Constitutional convention - Essay Example

Constitutional Convention By the fall of 1786, reality downed upon the Americans that the Articles of Confederation, the underpinning document for the new-fangled United States approved in 1777, had to be significantly customized. The Articles denied the Congress any authority to control domestic affairs, no clout to control commerce, and no authority to tax. Lacking coercive authority, Congress entirely depended upon monetary hand-outs from the states, which at that time refused the Congress requests to be financed (McClellan 1-2).

Congress at this time was totally bogged down by the bankruptcy it was steeped in, and could not afford to compensate the military for their services in the Revolutionary warfare, or settle the loans approved to finance the war effort. By 1786, United States was insolvent. Additionally, the liberal country experienced a lot more other challenges and threats. States were ravine with the war of economic bigotry against trade from other states. Southern states locked horns with northern states for economic benefit.

The nation was badly prepared to fight a war; this prompted other countries to doubt whether pacts with the United States were really up to the task of the paper they were written on. Ever so, the American citizenry suffered from the indignant conceit, as European countries rejected the United States as a mediocre republic. America’s money lending class was deeply steeped in anxiety. It is these troubles existent in the Confederation of States which persuaded the Continental Congress, in the fall of February 1787, to convene for a conference of delegates to rally in May in Philadelphia (McClellan 1-2).

For three and a half consecutive months throughout a sweltering, clammy Philadelphia summer, the delegates argued about outstandingly perceptive issues, including whether the national government should be permitted to sanction state laws and whether the states should be abolished. To hearten the delegates to articulate unequivocally, the Constitutional Convention seized astonishing foot paths to guarantee confidentiality. Guards were stationed at the doors of Independence Hall, and no replicas of the periodical were tolerable.

Delegates were advised to raze their annotations (Linder 1). The Virginia Plan that was originally written by James Madison but offered by Edmund Randolph favored a national legislature separated into two houses, that is: the senate and the House of Representatives. Ideally, electorates in every state would vote members of the House of Representatives. Even more, the American citizenry would decide the number of legislatures a state would have in the House, well, under the Virginia Plan. It was also entrenched in the Madison plan that, the House of Legislatures would decide on members of the Senate from nominees recommended by state legislatures (Linder 1).. Even so, the Madison plan also proposed that the House of Representatives would select members of the Judiciary and President, whose terms would expire after seven years.

Still, Congress would have the mandate to supersede state legislation (Butler 1-3). Unfortunately, most delegates were unceremoniously opposed to the mandate over state laws which the Virginia Plan rewarded Congress. A small number of delegates from undersized states were objected to it by voicing their concerns that the plan would award larger states far too much mandate in the national government. There is no doubt that the Virginia Plan gave far too much authority to the national government because each state wanted to retain its own power.

Those delegates who were ceremoniously opposed to the plan somehow felt that by giving too much power to the government would culture a tyrannical rule. Besides, the government was suffering from bankruptcy and the states were embroiled into a series of conflicts. The Virginia Plan is critically significant to the American history, because it has over the years shaped what America is today.Work CitedButler, Pierce. Debates within the Constitutional Convention. Gilder Lehrman, 6 May. 2008. Web.

13 March 2012.Linder, Doug. The Constitutional Convention of 1789.n.p, 14 Nov. 2003. Web. 13 March 2012.McClellan, James. An Introduction to the Constitutional Principles of American Government. Liberty Fund, 14 Apr. 2006. Web. 13 March 2012.