Another issue was how many seats each state would have in the Congress. This was an important decision because a state with more seats had more power than a state with fewer seats. In order to decide how many seats each state would have, James Madison provided the Virginia Plan. It suggested that Congress should have two houses, each based on size of the population. The smaller states feared they would lose influence under the plan, because since they had a smaller population, they would have fewer seats and consequently less power. To oppose the Virginia Plan, William Patterson produced the New Jersey Plan, which said that each state should have 2 seats each. The larger states did not like this because there were more small states than large states, which meant that the small states would overpower the large ones. In the end, they came up with a ‘great compromise’. The congress would have two houses. In the Senate, all states would have two seats each. In the House of Representatives the number of seats would be based on size of population. This compromise was very well liked because it joined both the Virginia and the New Jersey Plan and made everyone happier.
Slavery was also a very debated topic. The Southern Affluent people could be unhappy if the constitution did not support slavery, but if they supported it a large number of Northern affluent people would be unhappy and consider it inhumane. The people from the South had plenty of slaves therefore they wanted slavery to be legal. The Northerners, however, did not have nearly as many slaves and they did not want them to be legal nor to count as a full person because then there would be more Southern members in the electoral college because the slaves would increase their population. So in order to make both groups of people happy, a compromise was reached when the Constitution did not support nor condemn slavery. To calculate the representation relative to population in the House of Representatives slaves would count as three-fifths of a freeman. Slaves were agreed to not count as a full person and therefore did not have the right to vote.
Another compromise came over the decision over president and vice-president. The US was confirmed as a federal state. This meant that power was divided between a national (federal) government and state government. To apply federal nature of the political system, the President and Vice-President were chosen by an electoral college. In a president election each state would vote separately. Whichever candidate won the state’s popular vote, won all the Electoral College votes. The Electoral College votes were based on the number of Senators and Congressman a state had in Congress.
Another issue often debated was abuse of power. To avoid it, a central principle of the Constitution was the separation of powers. Political power was divided between federal and state government. It was also divided within the federal government. For some issues only the House of Representatives needed to approve, others only the Senate and others both had to agree. The president had the right to veto; however Congress could override the veto if two-thirds of both houses agreed. The president had the right to nominate senior government officials and Supreme Court justices but the Senate had to agree. The President negotiated treaties with foreign states but the State could reject them. This meant that for any change, there was a big approval line making it very hard for one “crazy” politician to affect the US constitution. The Supreme Court would comprise six justices and was given power to decide on the validity of state law. It was also given the power to interpret the Constitution.
In 1787 those who wanted the Constitution to be ratified became known as federalists. There were people who did not support it, for a reason or another but in the end all 13 states ended up ratifying the constitution. Some of the main compromises that lead up to this ratification were the Bill of Rights, the constitution not condemning nor supporting slavery, the great compromise unifying the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the separation of power. In the end, the constitution turned out to be really successful as it is pretty much the original one in the present moment.