What exactly happened at the Constitutional Convention was a mystery for several decades until James Madison published the notes he took at the Convention. The Convention lasted from May 26, 1787 to September 17, 1787 when the Constitution was approved. The debates covered everything from how to shape the executive branch to what manner of legislative branch to have. Every subject was quibbled over, every idea debated; sometimes even two or three times.1
The first plan was introduced on May 29 is called the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan was a plan to totally scrap the Articles and create a “strong national government and established a bicameral legislature.”2 The Virginia Plan was also planned on “establish[ing] a parliamentary rather than presidential system.”3 This system “proposed that ‘a National Executive be instituted; to be chosen by the National Legislature’(emphasis added).”4 This particular setup had the more populous states controlling the smaller states in both houses of the legislature.
Naturally, the smaller states disliked this particular option that would drastically limit their power, and so on June 15, the New Jersey Plan was presented. This plan would have made the government stronger than under the Articles of Confederation, but would have kept the same basic structure. Both sides were intractable and so on July 16, the “Great Compromise” was introduced. This compromise allowed for a bicameral legislature; as per the Virginia Plan; with the lower house being based on population; again as per the Virginia Plan; and an upper house with equal representation for all states. This compromise was accepted and so the basic structure of Congress as we know it was created.
The executive branch of the government was the branch of the government that took the most work to finalize. The delegates did not wish to have multiple executives because it was simply unworkable. They also did not wish to concentrate all of the executive power into the hands of one person, because that person might prove to be tyrannical. Alexander Hamilton was in favor of a single hereditary executive, which seemed almost like a monarch to the rest of the delegates. It must be understood that the idea of electing an executive for a national government was a novelty that had never previously come up. Even in Britain, which was fast approaching such an executive, the Prime Minister was still chosen by the monarch. Once again, debate took place about either the Virginia Plan; which “proposed that ‘a National Executive be instituted; to be chosen by the National Legislature’(emphasis added)”5 ; and the New Jersey Plan; which proposed that the national executive be chosen by an electoral college. A modified version of the New Jersey Plan was finally chosen. The office of the president was created.
The judiciary was pretty uncontroversial. The only large debates that concerned it were in connection with the other branches; i.e. separation of powers. It was decided to set up a “supreme court, and…such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish.”6 The Supreme Court was to hear appeals on cases from lower courts and was to have original jurisdiction solely “[i]n all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party.”7
After the Constitution was approved on September 17, the Convention adjourned. Almost immediately the delegates split into two camps. One camp was headed by Patrick Henry and George Mason and tried to defeat the new Constitution. The other, headed primarily by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison; as well as John Jay; wrote some of the most famous essays in American history; the Federalist Papers. Using “the pseudonym ‘Publius,’ the legendary law-giver of the Roman Republic extolled by Plutarch”8 Hamilton, Jay, and Madison wrote the 85 essays for New York papers. The essays covered the entire Constitution with Hamilton writing about “the need for a more energetic government, on the powers of Congress, and on the executive and judicial departments”9 and Madison writing about “the nature of the federal system, the formal and informal checks and balances, and the House of Representatives and the Senate.”10 Jay wrote about the Senate’s power to approve treaties and the general advantages of a strong national government.11
Between December 7, 1787 and March 4, 1789; when the Constitution took effect; eleven states; all except for North Carolina and Rhode Island; ratified the Constitution. On November 21, 1789, after the introduction of the Bill of Rights12; North Carolina ratified the Constitution. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island ratified the Constitution.
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1 For example the manner, election, and powers of the National Executive were debated 4 times, there were three other debates about the executive branch. Anti-Federalist, pp. v-vii.
11 Clinton Rossiter, ed., The Federalist Papers, (New York, Penguin Group), 1961, pp. xix, xxviii. Hereafter referred to as Federalist.
12 The Bill of
Rights is first ten amendments of the Constitution.