United States History Honors Essay

United States History Honors Essay

Thomas Jefferson called the delegates of the Constitutional Convention "Demigods." They were all prestigious and intelligent men who convened "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation." They soon found out that they would completely rewrite the Articles of Confederation. They voted on issues such as representation, taxation, regulation of commerce, and slave trade. If I was a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, I would have had completely different thoughts about these issues.

To begin with, I would have voted to utterly abolish slavery and the slave trade from the face of America. To me, slavery is immoral and completely unjust. The Americans fought for "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," so why not give these rights to African-Americans? I consider the slave holding states hypocrites because they fought for something that they didn't apply to Africans. They should be counted as normal people and have the same rights as white people. On the contrary, if the slaves were allowed to vote and be counted in the population, the slave holding states would have more representation and therefore have more power than the slave barring states.

Furthermore, I think the issue of representation was resolved with the Great Compromise proposed by Roger Sherman. I would have voted for the Great Compromise, also. I think that it's fair to have the upper house equally represented and the lower house represented by population. Also, the three-fifths compromise was a fair deal because it didn't allow too much representation but it still allowed some African-Americans to be counted in the population. I also believe that Daniel Shays was right to lead a rebellion to demand lightened taxes because the farmers were the ones that made the crops and food for the people.

Finally, I would have voted for/proposed a plan that would help American farming and manufacturing. It would have included an enormous tariff on goods being imported that are already being manufactured in America. This would, I think, benefit the American economy because the money being spent on the items is going back into the system. Also, this assures that rebellions won't happen because farmers wouldn't become bankrupt through these tariffs.

In conclusion, I would have voted

...