Constitutional Convention of 1787

Constitutional Convention of 1787. By late 1786, only three years after the end of the Revolutionary War, most Americans had concluded that the Confederation Congress was too weak to deal with the social, economic, political, and diplomatic problems confronting the nation. Minimally, Congress needed power to tax through a tariff and to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. Repeated attempts to amend the Articles of Confederation or to persuade the states to grant Congress special powers had failed to obtain the required unanimous approval of the state legislatures. Finally, on 21 February 1787, Congress called for a convention in Philadelphia to revise the articles.

Fifty‐five delegates from twelve states attended at one time or another between May and September 1787. Only Rhode Island refused to send delegates. Prominent Revolutionary leaders among the delegates included George Washington and George Mason of Virginia, Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Delaware's John Dickinson. James Madison and Edmund Randolph of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, and South Carolina's Charles Pinckney also played crucial roles. Absent were Confederation Secretary for Foreign Affairs John Jay and Secretary at War Henry Knox, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (both on diplomatic assignment in Europe), Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia (both refused appointments), and Governors George Clinton of New York and John Hancock of Massachusetts. Indeed, only two sitting governors served as delegates. The delegates were generally far wealthier and better educated than the average American of the day. The convention rules granted each state one vote. Sessions were held in Pennsylvania's state house (now Independence Hall), and delegates were sworn to secrecy.

Ignoring their instructions only to amend the Articles of Confederation, the delegates planned a completely new national government. James Madison's “Virginia Plan,” reflecting the interest of the three largest states (Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania), proposed a bicameral legislature, with representation in each house proportional to population. The smaller states rallied around the “New Jersey Plan,” which preserved the unicameral Congress of the Articles, with equal state representation. After the convention rejected this plan in mid‐June, a consensus formed around the “Connecticut Compromise” providing for a bicameral system, with equal state representation in the upper house and proportional representation in the lower house.

A five‐man Committee of Detail organized the agreed‐upon provisions into a draft constitution, which, after further revision, was put in final form by a five‐man Committee of Style, appointed on 8 September. Gouverneur Morris was the primary author. As adjournment neared, the convention considered and rejected both a Bill of Rights and a follow‐up convention to consider amendments. Jacob Shallus prepared a four‐page engrossed Constitution on parchment, and thirty‐nine delegates signed it on 17 September 1787. Three delegates in attendance—the Virginians Randolph and Mason, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts—refused to sign.

The proposed Constitution radically changed the federal government's structure and its relationship with the states and the people, transferring many powers from the states to the central government. Abandoning the forbidding amendment procedure of the Articles of Confederation, the document provided that adoption by nine state conventions would establish the Constitution among the ratifying states. After almost a year of intense public debate, eleven states ratified the new Constitution.
See also Revolution and Constitution, Era of.

Bibliography

Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 3 vols., 1911; reprint 1966.
Carl Van Doren , The Great Rehearsal, 1948.

John P. Kaminski