Good Example Of Essay On The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention was one of the major political events in the history of the United States of America. It took place in Philadelphia from May 23 to September 17 of 1787 where delegates met to brainstorm on the weak links in the central government that were present under the Articles of Confederation. The remarkable Convention is largely known to have been the brainchild of the present US Constitution, a constitution that has made USA the most admired and stable democracies globally. The delegates met to amend the Articles of Confederation that presented a wide variety of challenges to the federal system of government. For instance, the federal governments were not able to pass or enforce individual legislation that protected their foreign interests. The Annapolis Convention of 1786 took the role of sending invitations to delegates from all the states. However, only Rhode Island failed to send a delegate. The 74 state legislatures chose their deputies to represent them, but only 55 participated in the proceedings.
During the Convention, the assembly came up with the idea of making changes to the Articles of Confederation to set a new type of government. However, sharp divisions emerged from the delegates. Delegates from larger states differed with delegates from smaller over the distribution of representation. Delegates from the larger states led by Edmund Randolph proposed a bicameral legislature where each state’s representation was on the basis of its wealth or population. The plan recommended a strong national government including the power to legislate in cases where the States involved were incompetent. It also proposed a National Council of Revision that would possess the power over the state legislatures.
On the other hand, the delegates from the smaller states came up with a suggestion that offered equal representation in the Congress. The delegates openly opposed the provisions provided by the delegates from the larger states. However, as the discussions continued, neither of the two factions was willing to compromise. In the midst of the proceedings, some of the delegates proposed a bicameral legislature where the lower house would have proportional representation while there would be equal representation of states in the upper house. All delegates in the convention approved the new proposal. The final agreement led to the creation of a two-chamber legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The delegates further debated on the means of electing a president and finally settled on the Electoral College.
As the events ensued, all the delegates came to an understanding that the situation called for an urgent action. The world was closely watching the proceedings to cast doom on the future of the USA. All the delegates agreed that the central government needed more strength to take actions like enforcing laws and levying and collecting taxes without interference from the state governments. Both factions also believed that the government had to be founded on consent, and the rights of the governed needed adequate protection. Even though these two fundamental principles brought sharp divisions, the delegates reflected on the character of the new government and set aside their differences to come up with the constitution.
Political conflict and compromise is an intriguing yet interesting topic when looking at the history of the US Constitution. While there existed different political opinions among different delegates from the larger and smaller states, eventually, there had to be an agreement. Political conflict and compromise are closely related in that for a compromise requires divergent political views as seen in the Constitutional Convention. It was the result of the political conflict that brought about compromises that created the most celebrated constitution in the world.