The New Jersey Plan, which was backed by states with smaller populations, proposed that each state would have the same number of representatives in the federal government, regardless of population. Two Connecticut delegates named Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth proposed a compromise: our federal legislature could have two houses, the Senate and House of Representatives; the Senate would have 2 representatives from each state, regardless of population; however, each state would have a number of representatives in the House of Representatives based on that state's population, with more populous states having more representatives than less populous states (Winkler, 2000, pp
The Articles of Confederation were much less thorough in their design and gave the states the majority of the power to oversee the government and other critical functions of the new republic. Initially there was some resistance to the Constitution because it required states to relinquish their individual powers granted under the Articles of Confederation in favor of the Federal government's power (Jensen 136)
There were many weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation that are not found in the Constitution. First of all, the Articles of Confederation contained no separation of governmental powers (Smith 249)
John Hancock of Massachusetts opposed such power and what was afraid of this power, resulting in the Massachusetts Compromise which helped garner sufficient support for the Constitution in order to ensure the ratification and lead to first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights. Hancock wanted and got this guarantee with the Bill of Rights (Kaufmann, 2012)
It kept the bicameral legislature proposed by James Madison, as well as proportional representation in the lower house. However, it required the upper house to be weighted in an equal manner between the states (Langley, 2012) The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise between Northern and states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the enumerated population of slaves were to be counted for representation purposes with regard to both the distribution of taxes and apportionment of members of the House of Representatives ("The three-fifth compromise, " 2011)
This brought on immense state debt, and although they were allowed to ask for money from their legislatures, they were denied more than accepted for their money (Jensen, 1959). This lead to problems with foreign affairs because although there was a Congress in effect, it did not have power over each individual state, also leading to a problem in raising an army, leaving the United States vulnerable to foreign attacks (Rakove, 2009)
No longer were states allowed to have their own government or their own state ruler, but they had to come together as one and form a central government. The Constitution declared supremacy over state laws, let the federal government tax the people and gave power to an executive (Maier, 2010)
The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States. Stemming from wartime urgency, its progress was slowed by fears of central ...
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United ...
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The Articles of Confederation, formally named the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among all thirteen original states in the United ...
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After considerable debate and alteration, the Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the ...
The Articles of Confederation, passed by the US Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, was enacted on March 1, 1781 as the founding constitution of the United ...
Articles of Confederation, 1777–1781. The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national ...
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting. Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union ...
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