The Constitutional Convention

By 1786 many leaders believed the union was failing. Congress under the Articles could not tax, regulate trade, or enforce its laws; states quarreled over commerce and boundaries; and Shays’ Rebellion seemed to show that the government could not keep order. A meeting at Annapolis in September 1786, attended by delegates from only five states, issued a report — drafted by Alexander Hamilton — calling for a broader convention in Philadelphia the following May.

Nationalists such as James Madison, Hamilton, and George Washington wanted a government that could raise revenue, pay the nation’s debts, regulate commerce, and command respect abroad. Others came to protect their states’ interests. Major figures were absent: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were abroad, and Patrick Henry, suspicious of the project, stayed home.

The convention chose Washington to preside and agreed to keep its proceedings secret. On May 29, Edmund Randolph presented the Virginia Plan, drafted largely by Madison, which proposed a national government of three branches with a two-house legislature apportioned by population. Small states answered with the New Jersey Plan, which kept equal state representation.

The deadlock over representation lasted for weeks. It was broken by the Great Compromise, advanced by Connecticut delegates: representation by population in the House, equal representation in the Senate. Entangled with that question was slavery. Delegates agreed that representation and direct taxes would be based on the free population plus three-fifths of “all other persons” — the enslaved. In August, a dispute over commerce merged with slavery, producing further bargains: Congress could not ban the importation of enslaved people before 1808, and states had to return people who escaped from slavery.

The delegates also invented a single executive, chosen by an Electoral College, with a veto; a federal judiciary; and a process for amendment. A Committee of Style polished the text. On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed. Three who remained — George Mason, Edmund Randolph, and Elbridge Gerry — refused, Mason objecting in part that there was no bill of rights. Benjamin Franklin, at eighty-one, urged unanimity despite the document’s imperfections.

The convention sent the Constitution to the states, to be ratified by special conventions; it would take effect when nine approved. A fierce public debate followed between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, waged in newspapers and pamphlets including the Federalist Papers. New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify in June 1788.

The convention created a durable framework of government built on compromise — between large and small states, nation and states, and North and South. Its bargains over slavery bought union at a terrible price, strengthening slaveholders’ political power until the Civil War. Its secret debates, known mainly through Madison’s notes, remain central to arguments about what the Constitution means.