Chapter 8 Section 3 Notes

The Constitution

Chapter 8 Section 3 Terms Const. Convention Virginia Plan New Jersey Plan Great Compromise Three-fifths Compromise Federalism Legislative branch Executive branch Judicial branch Checks and Balances

The Constitutional Convention In Feb of 1787, delegates from each state

went to Philadelphia to revise the Articles The whole thing was kept secret James Madison was the driving force behind

the convention Washington and Franklin were also there African Americas, Native Americans and

women were not invited Jefferson and Adams were not there

because they were overseas.

The Virigina Plan

The Big State plan, proposed by Madison

Set up a strong central government with three branches

Representation would be based on population (which made big states happy and small states mad)

The New Jersey Plan

Wanted to just revise the Articles, give the Confed Congress a little more power to tax and regulate trade

Have legislature with representation the same for every state

The Great Compromise Some delegates wanted to just revise

the Articles, while others wanted to throw the thing out and start over

To solve the issue of representation between big states and little states, the compromise created two houses: one (Senate) with two reps from each state and one (House of Reps) with representation based on population.

Three-Fifths Compromise The Southern states had an economy based on

slavery They wanted their slaves to count in the population so

they could get more representatives in the house The Northern states didn’t like this because they

feared if the South had more people in gov, it could get what it wanted all the time

The Three-fifths Compromise said that all slaves would count as 3/5s of a person for population

The word “slave” was left out of the Constitution

Checks and Balances Federalism is the distribution of a

governmental power between a central authority and the states that make up the nation

Legislative Branch passes laws Executive Branch administers laws Judicial Branch interprets laws Checks and Balances prevents one

branch from getting more powerful than the others