of this plan was after its ratification the delegates were able to move on to deal with other future…
(Population)…” But, on the other hand small states would have a disadvantage of representation in the House like, Rhode Island. Big state v. small state guarded against tyranny because we came up with a compromise of two senators for each state. Through the compromise no one state gains more control and has more power than the…
By ensuring that the legislature contains both equal and proportional representation and finding a way to give both the federal government and the individual states a voice through Dual Levels of Federalism, the United States Constitution manages to reconcile the varied interest groups, small states and big states, Localists and Federalists to form a more perfect union.…
The United States of America was going through a time of great debates and dilemma’s. It became obvious that a better more powerful national government was necessary. The Articles of Confederation was weak and needed to be replaced. While this was occurring a major problem developed. This was between large states, which vied for legislature segmented by population, and smaller states which wanted the system to have equal portioned votes everywhere. The larger states suggested the Virginia Plan, and the small states proposed the New Jersey Plan. At first, this issue was at a stalemate and both sides refused to give up ground. Eventually, Oliver Ellsworth offered The Great Compromise. This called for a bicameral Legislature with proportional…
There was a critical disagreement between the small states and the large states. The small states believed all states should have equal representation in congress, while the larger states thought states should have proportional representation. The framers put forth various plans to solve this difficulty. The two plans proposed were the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. Each of these had advantages and disadvantages for each of the sides. Overall, the Virginia Plan favored the larger states, while the New Jersey Plan favored the small states. Eventually both sides decided on the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise solved the problem of representation because all states were able to receive equal power in congress. This enabled larger states in the House to have power over taxes and spending, while smaller states in the Senate could check the house’s decisions. As a result, this creates equality within our government.…
Throughout the Constitutional Convention one of the main issues was whether or not states should be represented by population or equally in Congress. Baldwin's first…
On the heels of the revolutionary war and the failed attempt of a national government (The Articles of Confederation), the leaders of the United States set to make a stronger, centralized government, with dual sovereignty between the national government and the states. The rules of this governing body would be laid out in a document called the Constitution. Although most leaders supported the constitution they did not agree on many aspects of it. Out of the disagreement two groups emerged, the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist. The Federalist supported all aspects of the constitution and a larger national government, while the Anti-Federalist opposed ratifying the constitution and supported a smaller national government and more sovereignty to the states. This disagreement led to a fierce debate between the two groups that still resonates today. This essay will examine the primary…
Chapter 9 The Confederation and the Constitution AP US History 1.|Abigail Adams| 2.|Daniel Shays| 3.|Alexander Hamilton| 4.|James Madison| 5.|Gouverneur Morris| 6.|Thomas Jefferson| 7.|primogeniture| 8.|federation| 9.|checks and balances| 10.|sovereignty| 11.|“mobocracy”| 12.|consent of the governed| 13.|republicanism| 14.|states' rights|…
based on Wilson’s commentary, we take note of the fact that the congressmen priorities attempting to make things easier, when in reality they are diluting the source of authority and spreading responsibility so widely that Congress as a whole decentralizes and nothing gets done. The multiplicity of leaders creates a complex House, one too complex to regulate the uninformed, yet passionate, people who deeply crave the passing of their bill in addition to acknowledging that people are acting upon the publics’ reactions to injustice. There is so much to get done, but because of the lack of leadership and the decentralization of Congress, the bills that may make a difference to the nation due to its passing are not being acknowledged because of the inability for professional men and women to come together and problem solve instead of fighting over overlapping jurisdictions and debating on what the proper disposition of any bill is that lies between two distinct committee jurisdictions. Thus it becomes evident that too many standing committees are distracting the efficiency of notable tasks from being accomplished. Aside from Wilson, Edmund Burke also touches on the topic of committees and how it contributes to the decentralization of Congress.…
“There is one thing in it which I conceive to be extremely dangerous. Gentlemen may talk of public virtue and confidence; we shall be told that the House of Representatives will consist of the most virtuous men on the continent, and that in their hands we may trust our dearest rights. This, like all other assemblies, will be composed of some bad and some good men; and, considering the natural lust of power so inherent in man, I fear the thirst of power will prevail to oppress the people. What I conceive to be so dangerous, is the provision with respect to the number of representatives…There is a want of proportion that ought to be strictly guarded against. The worthy gentleman tells us that we have no reason to fear; but I always fear for the rights of the people.”…