Lesson 3: Toward a New Constitution

Lesson Focus

The Articles of Confederation were failing. This lesson explores how national leaders met to fix them but instead created a brand new government through debate and compromise, resulting in the United States Constitution.

People to Know

James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton

Learning Objectives

• Explain how conflicts at the Philadelphia Convention, like representation and slavery, were resolved through compromise.
• Analyze how the Constitution corrected the weaknesses of the government under the Articles of Confederation.

The nation's struggles under the Articles of Confederation prompted George Washington and others to seek solutions.
After a small meeting at Mount Vernon, Alexander Hamilton at the Annapolis Convention in 1786 called for a broader convention to strengthen the government.
This led Congress to approve the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, initially just to revise the Articles, but it ultimately set the stage for creating an entirely new framework of government.

At the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, delegates decided to work in secret to allow for honest debate and easier compromise.
James Madison arrived with a detailed plan for a new government, known as the Virginia Plan, which proposed a strong national government with three branches.
This plan immediately shifted the convention's focus from revising the old Articles to building a new constitution from the ground up, with Madison's ideas providing the foundation.

A major conflict erupted between large states backing the Virginia Plan (representation by population) and small states supporting the New Jersey Plan (equal representation).
The convention nearly failed until a committee developed the “Great Compromise.”
This agreement created a two-house Congress: the House of Representatives based on population and the Senate with equal votes for each state. Pay special attention to how this compromise saved the convention.

Northern and Southern states clashed over slavery and commerce, threatening the new union.
Delegates negotiated the “three-fifths compromise,” which counted five enslaved people as three free persons for both representation and taxation. They also agreed to not interfere with the slave trade for 20 years and banned taxes on exports.
These compromises, while controversial, were essential for keeping the Southern states invested in the new constitution and ensuring its completion.

The delegates needed to fix the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
They gave the new central government crucial powers it had lacked, such as the ability to levy and collect taxes, regulate commerce between states and with foreign nations, and coin a national currency.
These new powers ensured the government could fund itself, create a unified economy, and function effectively, creating a much stronger and more stable nation than existed under the Articles.

The delegates debated how to structure the executive branch without creating a king.
They compromised by creating a single executive—a president—who would serve a four-year term and be chosen by state electors rather than a direct popular vote. For the judiciary, they established a Supreme Court and gave Congress the power to create lower courts.
This established a balanced government with a strong but checked executive and an independent judicial branch.