Notes

The Constitutional Convention began in the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia. Its was held to revise the Articles of Confederation which had taken effect in 1777 , but had proved to be a weak foundation of government. Delegates had many issues to contend with, and these are among those issues.
- Some states favored the plan of government that would give more power to larger states (known as the Virginia Plan ), while some favored a government that favored smaller states (known as the New Jersey Plan ). What resulted was a government that was based on a plan that combined those two plans, known as the Great Compromise . There would be a bicameral Congress consisting of two houses: the House of Representative and the Senate. Members of the House of Representatives would be determined according to a state's population, while each state would get two members in the Senate. Together, both houses of Congress would be responsible for enforcing the laws of the United States.
- There would be a President to head the Executive Branch. The Executive Branch would be in charge of making the laws of the national government.
- There would also be a Supreme Court , which would be headed by the Judicial Branch . This branch would be responsible for interpreting the laws of the country.
- Lastly, the delegates decided on a "solution" to an issue that would be a problem for decades to come. The Three-Fifths Compromise was an solution to the issue of counting slaves as part of a state's population when determining their overall population for Congress. This did not free slaves, nor did it allow them to vote.