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Philosophical And Religous Influences Of The Constitution


Many leaders of the revolution believed that a stronger national government, with more power than that which was allocated by the Articles of Confederation, was essential. Shay's Rebellion vividly illustrated the effects of a weak government. The framers convened at the Philadelphia convention to remedy the defects of the Articles of Confederation and put into effect the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence. The Philadelphia Convention did not produce a revised Articles of Confederation but rather a new drafted Constitution. The framers of the constitution were in agreement that liberty and separation of power be conserved but differed as to the extent and power that the new government would have. Two plans emerged for the structure of the new government: the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. The Virginia Plan called for a strong national union organized into three branches: legislative, executive and judiciary. The plan featured two main points: a national legislature would have supreme powers on all matters on which the separate states could not act on, as well as the power to veto any and all state laws, and the people would directly elect at least on house of the legislature. The New Jersey plan, however, gives the central government stronger powers but it would retain the Article's one state, one vote representation in the unicameral congress. Delegates from the smaller states feared that a government under the Virginia Plan would give the larger states much more power than the smaller, less populated states. An effort to please both large and smaller states, known as the Connecticut (or Great) Compromise would combine features from both plans with a bicameral Congress: the house of representatives apportioned on the basis of population, and a Senate consisting of two senators from each state. The compromise was adopted on the narrowest of margins.


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