The Philadelphia Convention: Setting the Basis For The Way The New Nation Would be Governed
There are several problems that appeared at the PhiladelphiaConvention, so it is best we discuss them in the order they appear in thetext. We need to assert from the very beginning that the PhiladelphiaConvention had the primary goal of setting the basis for the way the newnation would be governed in the future and of discussing how the peoplewould be best represented in the legislative and executive structures. The first problem that had arisen before the Convention was the factthat the governmental structures were lacking unity and that there wasperhaps an excessive federalization of the country. Indeed, in a federalstates, one of the most important and troublesome problems is how strongshould the central government be and how decentralized can it work. To these problems, Madison believed that a government that should not"become tyrannical or fall wholly under the influence of a particularfaction"[1]. Thus, the problem of different factions influencing thegovernment could be solved, in Madison's opinion, by having a large nationrather than a smaller republic. The explanation for this is rather simple:a large nation means a large number of factions and lesser control. Hence,
However, this barely reached the issue of nationalconsolidation, let alone the other important problem at hand:representation in the two houses. On theother hand, representation in the two houses was created on soundprinciples and practical solutions were found here. Firstof all, the power of the Congress was stated rather ambiguously and in manycases, the Congress could use the definition so as to become the soleauthority able to judge. -----------------------[1] Norton, Mary. This solution provided several advantages. The solution worked out provided both equal representation in theSenate, corroborated with the provision that "all appropriation billsoriginate in the lower house"[3] and the corollary that a state's senatorsvote as individual. As for the executive power, it wasdecided that the presidency would be both the nation's representative inforeign affair problems, as well as the commander- in- chief of the armedforces. I have discussed so far the problems that revolved around thelegislative organizational structure. Racial issues were at largehere, not from a social point of view, but purely mathematical: how muchshould slaves account for' States with a high number of slaves wanted theslaves to be counted on a 1:1 ratio with the non- slave population,however, this would have clearly meant a higher representation in the Houseof Representatives, even if slaves could not vote and there interests wereobviously not actually represented and discussed. However, a problem that may have caused substantial debate was omitted:should the president hold special powers during a war' In my opinion and as presented in the chapter of the reference book,the final Constitutional Act tackled to a certain degree the problems thatI have discussed in the beginning: the balance between the federalgovernment jurisdiction and the state legislatures and the representationin the two houses of the Congress. a political stability that the new nation would certainly need. However, the fact that the Congress could legislate "in allcases to which separate states are incompetent"[2] and proportionalrepresentation in the houses brought about several other problems. The three- fifths formula that had been previouslyused in 1783 was again made functional: three fifths of the slavepopulation would be included in the representation count. At this point, these werethe two main problems that the Convention needed to decide upon. Everybody present agreed on proportional representation in theHouse of Representatives, however, representation in the Senate was aserious task, because larger states wanted to keep this under control aswell and have more power at a national level.
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