When asked as he left the final session what sort of government it had produced, Benjamin Franklin replied “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

The Constitutional Convention also discussed the proper division of authority between the national government and the states, and whether to address the immorality of slavery.

The Constitutional Convention also decided what to do about a national judiciary.

How long should the president serve?

The convention crafted what we now know as the electoral college.

Roger Sherman of Connecticut proposed what would come to be known as the Connecticut Compromise: a senate where each state had two senators, but a House of Representatives based on population,

What was then known as the “Philadelphia Convention” convened a quorum of delegates, including Ben Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, the last week of May 1787.

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton feared the nation would collapse without a stronger central government. Madison convinced his home state Virginia legislature to call a convention in Annapolis, Maryland and invite the other twelve states to discuss ways of improving trade and interstate commerce.

The rebellion intensified the demands among many Americans for a stronger national government,