10 Interesting Facts about the Constitutional Convention (United States)

This article will discuss about some interesting facts about the Constitutional Convention. This Convention was held to deal with problems in governing the United States of America. Before this Convention, Articles of Confederation (following independence from Great Britain) was used to operate the government of the United States of America. Below are the following facts about this Convention.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 1: Names

The Constitutional Convention has several names. It is also known as the Philadelphia Convention, the Federal Convention or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 2: The Purpose

At the first it was held to revise the Articles of Confederation but the outcome results was different. The proponents have been decided to create new government instead of fix the existing one.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 3: The Most Contentious Disputes

In the Constitutional Convention, the most disputes issues are the proportional representation of government, the decision to decide the executive power, the ways to elect president, the duration of president’s role and more issues around slavery.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 4: The Men of the Convention

In this Convention, George Washington was agreed to be the president. Despite the fact that William Jackson was elected as secretary, his record was brief and lack of details. Here, Madison’s and Robert Yates’ notes were used because of their complete record.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 5: James Madison’s Blueprint

While waiting the Convention to begin, James Madison wrote his draft. This draft was known as the Virginia Plan. One of his draft stated that the executive function had to be independent of the legislature.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 6: The Votes

In this Convention, each state could cast a single vote whether it is for vote or against a proposal during the debates. The vote was according the majority of the state’s delegates.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 7: The Early Debate

The first contentious debate was the way of the lower house would be apportioned. Small number of the delegates wanted it to be apportioned so that all states would have equal weight while most of delegates wanted it apportioned following the rule with some mixture of property and population.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 8: The Delegates

At first, 70 representatives had been appointed to join the Convention but some of delegates did not accept or could not attend it. As the result, it is only 55 delegates who could join the Constitution.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 9: The Proposed Plans

There are some plans were proposed in the Convention; there are James Madison which is known Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, Hamilton’s Plan, Pickney’s Plan and Connecticut Compromise.

Facts about the Constitutional Convention 10: Slavery

One of the most disputes issue discussed by delegates was slavery.  The delegates were debating some issues related to slaves; one of debate is whether slaves would be counted as part of the population in determining representation of the states in the Congress or just to be considered as property.

Those facts about the Constitutional Convention perhaps will give you additional resources of your reading list.