Questions On Constitution Convention Simulation Analysis And Synthesis

U.S. Survey Name: Nataelle Pitts
Founding the New Nation Date:10/11/16 Section: UH II

Constitution Convention Simulation Analysis and Synthesis

1. What was the most significant issue facing the new republic?
The most pressing issue was the federal government had very little control over the new republic despite the Article of Confederation. This made it difficult for the government to solve national issues without the approval from each state. For example, prior to the constitution the government was not able to regulate high taxation for Farmers nation wide, which led to the farmer’s rebellion known as Shays rebellion. In addition to this, the weak federal government was not able to unify currency that made them very vulnerable

Furthermore, each state had very different needs that made it very difficult to agree on a resolution that would represent all of the states. For example, in Pennsylvania slavery was not an important factor in supporting their commercial and manufacturing economy. Secondly, prominent representatives such as Benjamin Franklin did not believe in the practice; however, in other states such as Georgia, slavery was an important resource for their economy because it allowed them to produce cash crops such as tobacco without paying for labor while supporting their economy. Even though this was just one of the many resolutions that we discussed during the simulated convention, the discussion on slavery further represented the shift from powers that each individual states had to the development of the new federal government. Some states took pride in the fact that they were able to control their economy also making it hard to reach a compromise that would resolve the

This was a pressing matter in both conventions because the decision about representation would determine the perspectives that would be represented in future legislation that would apply to the whole nation. Furthermore, the various sizes of the sates made it difficult to completely give up on their stance because it would not be represented. For example, states such as Delaware in both convention wanted equal representation while larger states such as New York wanted proportional representation because of the larger variation in opinion that comes with the larger population. Even though we did share this commonality with the actual simulation, we already knew that a plan such as the great compromise would pass where as in the convention; the delegates did not know what would be the best proposals to unify their nation successfully. Also, during the simulation we also were focused on the issues that seemed the most important to use based on modern day politics while the actual delegates mad decisions based on fear of failing just like the Articles of