Social+Studies

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Justin Harrison 10/28/10 6th Period **__ How did GA play a role in the Constitutional Convention? __**

Georgia played a somewhat huge role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In the Constitutional Convention, Georgia was the reason for the Great Compromise, a stronger central government, and voting ways in the United States. Let’s start from the beginning, the Constitutional Convention was a meeting of seventy delegates (named by their state legislature) to discuss changes to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention only had fifty-five delegates there, and Rhode Island did not send any delegates because they opposed the idea of a stronger national government. At the convention, instead of making a few changes to the constitution, they ended up creating an entirely new constitution. Where this started from was that the United States did not have a strong union as one or a strong central government, so in order to fix the problem, the government called for a revision of the Articles of Confederation which was called the Constitutional Convention. Georgia sent four delegates to the convention: William Houston, William Pierce, William Few, and Abraham Baldwin. What Georgia was looking for in the convention was that a document giving citizens more rights would be established, a stronger central government would be in order, and that slavery would not be diminished. At the convention, Edmund Randolph (a delegate and the governor of Virginia) proposed the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan stated that the national government would be composed of three branches: an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The legislative branch would consist of a bicameral Congress, and the two houses would be called the House of Representatives and the Senate. It would also be stated that both the House of Representatives’ and the Senate’s votes would be based upon population representation (or by the people of that state). Then another delegate at the convention named William Patterson (a delegate from New Jersey) proposed the New Jersey Plan which stated that Congress would consist of a unicameral legislature that could impose taxes, control interstate and foreign trade, and that state laws could not override the laws made by the national Congress. An executive branch would be composed of several people selected by Congress and would appoint a Supreme Court which would the power to handle conflicts. All of the delegates at the convention voted to decide which plan would by followed along with the United States Constitution. Though he did play much of an active role in the Constitutional Convention one of Georgia’s delegates, William Few, voted with the Virginia Plan while the other Georgia delegate, Abraham Baldwin, wanted to see how the larger states (voting for population representation) and the smaller states (voting for equal representation) would compromise if there was a tie in ballots, so purposely, Abraham voted with the New Jersey Plan. As Abraham had thought, there was a tie in ballots, so in order to work this out the Constitutional Convention had the Great Compromise (or the Connecticut Compromise). The Great Compromise called for a bicameral Congress. The House of Representatives would be based on population representation and the Senate would be based on equal representation. It would be approved in the Senate, and the delegates passed the Virginia Plan by a single vote. Since the larger states had won the Great Compromise, the smaller states started complaining about them having too big a population in future votes because of the slaves being added to their population and so was the creation of the Three-Fifths Compromise. This compromise stated that three out of every five slaves (or three-fifths of a state’s entire slave population) would be counted towards that state’s population. Georgia finally wanted to ratify the new constitution because it was official that there would be a stronger central government where there would be a federal republic meaning power was shared between the state and national governments, and that a Bill of Rights would added stating what freedoms a U.S. citizen had (Note: these rights could not be taken away from them they had committed a crime, etc.). The new U.S. constitution was ratified on January 2, 1788. When looking at the new constitution, Georgia’s legislative branch thought that the Georgia Constitution needed to be revised in order to look similar to the U.S. Constitution. Thus, Georgia had changed from a unicameral to a bicameral legislature and had created the same three branch government the U.S. Constitution had. But with Georgia’s government, their legislative branch had the most power, and there was also a Separation of Powers meaning that each branch had its own jobs and responsibilities and the Checks and Balances meant that no branch could gain any more power than they already had. So as you can see, Georgia played a huge role in the revision and ratification of the new U.S. Constitution and Georgia has definitely came a long way. Sources: GA Book, []