State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era

Paper Summary:

The paper examines how the U.S. government, under the Articles of Confederation adopted by the Thirteen Colonies in America, soon began to show serious faults and how Congress was powerless to enforce its legislation and was unable to obtain adequate financial support from the states. It looks at how at the Constitutional Convention met at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and while there was general consensus for the creation of the Constitution, opinions concerning how the United State government should be managed differed dramatically from state to state. It discusses the plans presented at the convention, and how the Connecticut (Great) Compromise was finally reached to bridge the desires of states with different political objectives.

Outline
The Virginia Plan
The Pinckney (South Carolina) Plan
The New Jersey Plan
The Hamilton (New York) Plan
The Connecticut (Great) Compromise
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Wiliam Paterson proposed the New Jersey Plan on June 15, 1787. The New Jersey Plan was essentially a rebuttal to the Virgina Plan. Paterson and many of his small-state colleagues were concerned that the Virgina Plan favored larger states because everything it specified was proportinate to population. Smaller states such as New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and New Yorked feared that larger states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts would limit equal suffrage. Smaller states also believed that Southern states would soon become larger states with more voting clout. At the same time, the smaller states wanted just as much as the larger states to put an end to the rebellions and disorders that had arisen from the current state of the national government."

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