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By 1786 it was clear that the government under the [|Articles of Confederation] was failing a quick action needed to take place in order for the new nation to survive. Under the guidance of James Madison and others from twelve states agreed to meet in Philadelphia to change the Articles. Once in what was to be called the Constitutional Convention some major changes were proposed to the government. Delegates or chosen representatives from Virginia proposed that a new government be created with a strong national government composed of three branches, the judicial, executive, and legislative branch. This bold plan of government was known as the **Virginia Plan**.

1. Articles of Confederation – What is the structure of government? What were the strengths and weaknesses? Why were the Articles unsuccessful? The Articles of Confederation was a one house legislature, called Congress. A weakness of the Articles of confederation was that only one represenative from each state could vote. One of Congresses biggest weaknesses was that a law could only be passed when nine out of the thirteen states approved the law. The laws that were passed could not be followed through because they did not have an executive branch. This made it hard for things to be done. Fortunately there were some things that were able to be done. The Northwest Ordinance was passed it created a territiory north of tje Ohio River. The people who lived here had certain rights, for example there would be no slavery. The Articles of Confederation unfortunately were not sucessful. this was mainly because there were more weaknesses than strenghts. Therefore Fifty-five delegates gathered to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. 2. Constitutional Convention Compromises – What was the issue? What were the two perspectives? What was the solution? a. Great Compromise b. Three-Fifths Compromise c. Importation of Slaves

3. Founding Fathers – What was their role at the Convention? What ideas did they have? Did they support the Constitution? a. -James Madison b. -Gouvneur Morris c.- Edmund Randolph a delegate from virginia that proposed Madison's plan d. -George Mason e. -Alexander Hamilton f. -William Patterson g. John Dickinson When writing the constitution there were supporters of the ratification known as federalist in this James Madison was included where he and two other men known as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay united to develop a plan in order to convince the nine states to ratify the constitution this plan consisted of working together and writing essays defending the constitution known as the //Federalist Papers,//with Alexander Hamilton writing half of the //Federalists Papers//. Later on James Madison would be known as the"Father of the Constitution".James Madison came up with a plan for this new government using of the English and ancient Greek governmental systems. The group opposing the ratification was known as the Anti federalist and was led by George Mason of Virginia he did not agree with the document and criticized it because it did not consist of bill of rights to protect individuals right. What anti federalist feared was the idea of a strong central government which would oppress peoples freedom that had been fought during the revolutionary war. This idea was very similar to what people had gone through in England and would not want to consider it.Edmund Randolph was a Delegate from Virginia that proposed Madison's plan saying that the new government would be composed of a two-house legislature, a court system and an executive chosen by the legislatures.Goveneur Morris represented Pennsylvania at the convention and was the author of most of the constitution.He was probably the most outspoken of the founding fathers. William Paterson was an advocate at the constitutional convention for New Jersey and devised the New Jersey plan with other representative, he promoted the idea of equal representation in the legislature for all states.John Dickinson represented both Delaware and Pennsylvania he refused to sign the declaration, although he refused to sign he was among the first to defend the new nation.

4. Ratification - What was the issue? What were the two perspectives? What was the solution? a. Federalists Three men, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison developed a plan to convice the nine states to ratify the Constitution. Their plan consisted of writing a series of essays defending the Constitution, called the Federalist Papers. b. Anti-Federalists The Anti-Federalists criticized the document largely because it did not include a bill of rights to protect individual freedoms. They feared that a strong central government would take away the freedoms that had been fought for during the Revolutionary War.