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Introduction

• The Articles of Confederation were not strong enough, and Americans felt that they needed a stronger central government, so they met in the Constitutional Conventions in the late 1780s.
• In spite of the Articles' weakness, many anti-Federalists were wary of a strong central government, because it seemed to create the same evil the Americans had just fought.
• Federalists supported a strong central government because they knew that they needed to unify and govern the states as a unified nation.

• Much contention surrounded the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan, two proposals for representing citizens in Congress.

Part I: The Federal Convention of 1787, Chapter 1-4

• James Madison was a fervent Federalist, and his letter to Washington argued for a supreme national government to act as a dispassionate umpire in disputes between states.
• There were debates over election of representatives, with some believing that representatives should be elected...

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