Can someone grade my DBQ Essay and let me know what grade you think it would have received/any advice to approve it? The prompt is below followed by the essay.</p>
How did the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the period immediately following it deal with the issue of the debate between those who supported a strong central government and those who wanted more power given to the states?</p>
The debate of federalism and how power should be divided among state and national government was a key issue during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that was solved by the Great Compromise, but the debate would last on throughout the immediate years after the Constitutional Convention as people fought to have the national government either stronger or weaker.
Back in 1787, the leaders of the American Confederation were unsure how to construct a new government heading into the Constitutional Convention. People were unhappy with a too powerful national government, as the people have to deal with a tyrant king a few years back. On the other hand, the people were unhappy with a weak national government that could not solve any issues. This was the case under the Articles of Confederation. The question that was to be answered at the Constitutional Convention was that is there a middle ground between to two extreme types of government that could make everyone happy?
At the Constitutional Convention, there were two main proposals to answer the question. One proposal, called the Virginia Plan called for a stronger national government because the people did not foresee the many problems they would have under the Articles of Confederation (Doc 4). Small states feared this plan because they thought that the national government and large states would have too much power. Another proposal called the New Jersey Plan called for a national government that would only have a few more powers than it did under the Articles of Confederation. This proposal was immediately rejected because the delegates were meeting because they wanted a stronger national government. This clearly shows the two sides to the division of powers conflict: those that favor a strong national government and those who favored more state power.
The final result of the Constitution favored those that favored the national government. The result included the Great Compromise that took more ideas from the Virginia Plan than the New Jersey Plan. As a result, there was a stronger national government. The national Congress possessed many more powers than it did have under the Articles of Confederation like the ability to tax and maintain an army. On the other hand, the states lost many of their previously owned powers (Doc 5). At this point, those that favored a strong central government, the federalists, were winning the debate but the federalists still had to win the approval of the people. They did this with the Federalist Papers. These papers contained persuasive arguments, written by Madison, Jay, and Hamilton, on why people should vote to ratify the Constitution by explaining how our government will be balanced under the newly proposed government system (Doc 8). The Federalist papers helped those who favored a stronger national government win the immediate reaction test of the Constitution.
There were many unhappy people with the Constitution, as they saw that this newly proposal national government could freely rule over the people without a Bill of Rights (Doc 2). This allowed those who opposed a strong national government, the antifederalist, to push for a Bill of Rights. A key part of the Bill of Rights was the ninth and tenth amendment that left powers not given to the federal government to the people and the states (Doc 6). This helped reassure those who favored more powerful states. Also, in the initial years under the new government, states viewed that the national government was too powerful since it had the ability to restrict peoples freedom of speech with laws like the Sedition Acts. As a result, Kentucky drafts the Kentucky Resolution that explains how the national government has become too strong (Doc 3). This was the prime example that helped those who wanted more state powers make the argument on why the states should have more power.
Overall, the issue of federalism was dealt with at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the period immediately following by a tug-a-war between those who favored a strong national government and those who favored powers given to the states as each side gained victories at different points during the period.</p>