CONVENTIONAL DEBATE

The meeting of the Constitutional Convention began on May 25, 1787. They
met on 89 of the 116 days between May 25th and their final meeting on September
17, 1787. The meetings took place at the Independence Hall in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Twelve of the 13 original states participated by sending delegates to
the Constitutional Convention. The only state that did not participate was Rhode
Island. They were against the idea of a stronger federal government. Furthermore,
New Hampshire delegates did not reach Philadelphia and participate until July 1787.

The Key Delegates to the Constitutional Convention: There were 55 delegates

who attended the Convention. The most well-known attendees for each state were:
Virginia - George Washington, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, George Mason
Pennsylvania - Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, James Wilson
New York - Alexander Hamilton
New Jersey - William Paterson
Massachusetts - Elbridge Gerry, Rufus King
Maryland - Luther Martin
Connecticut - Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman
Delaware - John Dickinson
South Carolina - John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney
Georgia - Abraham Baldwin, William Few
New Hampshire - Nicholas Gilman, John Langdon
North Carolina - William Blount

The Constitutional Convention was called in order to make revisions to the

Articles of Confederation. George Washington was immediately named the
Convention's president. These Articles had been shown since their adoption to be
very weak. It was soon decided that instead of revising the articles, an entirely new
government needed to be created for the United States.

Edmund Randolph proposed the "Virginia Plan," drafted by James Madison -

a plan that recommended an entirely new form of government, including an
executive, a judiciary, and a legislature composed of two houses and including a
number of representatives from each state based on their population.

Opposition came from the small states, which feared domination by the more
populous states in the legislature. William Paterson proposed the "New Jersey Plan,"
which essentially revised the Articles of Confederation, preserving equal
representation of the states. After much debate, the Convention rejected the New
Jersey Plan, deciding instead to work toward an entirely new form of government.
 A Committee of Style was appointed to create a final draft; Gouverneur
Morris was chosen to write it. After carefully reviewing the draft, the Convention
approved the Constitution on September 17, 1787. After signing it and sending it to
Congress, the Convention adjourned.

Northwest Ordinance. While the Constitutional Convention debated a new

government, Congress decided upon a plan for governing all western territories
north of the Ohio River. The Northwest Ordinance provided for a plan of
government, the creation of states, the acceptance of each new state as an equal of
the original states, freedom of religion, right to a trial by jury, public support of
education, and the prohibition of slavery. Arthur St. Clair was named first governor
of the territory.
Congress Receives the Constitution. Although some congressmen were displeased at
the Convention for doing far more than revising the Articles of Confederation, on
September 28 Congress agreed to pass the Constitution on to the states, so each
could debate it in separate ratifying conventions. Nine states had to agree to the new
Constitution for it to go into effect.

"The Federalist." Supporters of the Constitution -- Federalists -- and

opponents of the Constitution -- Antifederalists -- fought fiercely in the press.
Seventy-seven essays, written anonymously by "Publius," appeared in New York
newspapers, explaining and defending the new Constitution. These essays,
published in book form with eight additional essays, were titled The Federalist.

During the debates on the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, its opponents
charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the
central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of
civil rights before and during the Revolutionary War, so they demanded a "bill of
rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens. Several state
conventions, in their formal ratification of the Constitution, asked for such
amendments. Others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that the
amendments would be offered. On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the
United States therefore proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the
Constitution that met the arguments most frequently advanced against it. The first
two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each
representative and the compensation of congressmen, were not ratified. Articles 3
to 12, however, were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures and constitute
the first ten amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights.
THE COMPROMISES (GREAT COMPROMISE)

The issue of representation in the two houses of the new national legislature
became a major sticking point for the Convention. Roger Sherman was helpful in
framing the "Connecticut Compromise," a plan that suggested representation in the
lower house (the House of Representatives) based on population, and equal
representation in the upper house (the Senate). With this compromise, the
Convention succeeded in completing a rough draft of a constitution.

The Constitution was created through many compromises. The Great

Compromise solved how representation should be determined in Congress by
combining the Virginia Plan, which called for representation, based on population
and the New Jersey Plan that called for equal representation. The Three-Fifths
Compromise worked out how slaves should be counted for representation counting
every five slaves as three people in terms of representation. The Commerce and
Slave Trade Compromise promised that Congress would not tax the export of goods
from any state and would not interfere with the slave trade for at least 20 years.

The Great Compromise of 1787 defined the structure of the U.S. Congress and
the number of representatives each state would have in Congress under the U.S.
Constitution. The Great Compromise was brokered as an agreement between the
large and small states during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 by Connecticut
delegate Roger Sherman. Under the Great Compromise, each state would get two
representatives in the Senate and a variable number of representatives in the House
in proportion to its population according to the decennial U.S. census.

Roger Sherman and the Connecticut Compromise

In Article VI of the Constitution of the United States, the framers declared,

"This Constitution... to be the supreme Law of the Land." Constitutional authority,
Laurence Tribe, notes in his book, American Constitutional Law, that "the
Constitution is an endlessly intriguing object of study, and represents the best effort
of its kind in the history of the world." Among the men who created the Constitution
in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, Roger Sherman, a Superior Court Judge,
is remembered as the architect of the Connecticut Compromise.

When the Constitutional Convention became deadlocked over the matter of

legislative voting, Sherman proposed a system similar to one he had advocated
previously as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776. The compromise
provided for representation in the House of Representatives according to
population and in the Senate by equal numbers for each state. Sherman's
compromise was adopted on July 16, 1787 by a vote of five states to four, and served
not only to save the crumbling convention, but provided stimulus to resolve other
issues yet to be decided.
 Following ratification of the Constitution, Sherman served first in the House
of Representatives and then in the Senate. He died while still a Senator in 1793, and
is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.

Sherman was the only person to sign all four documents of the American
Revolution: the Continental Association of 1774, the Declaration of Independence,
the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States.

RATIFICATION AND BILL OF RIGHTS

The Committee worked on the Constitution until September 17th when the
convention voted to approve the Constitution. 41 delegates were present. However,
three refused to sign the proposed Constitution: Edmund Randolph (who later
supported ratification), Elbridge Gerry, and George Mason. The document was sent
to the Congress of the Confederation, which then sent it to the states for ratification.
Nine states needed to ratify it for it to become law. Delaware was the first to ratify.
The ninth was New Hampshire on June 21, 1788. However, it wasn't until May 29,
1790, that the last state, Rhode Island, voted to ratify it.

The Constitution is Ratified by Nine States. On June 21, New Hampshire

became the ninth state to ratify the new Constitution, making its adoption official.
Preceding New Hampshire were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina. Virginia and New York
ratified shortly after New Hampshire, followed by North Carolina in November
1789. Rhode Island was last to ratify, not joining the Union until May 1790.

On July 2, Congress announced that the Constitution had been adopted. By

September, a committee had prepared for the change in government, naming New
York City as the temporary official capital, and setting dates for elections and for the
meeting of the first Congress under the new Constitution. Congress completed its
business on October 10. Its last action was the granting of ten square miles of land
to Congress for a federal town.

During the debates on the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, its opponents
charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the
central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of
civil rights before and during the Revolutionary War, so they demanded a "bill of
rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens. Several state
conventions, in their formal ratification of the Constitution, asked for such
amendments. Others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that the
amendments would be offered. On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the
United States, therefore, proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the
Constitution that met the arguments most frequently advanced against it. The first
two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each
representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified. Articles 3
to 12, however, were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures and constitute
the first ten a, amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights.

BILL OF RIGHTS

On September 25, 1789, the First Federal Congress of the United States proposed to
the state legislatures twelve amendments to the Constitution. The first two,
concerning the number of constituents for each Representative and the
compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified. Articles three through twelve,
known as the Bill of Rights, became the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution
and contained guarantees of essential rights and liberties omitted in the crafting of
the original document. *Note: The original second amendment proposed by the First
Federal Congress dealt with the compensation of members of Congress. Although
rejected at the time, it was eventually ratified on May 7, 1992, as the 27th
amendment.
Sources:

https://www.loc.gov

https://www.thoughtco.com/constitutional-convention-105426

https://www.constitutionfacts.com/content/constitution/files/Constitution_B
illOfRights.pdf

https://www.jud.ct.gov/lawlib/history/Sherman.htm