The first conflict was the representation issue in the country. While the large states favoured proportional representation, which allowed the numbers of representatives in Congress based on the population of the state, the smaller states favoured equal representation. This is because the small states were afraid of being abused by the power of the larger ones. Consequently, they came up with the idea of the equal representation which allowed each state to have the same number of representatives in Congress. The conflict was getting greater when the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan were created. The Virginia Plan favoured large, popular states by centring people, which was a way to support the proportional representation. Plus, it suggested there should be two houses that were based on the population. On the other hand, the New Jersey Plan favoured small states by giving one vote per state and claimed that there should only be one house. To solve the problem, the committee established the Great Compromise which answered some of the certain needs from two sides. The Great Compromise included two houses in Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives had the number of members based on the population and the Senate had two senators from each state who were elected by the state legislature.
The second conflict was the difference between the Northern and the Southern states. Northern states developed the manufacture, merchants and trades. Vice versa, the Southern states favoured the agriculture, imported goods and British tariffs in retaliation. When the Northern states wanted high tariffs to protect domestic industries, the Southern states disagreed. The slavery issue was also the main problem when the Southern states believed that it was a right to have slaves and the Northern states wanted to abolish slavery. The Southern states, in order to protect their belief, even threatened to leave the union. After a hard time debate, the Framers came up with a compromise which was called the Three-fifths Compromise. The significance of this compromise was that the Southern states agreed to give the slaves the right to vote by counting ⅗ of slaves for the representation and passing a Fugitive Slave Law.
The final conflict I want to present in this essay is the powers of the legislative branch. Under the Articles of Confederation, state governments often decided whether the statements of the national government was important. In order to give more power to Congress, Madison suggested keeping powers from the Articles by rejecting states’ laws. The Framers wanted the government that had the enumerated powers which were clearly listed in a constitution. In Article I, section 8, the enumerated powers consisted of the power of imposing and collecting taxes, declaring wars, raising and supporting an army and navy, etc. Congress also had the general powers of the general welfare clause and the necessary and proper clause. However, Congress was also limited by the writ of habeas corpus, the ex-post facto and the bills of attainder. Congress’s decisions were also checked by the other branches like the two houses of Congress.
In conclusion, the Philadelphia Convention solved extremely problematic conflicts like the slavery issue, the tariffs issue, the representation issue and the power of legislative branch issue mostly by creating compromises between sides which answered and satisfied some of the certain needs for all of them. Although some of the compromises like the Three-fifths one didn’t work smoothly, we can see that it was the best way to prevent a war. Through the problems, the new constitution can be viewed as a brilliant political idea that declares a whole new nation of balances and checks that makes citizens feel secure.
Eurus Thach.
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