The Constitution

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 11th gradeA+, September 1996

download word file, 3 pages 4.4

This is a very well written essay. I recieved an A Outstanding! I'm impressed

The Constitution

The new governments in the colonies struggled to live with a strong British government inflicting its powers on them. They now found it equally as hard to get along without this government overseeing them. In order to create a new form of government there were many issues that needed to be addressed and many compromises that needed to be made in order to prevent this new government from becoming an American tyranny. This would not be an easy task.

There were many reasons to fear a new government with a great deal of power. Especially one where the center of operations was so far away from your personal residence. The tremendous fear of this was for a very good reason. After the colonists' recent experience with King George III still fresh in their minds it was difficult to accept the idea.

There were vast discrepancies between the individual colonies. No two were alike.

"The Constitution is best described as a bundle of compromises." This statement is very true because all of the delegates at the Philadelphia Convention listened to what the other delegates had to say and they were all willing to accept the fact that if they were indeed going to form a new government that it would be absolutely necessary to cooperate and be willing to make compromises. They understood that there was no way for everyone to get everything they wanted.

The first major, and perhaps most important, issue they addressed was the theme of representation. Naturally, the large states wanted representation to be based on population. James Madison helped create a very interesting resolution to the problem. He came up with the "Virginia Plan". This plan stated that...