The Constitutional Convention발음듣기
The Constitutional Convention
[Instructor] In the United States today we know our system of government so well that it hardly bears thinking about.발음듣기
We know that there's a president who's the head of the Executive Branch there's Congress, which is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate.발음듣기
And there's the judicial branch, which has the Supreme Court as its head of a whole court system that stretches throughout the United States.발음듣기
We frequently forget that the Constitutional Convention which created this system we know today happened in 1787.발음듣기
So there was this 11-year plus period before the United States had its modern day constitution and during that time, fought the Revolutionary War won in 1783.발음듣기
And tried out a completely different system of government called the Articles of Confederation which we talked a little bit more about in another video.발음듣기
In fact, you could think of the Articles of Confederation as being a little bit more like a loose confederation of states where each state had one vote in the legislative branch.발음듣기
The branch that makes laws and they had to really agree on most things nine out of 13 for most legislation and unanimous agreement for any kind of amendments to this system.발음듣기
And I think it's clear why the founders first went with this system of limited government because they had just revolted against a monarchy.발음듣기
They thought of the states as being in what they call just kind of a league of friendship can almost see it as being similar to the European Union today independent nations who do some things together for foreign policy reasons and economic reasons.발음듣기
Now by the late 1780s, it was becoming clear that the Articles of Confederation were not working.발음듣기
So in 1787, delegates from 12 of the 13 states Rhode Island did not participate because Rhode Island was not a big fan of central government came together in Philadelphia.발음듣기
In the same place where they had signed the Declaration of Independence to think about how to revise the Articles of Confederation.발음듣기
Although some people that you might have expected to be at the Constitutional Convention were not namely, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams who were out of the country being diplomats at the time.발음듣기
They want to have a stronger central government one that can get things done make sure the states play well together raise armies, raise taxes but they don't want a central government that is too strong because they just escaped from monarchy.발음듣기
So they're looking for a very delicate balance of a government strong enough to get things done but not so strong as to promote tyranny.발음듣기
Now even though the delegates were supposed to be revising the Articles of Confederation some people had, in secret been considering completely throwing out the Articles of Confederation and starting anew.발음듣기
But one of the biggest hurdles they had to solve was what would a new sort of legislature look like.발음듣기
So the Virginia delegates suggested a plan for the legislature it's the law-making body that would be bicameral means two room or two house from bi, meaning two and camera, Latin for room.발음듣기
And their idea was that there would be a lower house similar to the House of Commons in English Parliament that would be directly elected as individuals would vote for the representatives.발음듣기
But the number of representatives that each state would get would be decided by their population.발음듣기
Now Virginia was the largest state by population by far and so, this plan would have worked out pretty well for them because they would have gotten the largest proportion of representatives.발음듣기
Small states like Delaware, and Georgia, Rhode Island would have very few representatives indeed, comparatively.발음듣기
They also wanted to have an upper house similar to the House of Lords in the British Parliament which would be appointed by state legislatures.발음듣기
But just like the lower house the number representatives would also be determined by population.발음듣기
Now as you can imagine, the small sates were not big fans of having representation based just on population so they came back with a different plan.발음듣기
So the little states said, "All right, the Virginia Plan gives way too much power to the big states."발음듣기
So the New Jersey Plan much like the Articles of Confederation gave one vote to each of the states so that the small states would have the same representation in Congress as the large states.발음듣기
So how did the delegates resolve this issue of how to balance the voices of large states with large populations with small states that had small populations?발음듣기
Because in a situation where all states have an equal number of votes like in the New Jersey Plan the 60,000 residents of Delaware could have as much say as the almost 700,000 residents of Virginia.발음듣기
But at the same time, you wouldn't want it so that people living in the larger states could get their way all the time.발음듣기
What if the people in Delaware had a very legitimate concern that those in Virginia didn't share?발음듣기
It would be impossible to get all of these states to agree, to amend or replace the Articles of Confederation if some of them felt like their interests aren't being taken into account at all.발음듣기
So to solve this issue of how to weight the representation of the states the delegates came up with what's called the Great Compromise or sometimes the Connecticut Compromise.발음듣기
They made a legislative branch that was bicameral, two house with a lower and an upper house and this lower house become the House of Representatives where each state would have representatives in proportion to their population.발음듣기
And in the Senate, each state would have two senators regardless of their size so that as legislation moved through Congress first from the lower house, where it would be approved.발음듣기
And if approved, sent to the upper house there, all states would have an equal voice in whether legislation was passed.발음듣기
And in this upper house the senators would not be directly elected but rather appointed by state legislatures.발음듣기
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