document_title: Rio Bravo (film)

question_text: who played the colorado kid in rio bravo

text: Rio Bravo (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In the town of Rio Bravo, Texas, sheriff's deputy Dude (Dean Martin), who has acquired the contemptuous nickname Borrachón (pronounced [bo.raˈtʃon], Spanish for "big drunk"), enters a saloon but cannot afford a drink. Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), brother of rancher Nathan Burdette, watches as a barfly (Myron Healey), tosses a silver dollar into a spittoon. Presidio County, Texas, Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) appears and kicks the spittoon away, looking at Dude with disgust. Dude is shamed by his plight and takes out his anger on Chance, knocking him out with an ax handle. Joe begins punching Dude, then shoots and kills an unarmed bystander who tries to intervene.

text: Joe heads to his brother's saloon, where a bloody Chance comes to arrest him for the murder of the bystander. Another patron draws his gun on Chance, but Dude shoots the gun out of the man's hand. Joe is locked up in the local jail. Chance is willing to deputize Dude, provided he can stay sober. Both remember how good with a gun Dude used to be.

text: Chance's friend Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) and his wagon train of supplies stop in town, with a young gunslinger, Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson), riding guard. Inside the jail, Stumpy (Walter Brennan), Chance's game-legged deputy, keeps watch over the jail and Joe, who knows that Stumpy holds an old grudge against Joe's wealthy and powerful brother. Joe warns his jailers that Nathan Burdette will not like how his brother is being treated.

text: A mysterious woman nicknamed Feathers (Angie Dickinson) is in the saloon, playing poker. In the meantime, Dude and Chance patrol the town. Hotel owner Carlos (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez) stops the sheriff, saying Wheeler has been talking too much about Chance needing help. In the saloon, Chance implores Wheeler to stop, as it will draw attention from the wrong people. Wheeler suggests that Colorado could be of assistance, but Colorado politely declines, saying he wants to "mind my own business". Colorado also promises not to start any trouble without telling the sheriff first.

text: Feathers leaves the poker game a winner. Chance follows her up to her room and confronts her as a card cheat, with his evidence three missing aces from the deck of cards being used in the game and a handbill indicating she is wanted for card cheating. Colorado intervenes, saying another participant in the game is the real cheat. They confront the card cheat and prove his guilt. Chance refuses to apologize to Feathers for doing his job, but is no longer in a hurry to make her leave town.

text: As Wheeler is walking back to the hotel, he is shot dead by a Burdette man hiding in the stable. Colorado offers to help, but is angrily turned away by Chance, who says, "You had a chance to get in this and you didn't want it." Chance and Dude flush out the shooter, who escapes into Nathan's saloon after Dude wounds him. Dude believes the man has muddy boots, but everyone in the bar has clean boots. Two of Burdette's men suggest Dude needs a drink and one throws a silver dollar into a spittoon. The bartender puts a beer on the bar, but Dude notices blood dripping into the glass from above. He turns, fires, and kills the shooter.

text: Chance goes back to the hotel to sleep. Without his knowledge, Feathers stands guard at the door to keep him safe, then returns to her room when he awakens. Chance discovers what she did and advises that she should leave on the next stagecoach.

text: Nathan Burdette (John Russell) arrives in town with his men, intent on seeing his brother Joe. Dude is standing guard and confiscating all guns. One of Burdette's men ignores him until Dude cuts one of his horse's reins with a single shot. Nathan agrees to turn in their guns until they leave.

text: Carlos says Feathers will not get on the stagecoach. She tells the sheriff she does not want to leave, then gives him a kiss. He indicates if he were not in such a fix at the jail, things between them might be different.

text: Colorado visits the jail to tell Chance the meaning of a song, "Degüello", or "The Cutthroat Song", that Nathan is paying men to play at his saloon. The song, reported to have been played by Antonio López de Santa Anna's men at the siege of the Alamo, indicates that "no quarter" will be given to one's enemy, no mercy. Dude is trying hard to stay sober. He is given back his guns (the ones he had before he left town, sold by Dude, but bought back by Chance), as well as some clothes he left behind.

text: The next morning, while Dude is standing guard at the town entryway, four Burdette men attack him from behind and tie him up in a stable. Others get the drop on Chance, whose rifle is just out of reach. From inside the hotel, acting on Colorado's instructions, Feathers throws a flower pot through a window a moment after Colorado steps out on the porch, distracting the Burdette men. Colorado quickly throws Chance's rifle to him and the two men shoot the three Burdette hands.

text: Chance decides to have his men hole up in the jail, as it will take several more days for the United States Marshal to arrive to take Joe to the Presidio. Dude's nerves are shot, but as he is about to take a drink, the sound of "The Cutthroat Song" played by Burdette's musicians steels his resolve. He and Chance go to the hotel to round up additional supplies, but Carlos and Consuela are captured by Burdette's men, who trick Chance into charging and falling over a rope tied at the bottom of the stairs. Dude and Feathers are unable to help.

text: Chance is ordered to take the men to the jail to let Joe go. He is reluctant to do so, but Dude implores Chance to cooperate, saying that Stumpy is alone and has no food or water to hold out very long. The remaining Burdette men at the hotel take Dude hostage and Nathan Burdette offers to trade him later for Joe.

text: Stumpy opens fire at the jail, holding off Burdette's men. Chance and Colorado then take Joe to make the trade for Dude at a warehouse, leaving Stumpy behind because of his bad leg. During the trade, walking in opposite directions, Dude tackles Joe and they scuffle while a gunfight erupts. Stumpy turns up and helps even the odds. Dude overpowers Joe. The lawmen throw dynamite sticks at the warehouse where Burdette and his men are based, shooting the sticks to explode them. After a few explosions rock the warehouse, the criminals surrender.

text: All is quiet in town as Chance gets reacquainted with Feathers, who models a skimpy new costume she will be wearing in her new job singing at the hotel. After a pair of sheer tights comes floating from a window to the street, a delighted Stumpy retrieves it, but Dude cautions him to mind his own business.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
John Wayne as John T. Chance
Dean Martin as Dude
Ricky Nelson as Colorado/Ryan
Angie Dickinson as Feathers
Walter Brennan as Stumpy
Ward Bond as Pat Wheeler
John Russell as Nathan Burdette
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez as Carlos Robante
Estelita Rodriguez as Consuela Robante
Claude Akins as Joe Burdette
Joseph Shimada as Burt

text: Malcolm Atterbury and Harry Carey Jr. also receive a screen credit in the film's opening, but their scenes were deleted from the final film.

text: Production[edit]

text: Exteriors for the film were shot at Old Tucson Studios, just outside Tucson.[3] Filming took place in the summer of 1958, and the movie's credits gave 1958 as the year of production, although the film was not released until 1959.

text: Rio Bravo is generally regarded as one of Hawks' best, and is notable for its long opening scene which contains no dialogue. The film received favorable reviews, and was successful, taking in over US$5.5 million.[citation needed]

text: The musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin. His score includes the hauntingly ominous "El Degüello" theme, which is heard several times.[4] The Colorado character identifies the tune as "The Cutthroat Song". He relates that the song was played on the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna to the Texans holed up in the Alamo, to signify that no quarter would be given to them. The tune was used the following year in Wayne's film, The Alamo. Composer Ennio Morricone recalled that director Sergio Leone asked him to write "Dimitri Tiomkin music" for A Fistful of Dollars. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin's "Degüello" (the Italian title of Rio Bravo was Un dollaro d'onore, A Dollar of Honor).[5]

text: Because the film starred a crooner, Martin, and a teen idol, Nelson, Hawks included three songs in the soundtrack. Before the big showdown, in the jail house, Martin sings "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" (which contained new lyrics to a Tiomkin tune that appeared in Red River) accompanied by Nelson, after which Nelson sings a brief version of "Get Along Home, Cindy", accompanied by Martin and Brennan. Over the closing credits, Martin, backed by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, sings a specially composed song, "Rio Bravo", written by Tiomkin with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. Nelson later paid homage to both the film and his character, Colorado, by including the song "Restless Kid" on his 1959 LP, Ricky Sings Again.

text: Members of the Western Writers of America chose "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[6]

text: A brief clip from Rio Bravo was among the archive footage later incorporated into the opening sequence of Wayne's last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character.

text: High Noon debate[edit]

text: The film was made as a response to High Noon,[7] which is sometimes thought to be an allegory for blacklisting in Hollywood, as well as a critique of McCarthyism.[8] Wayne would later call High Noon "un-American" and say he did not regret helping run the writer, Carl Foreman, out of the country.[9] Director Howard Hawks went on the record to criticize High Noon by saying, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him."[10] According to film historian Emanuel Levy, Wayne and Hawks teamed up deliberately to rebut High Noon by telling a somewhat similar story their own way: portraying a hero who does not show fear or inner conflict and who never repudiates his commitment to public duty, while only allying himself with capable people, despite offers of help from many other characters.[11] In Rio Bravo, Chance is surrounded by allies—a deputy who is brave and good with a gun, despite recovering from alcoholism (Dude), a young untried but self-assured gunfighter (Colorado), a limping "crippled" old man who is doggedly loyal (Stumpy), a Mexican innkeeper (Carlos), his wife (Consuela), and an attractive young woman (Feathers)—and repeatedly turns down aid from anyone he does not think is capable of helping him,[10] though in the final shootout they come to help him anyway. "Who'll turn up next?" Wayne asks amid the gunfire, to which Colorado replies: "Maybe the girl with another flower pot."

text: Reception[edit]

text: In the United Kingdom, Rio Bravo was not originally even reviewed for Sight & Sound;[12] in August 1976, Leslie Halliwell gave the film two out of four stars, describing it as a "cheerfully overlong and slow-moving Western" that was nevertheless "very watchable for those with time to spare".[13] The film was taken more seriously by independent British critics such as Robin Wood, who rated it as his top film of all time and wrote a book on it in 2003 for the British Film Institute, publishers of Sight & Sound.

text: It now has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating and was the second highest-ranking Western in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.[14]

text: In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Western Films list.[15]

text: Remakes and inspirations[edit]

text: Remakes[edit]

text: Howard Hawks went on to make two loose variations of Rio Bravo, on both occasions under a different title. Both of these remakes were directed by Hawks, both starred John Wayne, and in each case, the script was written by Leigh Brackett. All involve lawmen working against an entrenched criminal element, partially by "holing up" in their jailhouses.

text:
The first remake, El Dorado, was filmed in 1966, but its release was held up by Paramount until the late summer of 1967. In this film, Robert Mitchum played the Dean Martin role, Arthur Hunnicutt the Walter Brennan character, and James Caan the Ricky Nelson role. Hawks again named the Nelson/Caan character after a state (in this case, Mississippi) and in a wry, humorous twist on the original film, Hawks made him inept with firearms, but skilled with a knife.
The second remake, Rio Lobo, was made in 1970 with a plot much further off the original mold, starting with the absence of a lawman-turned-drunkard character. This began with a Confederate train robbery of a Union gold shipment during the American Civil War, then moved to a postwar Texas county thoroughly controlled by a rich, arrogant rancher. The heroes, with the exception of an old man similar to Brennan and Hunnicutt's characters in the previous pictures (Jack Elam here), were complete outsiders. Along with Wayne and Elam, this movie starred Mexican film star Jorge Rivero (as Frenchie), Christopher Mitchum (Robert Mitchum's son), and Jennifer O'Neill.

text: Inspirations[edit]

text:
Feathers' dialogue was occasionally inspired by the character of "Slim" (Lauren Bacall) in the 1944 To Have and Have Not, as when, after the first kiss, she says: "It's better when two people do it," recalling the phrase "It's even better when you help;" and again later when she says, "I'm hard to get—you're going to have to say you want me," recalling Slim's "I'm hard to get, Steve—all you have to do is ask me."
L'homme à l'étoile d'argent (The Man with the Silver Star), a 1969 album from the French comics series Lt. Blueberry was directly inspired by Rio Bravo. The plot is virtually the same. Blueberry plays the role of sheriff John T. Chance; McClure, a whiskey-adoring old man, combines the roles of Dude and Stumpy; Dusty plays the role of Colorado; Miss March, the teacher, plays the role of a less morally challenged Feathers; and instead of the Burdettes, it has the Bass brothers.
John Carpenter's 1976 film Assault on Precinct 13, though not a remake of Rio Bravo, was inspired by the film. Carpenter borrowed some elements from the earlier film's plot, but set it in 1970s Los Angeles. He also paid homage to the original film by using the pseudonym "John T. Chance", the name of Wayne's character, for his editing credit. This film was also remade in 2005 by Jean-Francois Richet, starring Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, and Ja Rule, moving the film's setting to Detroit.
Ghosts of Mars, a 2001 film also by Carpenter, retains many of the elements that were developed in Rio Bravo and Assault on Precinct 13, but takes place in a science-fiction setting.
The Nest, a 2002 film by Florent Emilio Siri, starring Samy Naceri, Benoît Magimel, Nadia Farès, Pascal Greggory, and Sami Bouajila, is a quasi-remake of Assault on Precinct 13.
Borrachón: A Prequel to Rio Bravo, by Kevin Cullen, 2016. This book is a prequel to the Rio Bravo story and film and provides the complete background leading up to the classic tale.

text: Music[edit]

text:
"My Rifle, My Pony and Me" -- sung by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson
"Cindy" -- sung by Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin and Walter Brennan
"Rio Bravo" -- sung by Dean Martin (end credits)

text: Comic book adaption[edit]

text: Dell Four Color #1018 (June 1959)[16][17]


document_title: Layer Cake (film)

question_text: what is the main character's name in layer cake

question_tokens: what is the main character 's name in layer cake

root

text: Layer Cake (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: A 30-something man (XXXX), is a London underworld criminal who has established himself as one of the biggest cocaine suppliers in the city, with effective legitimate cover. Considering himself a businessman and patience as a prime virtue, XXXX leaves the darker aspects of the business to his henchman Morty, a man having recently ended a 10-year prison sentence for murder. Once he has earned enough to ensure his long-term financial security, XXXX plans to retire.

tag: p

text: On the evening XXXX intends to set these plans into motion, his sponsor and powerful supplier Jimmy Price puts two crucial missions in his hands. The first is to track down Charlie, the teenage daughter of Jimmy's associate Eddie Temple, who has fled a rehabilitation centre along with her drug-addicted boyfriend Pinky. XXXX decides to enlist two con men, Cody and Tiptoes, to perform this task. They investigate, and find the boyfriend dead and Charlie apparently kidnapped, although no ransom has been demanded.

text: The second mission Jimmy assigns to XXXX is to organise the purchase and distribution of one million ecstasy tablets from a low-level gangster who styles himself "The Duke". Unbeknownst to XXXX, the pills had been stolen from a gang of Serbian war criminals based in the Netherlands, a massive drug production outfit with an honour-avenging bent.

text: XXXX encounters the Duke's out-of-touch nephew Sidney at a bar and becomes attracted to his disillusioned girlfriend Tammy. XXXX tries to broker the sale of the ecstasy pills to Liverpool gangsters Trevor and Shanks, but they refuse, informing him of the drugs' purloined nature, and that in response the Serbs have sent an assassin, known as Dragan, to find the pills and kill those responsible for their theft. Duke had mentioned XXXX's name to the Serbs beforehand, so he too is in danger. Members of the Duke's gang soon start turning up dead and the Duke himself goes missing.

text: XXXX arranges a tryst with Tammy, but before it can be consummated, he is kidnapped by henchmen of Eddie Temple, father of Charlie, the missing girl. Eddie informs him that Jimmy Price has recently lost £13 million in a failed investment in Africa and planned for XXXX to find Charlie so Jimmy could take her hostage until Eddie could get him his money back. Jimmy was also hoping to sell the pills to recoup his losses; Eddie then plays XXXX a recording indicating that Jimmy has been a long-term informant for Scotland Yard and intends to betray XXXX to the police as soon as the deal is done, planning to gain clemency from the deal and also take away XXXX's wealth. Eddie demands that XXXX sells the pills to himself instead.

text: A furious XXXX shoots and kills Jimmy at his home, but does so with a gun that Gene, Jimmy's henchman and his main liaison with XXXX, had used to commit a prior murder, putting Gene under police attention. XXXX then discovers that his accountant, who operated his legitimate front and was referred to him by Jimmy Price, has stolen all of his money and disappeared. Gene and Morty initially suspect XXXX of foulplay; after being shown the evidence of Jimmy's snitching, the pair acknowledge XXXX as the group's new acting boss and show him the corpse of the Duke. Gene killed him along with girlfriend and crime-partner, Slasher, when the latter threatened to alert the police about the pills.

text: To recoup something from the fiasco, XXXX tips the police off to the Duke's hideout, who then conduct a raid. XXXX is intentionally present during the raid to feign purchasing the pills from the Duke's crew, and Dragan, who has been following XXXX, witnesses the raid from afar as the police confiscate the drugs while XXXX and Duke's surviving crew escape. Meanwhile, XXXX has arranged for Cody and Tiptoes to infiltrate the raiding police and con the unit out of the pills. XXXX delivers the severed head of the Duke to Dragan as a peace offering, who reports back to his Serbian boss that the police have seized the drugs. Cody and Tiptoes return the drugs to XXXX in exchange for a fee, and XXXX in turn looks to sell them to Eddie Temple as planned. However, during the handover at the latter's bonded warehouse, Eddie's henchmen rob his crew of the drugs at gunpoint. To end XXXX's faux assignment given by Jimmy, Eddie reveals that his daughter Charlie's boyfriend died at his men's hands; she was recovered before Jimmy Price ever tasked XXXX with finding her, and Eddie had her put back into rehab all this time.

text: To mollify XXXX, Eddie gives him a "Welcome to the Layer Cake": a membership to the Stoke Park Country Club of which he is (and Jimmy was) a member. Expecting betrayal, XXXX successfully arranges for Trevor, Shanks, and young Dizzy to steal the drugs back from Eddie's men. The gang assembles for lunch at the Stoke Park Club, honoring XXXX their new boss. However, he declines, stating his intention to stick to his planned retirement all along. When leaving the club with Tammy, mentally running through the names of his fellow murdered businessmen he hopes to avoid joining, XXXX is shot by a heart-broken Sidney. XXXX collapses bleeding, and he lies twitching on the front steps while contemplating his possible death.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Daniel Craig as XXXX
Colm Meaney as Gene
Kenneth Cranham as Jimmy Price
George Harris as Morty
Jamie Foreman as the Duke
Michael Gambon as Eddie Temple
Marcel Iureş as Slavo
Tom Hardy as Clarkie
Tamer Hassan as Terry
Ben Whishaw as Sidney
Burn Gorman as Gazza
Sally Hawkins as Slasher
Sienna Miller as Tammy
Dexter Fletcher as Cody
Steve John Shepherd as Tiptoes
Daniel Moorehead as Dizzy
Louis Emerick as Trevor
Stephen Walters as Shanks
Francis Magee as Paul the boatman
Dragan Mićanović as Dragan
Nathalie Lunghi as Charlie
Jason Flemyng as Crazy Larry

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: Filming began in June 2003. Queen's Gate Mews, SW7, was used as the filming location for the home of Daniel Craig's character XXXX.[4]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The soundtrack from Layer Cake is composed of 14 tracks.

text:
"Hayling" – FC Kahuna
"Opening" – Ilan Eshkeri and Steve McLaughlin
"She Sells Sanctuary" – The Cult
"Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head" (Original Radio Edit) – Kylie Minogue
"You Got the Love" (Original bootleg radio mix) – The Source feat. Candi Staton
"Drive to the Boatyard" – Ilan Eshkeri
"Junky Fight" – Lisa Gerrard
"Making Plans for Nigel" – XTC
"Ordinary World" – Duran Duran
"Ruthless Gravity" – Craig Armstrong
"Four to the Floor" (Soulsavers Mix) – Starsailor
"Drive to the Warehouse" – Ilan Eshkeri and Lisa Gerrard
"Aria" (Layer Cake Speech) – Lisa Gerrard with Michael Gambon
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" – Joe Cocker

tag: ol

text: The Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter" also features in the film but does not appear on the soundtrack album.

text: Release[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text:
Film
Release date
Box office revenue
Box office ranking
Budget
Reference

Worldwide
United States
United States
International
Worldwide
All time United States
All time worldwide

Layer Cake
May 2005
May 2005
$2,339,957
$9,510,257
$11,850,214
#5,288
Unknown
$6.5 million[2]
[3]

text: Critical response[edit]

text:
Film
Rotten Tomatoes
Metacritic
Entertainment Weekly

Layer Cake
81% (133 reviews)[5]
73/100 (30 reviews)[6]
A[7]

text: Layer Cake received positive reviews, with an 81% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 7.1/10 based on 134 reviews. The critical consensus states that it is "A stylized, electric British crime thriller".[5] The film has an average score of 73 based on 30 reviews on Metacritic.[7]

text: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times remarked, "The movie was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who produced Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and this one works better than those films because it doesn't try so hard to be clever and tries harder to be menacing". Of Craig's performance, he said, "Craig is fascinating here as a criminal who is very smart, and finds that is not an advantage because while you might be able to figure out what another smart person is about to do, dumbos like the men he works for are likely to do anything". He gave the film 3.5/4 stars.

text: Craig's starring role in the film has been cited as the performance that led to his high-profile casting as James Bond.[8]

text: Home media[edit]

text: Layer Cake was released on DVD and VHS on 23 August 2005 and on Blu-ray in 2007. It was also re-released in 2014.

text: Continuation[edit]

text: Jason Statham's production company is said to have the rights to produce a sequel, entitled Viva La Madness with Statham taking the XXXX role from Craig. On 17 September 2015, it was reported that Viva La Madness will be a TV show for Gaumont International Television.[9]


document_title: Social Security Amendments of 1965

question_text: the xix of the social security act of 1965 established

text: Social Security Amendments of 1965

text: History[edit]

text: Many politicians were involved in drafting the final bill that was introduced to the United States Congress in March 1965. On July 30, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law.

text: The concept of national health insurance began in the early 20th century in the United States and then came to prominence during the Truman administration. Between 1958 and 1964, controversy grew and a bill was drafted. The signing of the act, as part of Johnson's Great Society, began an era with a greater emphasis on public health issues. Medicare and Medicaid became the United States' first public health insurance programs. The legislation was vigorously opposed by the American Medical Association until it had been enacted, following which the AMA cooperated in its implementation.

text: In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt included social insurance for sickness in the platform of his Progressive Party (United States, 1912). Around 1915 the group American Association for Labor Legislation attempted to introduce a medical insurance bill to some state legislatures. These attempts were not successful, and as a result controversy about national insurance came about. National groups supporting the idea of government health insurance included the AFL-CIO, the American Nurses Association, National Association of Social Workers, and the Socialist Party USA. The most prominent opponent of national medical insurance was the American Medical Association (AMA); others included the American Hospital Association, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Life Insurance Association of People.

text: Previous administrations[edit]

text: In 1935, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, medical benefits were left out of the bill. The committee that Roosevelt appointed to study issues related to Social Security wanted to include health insurance in the bill. However, the committee was concerned that amending the bill to include health insurance would kill the entire bill.[1] Harry Truman took on the idea of national medical care and tried to integrate it into his Fair Deal program. Truman's attempts were also unsuccessful, though during his presidency the fight for national medical care became specific to the aged population.

text: Once the targeted age was decided, a lengthy debate began over presenting a coherent medical care bill to Congress. The Conservative coalition dominated the House Ways and Means Committee, which complicated attempts to pass social health programs. Wilbur Mills (D-AR), chair of the committee, later played a role in creating the health care program that was integrated into the Social Security Act.

text: In 1960, the Kerr-Mills Act created the Medical Assistance for the Aged (MAA) program which gave states the power to decide which patients needed financial assistance. The federal government would provide matching funds to the states for the program. Some states did not participate or abide by the Act.[2] Another preliminary bill, the King-Anderson Bill, was introduced in 1962. Under it, some hospital and nursing home costs for patients 65 and older would have been covered. Although this bill was defeated in committee, the vote was narrow (12–11), signaling a shift in attitudes.

text: Johnson administration[edit]

text: With the election of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Democrats controlled both the Presidency and the Congress, claiming a 2:1 ratio to Republicans in the House and 32 more seats in the Senate. The Democrats in the House Ways and Means Committee shifted away from Southern Democrats, making the committee more sympathetic towards health insurance reform.

text: Those who had previously worked on the King-Anderson Bill drafted a new bill providing coverage of the aged, limited hospitalization and nursing home insurance benefits, and Social Security financing. Wilbur Cohen, Assistant Secretary for Legislation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (and later Secretary), pushed the Medicare bill. Cohen convinced Johnson to give the bill high priority, and Johnson declared its importance to his Great Society program. The bill was introduced as companion bills,[3] H.R. 1 and S. 1, given the numbers as the first bill introduced in each House of the new Congress.

text: House of Representatives[edit]

text: The groups previously opposed to the legislation switched their focus from opposing the bill to creating new versions of it. As a result, three forms of the bill emerged: John Byrnes', the American Medical Association's, and the administration's bill (known as Medicare). Byrnes was a Republican committee member who proposed that doctors' services and drugs be financed; participation in coverage would be voluntary for the aged. If an elderly patient did need the help, his or her financing would be "scaled to the amounts of the participant's Social Security cash benefits" and the financing would come from the government's revenues. The AMA proposed Eldercare, which provided government financing for physician's services, surgical charges, drugs, nursing home costs, x-ray and lab services. When brought back to the Ways and Means committee, three bills were presented: Byrnes,' Eldercare, and Medicare.

text: When deliberations began in 1965, both AMA members and their suggestions were rejected. Wilbur Mills, the chair of the Ways and Means committee, suggested combining Byrnes' ideas and Medicare. His committee took on the task of drafting H.R. 6675, the bill that ultimately became law. In combining the two bills, John Byrnes's suggestion, which included lower taxes, had to be altered as higher taxes were necessary for the program's predicted costs. The Ways and Means Committee reported favorably on the new bill to the full House of Representatives on March 29 after a straight party committee vote of 17 to 8.[4]

text: During debate on the House floor, Republicans offered a substitute bill that would have made participation fully voluntary. It was narrowly defeated 236 to 191, with 128 of 138 Republicans in favor of the substitute. H.R. 6675 was passed in the House on April 8, 1965 by a vote of 313 to 115.[4]

text: Senate[edit]

text: The biggest threat to the passage of H.R. 6675 in the Senate came from liberal Democrats who were eager to expand coverage of the bill. As amended and passed in the Senate on July 19 by a vote of 68 to 2, H.R. 6675 would have cost approximately $800 million more than the House-passed bill.[4]

text: Final passage[edit]

text: The bill went to conference committee where Representative Mills worked to eliminate practically all of the Senate amendments. The bill went through more than five hundred amendments before being passed by majority vote in the House (307–116) on July 27 and in the Senate on July 28 (70–24).[5]

text: The legislation made two amendments to the Social Security Act of 1935. Title XVIII, which became known as Medicare, includes Part A, which provides hospital insurance for the aged, and Part B, which provides supplementary medical insurance. Title XIX, which became known as Medicaid, provides for the states to finance health care for individuals who were at or close to the public assistance level with federal matching funds.

text: On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the bill, making it Public Law 89-97. The signing took place in Independence, Missouri and was attended by Harry S. Truman. Johnson credited Truman with "planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful". Implementation of the amendments required extensive data processing and the re-configuration of hospital policies nationwide.[6]


document_title: Wonder (film)

question_text: who plays auggie in the movie the wonder

text: Wonder (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: August "Auggie" Pullman is a young boy raised in North River Heights in upper Manhattan, New York. He has a rare medical facial deformity, which he refers to as "mandibulofacial dysostosis." Due to numerous surgeries (27), Auggie had been home-schooled by his parents Isabel and Nate, but as Auggie is approaching middle school age, Isabel and Nate decide to send him to Beecher Prep, a mainstream private school. Fifth grade is tough for Auggie who is ostracized by nearly all the student body. He is bullied by being called a freak and rumors were spread that kids will get the "plague" if they touch him. He does befriend a boy named Jack Will.

text: Halloween is Auggie's favorite holiday. He has to wear an old "Ghostface" mask and costume because his dog, Daisy, threw up on his "Boba Fett" costume. He walks around school unrecognized and is not tormented while incognito. As he walks through the door to his homeroom, he overhears his friend Jack telling Julian Albans that he was "only pretending to be friends with Auggie." Feeling betrayed, Auggie leaves school and wants to stay home during trick-or-treating. His older sister Olivia, nicknamed "Via," tells him she is still his friend and talks him out of it. Auggie later confides the incident to a new friend, named Summer, but swears her to secrecy. When Jack notices that Auggie has become quiet and distant he asks Summer why, but she only gives him the clue "Ghost Face". Jack is shocked when it dawns on him that it was Auggie wearing the Ghost Face costume, and thus had overheard everything he said to Julian. When Julian calls Auggie a "freak," Jack angrily punches him in the face and a fight ensues between the two, which is soon broken up by their homeroom teacher Mr. Browne. Jack is suspended for two days for his actions. He apologizes to Auggie and the two friends reconcile. They even team up for a winning science project.

text: During the middle of the school year, Auggie is constantly bullied by Julian and his friends Amos, Miles, and Henry. They leave hurtful and threatening notes on his desk and tape their class picture on his locker with Auggie photoshopped out. Mr. Tushman confronts Julian and his parents. Julian's mother assures the principal that her boy is no bully. She even proclaims that she had Auggie edited out of the picture because she didn't want people to only care about Auggie and his family more than Julian. She also threatens to pull their funding from the school. Tushman shows all of his evidence and suspends Julian for two days, along with making him stay home from the annual nature retreat. As he and his parents leave, a remorseful Julian apologizes to Tushman for his behavior which the principal proudly accepts.

text: Via has her own teen problems as well as feeling left out with all of the parental attention given to her sick brother. Her best friend, Miranda, has been ignoring her all year but she meets a new boy Justin who encourages her to join Drama Club. Via and Justin develop a close friendship which later turns into a romantic relationship and her first kiss. Via is selected to be an understudy for the lead role in the school's production of "Our Town," but Miranda gets the lead role. Miranda realizes the pain and harm she's done to Via, and on opening night pretends to fall ill. Via takes her place and gives a performance that earns her a standing ovation.

text: During the nature retreat, Auggie and Jack are harassed by a group of seventh graders from another school and Amos, Miles, and Henry come to their defense. After their return to school, Auggie is generally more accepted by his classmates, including the reformed Julian. At the school's year end graduation ceremony, Tushman announces that Auggie has been selected for the Henry Ward Beecher Medal for being a strong standing out student. Auggie receives a standing ovation. His mother Isabel calls Auggie her "wonder". The movie ends with a shot of a floating astronaut: Auggie's goal in life.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Julia Roberts as Isabel Pullman, Via and Auggie’s mother.
Owen Wilson as Nate Pullman, Via and Auggie’s father, Isabel’s husband
Jacob Tremblay as August "Auggie" Pullman, Via’s brother and Isabel and Nate’s son
Izabela Vidovic as Olivia "Via" Pullman, Auggie’s sister

Maccie Margaret Chbosky as Young Olivia

Noah Jupe as Jack Will, Auggie’s best friend
Bryce Gheisar as Julian Albans
Elle McKinnon as Charlotte Cody
Millie Davis as Summer Dawson
Ty Consiglio as Amos Continu
Kyle Harrison Breitkopf as Miles Noury
James A. Hughes as Henry Joplin
Sônia Braga as Lisa "Grans" Minel, Isabel's mother and Via and Auggie’s grandmother
Mandy Patinkin as Mr. Tushman
Daveed Diggs as Mr. Browne
Ali Liebert as Ms. Petosa
Danielle Rose Russell as Miranda Navas, Via’s best friend
Nadji Jeter as Justin Hollander, Via's boyfriend
Gidget as Darth-Daisy "Daisy", Auggie and Via's dog

text: Other cast[edit]

text:
Nicole Oliver as Mrs. Will, Jack’s mother
Rachel Hayward as Mrs. Navas, Miranda’s mother
Crystal Lowe as Mrs. Sarah Albans, Julian’s mother
Steve Bacic as Mr. Albans, Julian’s father
Erika McKitrick as Ella
Lucia Thain as Savanna Wittenberg
Sasha Neuhaus as Maya Markowitz
Izzy Lieberman as Reid Kingsley
Hannah Hoberman as Rebecca
William Dickinson as Eddie
Emma Tremblay as Michelle
Lydia Jewett as Lina Annan
Armen Bagdasrov as Danny
Kaelyn Breitkopf as Angela
Victoria V. Cruz as the Science Fair judge
Benjamin Ratner as Mr. Davenport
J. Douglas Stewart as Darth Sidious
Michael Alan Healy as Chewbacca

text: Production[edit]

text: On November 27, 2012, it was announced that Lionsgate was developing the feature film adaptation of R. J. Palacio's debut novel Wonder, while in talks with John August to write the screenplay.[5] Mandeville Films' David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman would be producing the film.[5] On May 8, 2013, Jack Thorne was hired to adapt the novel, while August, who was previously reported as writer, had departed from the project.[6] In October 2014, John Krokidas was reported to be directing the film,[7] but in April 2015, Paul King was hired to take the directing duties. Steven Conrad was writing the script at that time.[8]

text: On April 14, 2016, Jacob Tremblay was cast in to play the lead role as Auggie Pullman, while Julia Roberts was in talks to play Auggie's mother.[9] On May 5, 2016, Roberts was confirmed to play the mother, with Stephen Chbosky signed on to direct.[10] On June 27, 2016, Owen Wilson had joined to play Auggie's father.[11] On July 11, 2016, newcomer Noah Jupe joined the cast as Auggie's best friend at school.[12] On July 15, 2016, Daveed Diggs was cast as Mr. Browne, an English teacher at the school.[13] On August 19, 2016, Sônia Braga joined the cast, portraying the role of Roberts's mother.[14]

text: Jacob's prosthetic makeup, designed and created by Arjen Tuiten, took an hour and half to apply. It consisted of a skull cap with prosthetic ears attached, a facial prosthetic that covered Jacob's face, and a wig to tie it all together.[citation needed]

text: Marcelo Zarvos composed the film's score.[15]

text: Music[edit]

text: Bea Miller composed a song entitled "Brand New Eyes." It was released on August 3, 2017.

text: Wonder author R.J. Palacio has often credited Natalie Merchant's song “Wonder” from her 1995 album Tigerlily as the inspiration for her best-selling book and at Merchant's invitation, the song will be featured in the soundtrack.[16]

text: Release[edit]

text: Wonder was scheduled to be released in the United States on April 7, 2017 by Lionsgate.[17][18] On February 13, 2017, it was announced that the release date for Wonder had been pushed back to November 17, 2017.[19] Wonder had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on November 14, 2017.[20]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Wonder grossed $132.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $167.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $300.1 million, against a production budget of $20 million.[4] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film made a net profit of $55.3 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[21]

text: In the United States and Canada, Wonder was released alongside Justice League and The Star and was initially projected to gross around $9 million from 3,096 theaters in its opening weekend.[22] However after grossing $740,000 from Thursday night previews and receiving a large number of group ticket sales, weekend projections were upped to $15 million.[23] Weekend projections were again increased, this time to $28 million, after the film made $9.4 million on its first day. The film went on to debut to $27.1 million, finishing second at the box office behind Justice League.[24] In its second weekend the film dropped just 17.7%, grossing $22.7 million and finishing third at the box office.[25]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 156 reviews and an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wonder doesn't shy away from its bestselling source material's sentiment, but this well-acted and overall winsome drama earns its tugs at the heartstrings."[26] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, one of fewer than 80 films in the history of the service to receive such a score.[24]

text: Some with craniofacial disorders have criticized the film for casting an able-bodied actor as Auggie, and have branded the plot an example of inspiration porn.[28][29][30]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Award
Date of ceremony
Category
Recipient(s) and nominee(s)
Result
Ref.

AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards
February 5, 2018
Best Intergenerational Film
Wonder
Nominated
[31]

Readers' Choice Poll
Wonder
Nominated

Academy Awards
March 4, 2018
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Arjen Tuiten
Nominated
[32]

British Academy Film Awards
February 18, 2018
Best Makeup and Hair
Naomi Bakstad, Robert Pandini and Arjen Tuiten
Nominated
[33]

Casting Society of America
January 18, 2018
Big Budget – Comedy
Deborah Aquila, Kara Eide, Tricia Wood and Kris Woz
Nominated
[34]

Critics' Choice Movie Awards
January 11, 2018
Best Young Actor/Actress
Jacob Tremblay
Nominated
[35]

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jack Thorne, Steve Conrad and Stephen Chbosky
Nominated

Best Hair & Makeup
Wonder
Nominated

Heartland Film Festival
December 31, 2017
Truly Moving Picture Award
Stephen Chbosky
Won
[36]

London Film Critics Circle
January 28, 2018
Young British/Irish Performer of the Year
Noah Jupe
Nominated
[37]

Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild
February 24, 2018
Feature Motion Picture: Best Contemporary Makeup
Naomi Bakstad, Jean Black and Megan Harkness
Nominated
[38]

Feature Motion Picture: Best Contemporary Hair Styling
Robert Pandini and Alisa Macmillian
Nominated

Feature Motion Picture: Best Special Makeup Effects
Michael Nickiforek and Arjen Tuiten
Nominated

Feature Motion Picture: Best Contemporary Hair Styling
Robert Pandini and Alisa Macmillian
Nominated

Feature Motion Picture: Best Special Makeup Effects
Michael Nickiforek and Arjen Tuiten
Nominated

Saturn Awards
June 2018
Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Jacob Tremblay
Pending
[39]

Best Make-up
Arjen Tuiten
Pending

Best Independent Film
Wonder
Pending

Seattle Film Critics Society
December 18, 2017
Best Youth Performance
Jacob Tremblay
Nominated
[40]

Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association
December 8, 2017
Best Youth Performance
Jacob Tremblay
Nominated
[41]

Women Film Critics Circle
December 17, 2017
Best Family Film
Wonder
Nominated
[42]
[43]


document_title: Constitutional Convention (United States)

question_text: who proposed the virginia plan at the constitutional convention

question_tokens: who proposed the virginia plan at the constitutional convention

text: Constitutional Convention (United States)

text: Historical context[edit]

text: Before the Constitution was drafted, the nearly 4 million inhabitants[4] of the 13 newly independent states were governed under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, created by the Second Continental Congress. It soon became evident to nearly all that the chronically underfunded Confederation government, as originally organized, was inadequate for managing the various conflicts that arose among the states.[5]:4–5[6]:14–16 As the Articles of Confederation could only be amended by unanimous vote of the states, any state had effective veto power over any proposed change.[7] In addition, the Articles gave the weak federal government no taxing power: it was wholly dependent on the states for its money, and had no power to force delinquent states to pay.[7]

text: Once the immediate task of winning the American Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783 had passed, the states began to look to their own interests, and disputes arose. These included a dispute between Maryland and Virginia over the Potomac River and opposition to Rhode Island's imposing taxes on all traffic passing through it on the post road. James Madison suggested that state governments should appoint commissioners "to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situation and trade of said states; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interests and permanent harmony".[8]:92

text: Another impetus for the convention was Shays' Rebellion of 1786-1787. A political conflict between Boston merchants and rural farmers over issues including tax debts had broken out into an open rebellion. This rebellion was led by a former Revolutionary War captain, Daniel Shays, a small farmer with tax debts, who had never received payment for his service in the Continental Army. The rebellion took months for Massachusetts to put down completely, and some desired a federal army that would be able to put down such insurrections.

text: In September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The subsequent Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia, convening in the Old Pennsylvania State House (then becoming known as Independence Hall) on May 14, 1787. Rhode Island, fearing that the Convention would work to its disadvantage, boycotted the Convention and, when the Constitution was put to the states during the next year of controversial debates, initially refused to ratify it, waiting until May 1790 to become the thirteenth, a year after the new federal government commenced.[9]

text: The Convention[edit]

text: Due to the difficulty of travel in the late 18th century, very few of the selected delegates were present on the designated day of May 14, 1787, and it was not until May 25 that a quorum of seven states was secured. (New Hampshire delegates would not join the Convention until more than halfway through the proceedings, on July 23.)[5]:103 James Madison arrived first, and soon most of the Virginia delegation arrived. While waiting for the other delegates, the Virginia delegation produced the Virginia Plan, which was designed and written by James Madison. On May 25, the delegations convened in the Pennsylvania State House.

text: George Washington was unanimously elected president of the Convention,[10] and it was agreed that the discussions and votes would be kept secret until the conclusion of the meeting.[5]:11 Despite the sweltering summer heat, the windows of the meeting hall were nailed shut to keep the proceedings a secret from the public.[History Alive! 1] Although William Jackson was elected as secretary, his records were brief and included very little detail. Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, supplemented by the notes of Robert Yates, remain the most complete record of the Convention.[5]:162–64 Throughout the debate, delegates constantly referred to precedents from history in support of their position. Most commonly, they referred to the history of England, in particular the Glorious Revolution (often simply called "The Revolution"), classical history (mainly the Roman Republic and the leagues of Greek city-states), and recent precedents from Holland and Germany.

text: Outside the Convention in Philadelphia, there was a national convening of the Society of the Cincinnati. Washington was said to be embarrassed. The 1776 "old republican" delegates like Elbridge Gerry (MA) found anything military or hereditary anathema. The Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia and New York convention was meeting to redefine its Confession, dropping the faith requirement for civil authority to prohibit false worship.[11] Protestant Episcopalian Washington attended a Roman Catholic Mass and dinner.[12] Revolution veteran Jonas Phillips, of the Mikveh Israel Synagogue, petitioned the Convention to avoid a national oath including belief in both Old and New Testaments. Merchants of Providence, Rhode Island, petitioned for consideration, though their Assembly had not sent a delegation.[13]

text: Manasseh Cutler came directly from the capital in New York and found himself a frequent dinner guest among the delegates. He carried grants of five million acres to parcel out among The Ohio Company and "speculators", including some who were attending the Convention.[a] A Philadelphia guest of Robert Morris, Noah Webster would write a pamphlet immediately after the signing. "Leading Principles of the Federal Convention" advocated adoption of the Constitution. It was published much earlier and more widely circulated than today's better known Federalist Papers.[15]

text: James Madison's blueprint[edit]

text: While waiting for the Convention to formally begin, James Madison sketched out his initial draft, which became known as the Virginia Plan and reflected his views as a strong nationalist.[6]:47 By the time the rest of the Virginia delegation arrived, most of the Pennsylvania delegation had arrived as well. They agreed on Madison's plan, and formed what came to be the predominant coalition. By the time the Convention started, the only blueprints that had been assembled were Madison's Virginia Plan, and Charles Pinckney's plan. As Pinckney didn't have a coalition behind his plan, Madison's plan was the starting point for deliberations.[6]:47

text: The Convention agreed on several principles. Most importantly, they agreed that the Convention should go beyond its mandate merely to amend the Articles of Confederation, and instead should produce a new constitution outright. While some delegates thought this illegal, the Articles of Confederation were closer to a treaty between sovereign states than they were to a national constitution, so the genuine legal problems were limited.[6]:64 Another principle they agreed on was that the new government would have all the powers of the Confederation Congress, plus additional powers over the states.[6]:64 Once agreeing on these principles, the Convention voted on the Virginia plan and signaled their approval for it. Once this was done, they began modifying it.

text: Madison's plan operated on several assumptions that were not seriously challenged. During the deliberations, few raised serious objections to the planned bicameral congress, nor the separate executive function, nor the separate judicial function.[6]:67 As English law had typically recognized government as having two separate functions, law making embodied in the legislature, and law executing embodied in the king and his courts, the division of the legislature from the executive and judiciary was a natural and uncontested point.[10]

text: The division of the legislature into an upper and lower house wasn't questioned either, despite the obscure origins of the English House of Lords and its role as the representative of the hereditary nobility.[6]:82 Americans had seldom known any but bicameral legislatures, both in Britain and in most state governments. The main exceptions to this were the dysfunctional Confederation Congress and the unicameral Pennsylvania legislature, which was seen as quickly vacillating between partisan extremes after each election.[6]:82 Experience had convinced the delegates that an upper house was necessary to tame the passions of the lower classes against the interests of wealthy merchants and landowners. Since America had no native hereditary aristocracy, the character of this upper house was designed to protect the interests of this wealthy elite, the "minority of the opulent," against the interests of the lower classes, who constituted the majority of the population.[6]:85[16]

text:
In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The Senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability.

—James Madison, quoted in Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787 by Robert Yates

tag: div

text: On Thursday, June 7, it was proposed that senators should be chosen directly by the state legislatures, instead of by popular vote, as this method was more likely to preserve the power of the upper classes. Convention delegate Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts observed that "the great mercantile interest and of stockholders, is not provided for in any mode of election-they will however be better represented if the State legislatures choose the second branch."[16] The proposal was carried unanimously.

text: The delegates also agreed with Madison that the executive function had to be independent of the legislature. In their aversion to kingly power, American legislatures had created state governments where the executive was beholden to the legislature, and by the late 1780s this was widely seen as being a source of paralysis.[6]:82 The Confederation government was the ultimate example of this.

text: Furthermore, in the English tradition, judges were seen as being agents of the King and his court, who represented him throughout his realm.[10] Madison believed that in the American states, this direct link between state executives and judges was a source of corruption through patronage, and thought the link had to be severed between the two, thus creating the "third branch" of the judiciary which had been without any direct precedent before this point.[10] Madison, however, did not believe that the judiciary should be truly independent, but rather beholden to the legislature rather than the executive. At the Convention, some sided with Madison that the legislature should choose judges, while others believed the president should choose judges. A compromise was eventually reached that the president should choose judges and the Senate confirm them.[6]:84

text: In a few areas, Madison's plan included provisions that had little support among the delegates. Few agreed with Madison that the legislature should be able to invalidate state laws, so the idea was dropped. While most thought there should be some mechanism to invalidate bad laws by congress, few agreed with Madison that a board of the executive and judges should decide on this. Instead, the power was given solely to the executive in the form of the veto. Many also thought this would be useful to protect the executive, whom many worried might become beholden to an imperial legislature.[6]:141 Also, during the deliberations, the New Jersey Plan was introduced, although it was more of a protest to the excessive national character of the Virginia plan, and was not seriously considered.[6]:230 The office of Vice President was also included later in the deliberations, mainly to provide the president a successor if he was unable to complete his term but also to provide presidential electors with an incentive to vote for at least one out of state candidate in addition to a "favorite son" from their own state or region.

text: The early debate[edit]

text: Each state was allowed to cast a single vote either for or against a proposal during the debates in accordance with the majority opinion of the state's delegates.[5]:83 Throughout the Convention, delegates would regularly come and go, with only 30–40 being present on a typical day.[5]:83 Consequently, if a state's delegates were equally divided in their views on a given proposal, or if too few of the state's delegates were in attendance to establish a quorum for the delegation when votes were being cast on a particular proposal, that state's delegation had essentially no effect on the outcome of the vote on the proposal. Thus, for example, after two of New York's three delegates abandoned the Convention in mid July with no intention of returning, New York was left unable to vote on any further proposals at the Convention, although Hamilton would continue to periodically attend and occasionally to speak during the debates.[5]:83

text:
All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government. Can a democratic assembly, who annually revolve in the mass of the people, be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy. Their turbulent and uncontroling disposition requires checks.

—Alexander Hamilton, quoted in Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787 by Robert Yates

text: The first area of major dispute was the manner by which the lower house would be apportioned. A minority wanted it to be apportioned so that all states would have equal weight, though this was never seriously considered. Most wanted it apportioned in accordance with some mixture of property and population.[6]:117 Though there was discussion on how to calculate property for this purpose, the issue of property was later dropped because of its difficulty, and an assumption that property would closely correlate to population.

text: Most accepted the desire among the slave states to count slaves as part of the population, although their servile status was raised as a major objection against this. The Three-Fifths Compromise assessing population by adding the number of free persons to three-fifths of "all other persons" (slaves) was agreed to without serious dispute.[6]:119 In 1783, when attempting to assess a national taxation system, the Confederation Congress had considered a three fifths ratio, which did not achieve unanimity.[6]:119[17] This compromise resulted in a large coalition of states, including the small slave states of South Carolina and Georgia, backing the Virginia plan and thus expanding the power of the primary coalition. That the lower house was to be elected directly by the voters was also accepted without major dispute.[6]:119

text: More contentious than the lower house was the question of the upper house. Few agreed with Madison that its members should be elected by the lower house. James Wilson suggested election by popular vote versus election by state legislature, but his proposal was shot down 10–1 by the delegates.[18] Most delegates didn't question the intelligence of the voters,[citation needed] rather what concerned them was the slowness by which information spread in the late 18th century.[6]:122

text: At the time of the Convention, they noted that local newspapers said little of current events, and what little they had was sketchy and dated. Local papers even said little about the meeting of the Convention.[citation needed] Alexander Hamilton proposed extending the term in office for senators to life, considering earlier proposals of four and seven years inefficient to enable the "rich and well born" to have a "distinct, permanent share in the government," which could "check the imprudence of democracy."[16] Moreover, Hamilton proposed that senators not be elected directly by the general public, but by "electors" chosen for that purpose.

text: Besides the problems of direct election, the new Constitution was seen as such a radical break with the old system, by which delegates were elected to the Confederation Congress by state legislatures, that the Convention agreed to retain this method of electing senators to make the constitutional change less radical.[6]:122 The more difficult problem was the issue of apportionment. The Connecticut delegation offered a compromise, whereby the number of representatives for each state in the lower house would be apportioned based on the relative size of the state's population, while the number of representatives in the upper house would be the same for all of the states, irrespective of size. The large states, fearing a diminution of their influence in the legislature under this plan, opposed this proposal. Unable to reach agreement, the delegates decided to leave this issue for further consideration later during the meeting.

text: The delegates couldn't agree on whether the executive should be a single person, or a board of three. Many wished to limit the power of the executive and thus supported the proposal to divide the executive power between three persons.[6]:134 The possible problems of this system, in addition to the knowledge that George Washington would probably be the first president,[citation needed] calmed the fears enough so that the proponents of a singular executive could accumulate a large coalition.[6]:134 This issue came up occasionally after the matter was settled, but was never again seriously doubted.

text: Another issue concerned the election of the president. Few agreed with Madison that the executive should be elected by the legislature. There was widespread concern with direct election, because information diffused so slowly in the late 18th century, and because of concerns that people would only vote for candidates from their state or region. A vocal minority wanted the national executive to be chosen by the governors of the states.[6]:136

text: The issue was one of the last major issues to be resolved, and was done so in the electoral college. At the time, before the formation of modern political parties, there was widespread concern that candidates would routinely fail to secure a majority of electors in the electoral college. The method of resolving this problem therefore was a contested issue. Most thought that the house should then choose the president, since it most closely reflected the will of the people. This caused dissension among delegates from smaller states, who realized that this would put their states at a disadvantage. To resolve this dispute, the Convention agreed that the house would elect the president if no candidate had an electoral college majority, but that each state delegation would vote as a bloc, rather than individually.[6]:136

text: As the Convention was entering its second full month of deliberations, it was decided that further consideration of the prickly question of how to apportion representatives in the national legislature should be referred to a committee composed of one delegate from each of the eleven states that were present at that time at the Convention. The members of this "Grand Committee," as it has come to be known, included Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Ellsworth, Robert Yates, William Paterson, Gunning Bedford, Jr., George Mason, William Davie, John Rutledge, Abraham Baldwin, and Benjamin Franklin. In its report to the Convention on July 5, the committee offered a compromise. The large states had opposed the Connecticut Compromise, because they felt it gave too much power to the smaller states. The Grand Committee's proposal added the requirement that revenue bills originate in the lower house and not be subject to modification by the upper house (although this Origination Clause would later be modified so that revenue bills could be amended in the upper house, or Senate).[6]:199 With this modification, the Convention in a close vote adopted the compromise on July 16. Nationalist delegates remained bitterly opposed, however, until on July 23 they succeeded in further modifying the compromise to give members of the Senate individual voting power, rather than having votes taken by each state's representatives en bloc, as had occurred in Congress under the Articles of Confederation.[19] This accomplished the nationalist goal of preventing state governments from having a direct say in Congress's choice to make national laws.[20] The final document was thus a mixture of Madison's original "national" constitution and the desired "federal" Constitution that many of the delegates sought.[6]:199

text: The first draft[edit]

text: The Convention adjourned from July 26 to August 6 to await the report of the Committee of Detail, which was to produce a first draft of the Constitution. It was chaired by John Rutledge, with the other members including Edmund Randolph, Oliver Ellsworth, James Wilson, and Nathaniel Gorham.

text: Though the committee did not record minutes of its proceedings, three key surviving documents offer clues to the committee's handiwork: an outline by Randolph with edits by Rutledge, extensive notes and a second draft by Wilson, also with Rutledge's edits, and the committee's final report to the Convention.[21]:168 From this evidence it is thought that the committee used the original Virginia Plan, the decisions of the Convention on modifications to that plan, and other sources, such as the Articles of Confederation, provisions of the state constitutions, and even Charles Pinckney's plan, to produce the first full draft,[6]:269–70[21]:165 which author David O. Stewart has called a "remarkable copy-and-paste job."[21]:165

text: Randolph adopted two rules in preparing his initial outline: that the Constitution should only include essential principles, avoiding minor provisions that would change over time, and that it should be stated in simple and precise language.[6]:270

text: Much of what was included in the committee's report consisted of numerous details that the Convention had never discussed but which the committee correctly viewed as uncontroversial and unlikely to be challenged; and as such, much of the committee's proposal would ultimately be incorporated into the final version of the Constitution without debate.[21]:169 Examples of these details included the Speech and Debate Clause, which grants members of Congress immunity for comments made in their jobs, and the rules for organizing the House of Representatives and the Senate.

text: However, Rutledge, himself a former state governor, was determined that while the new national government should be stronger than the Confederation government had been, the national government's power over the states should not be limitless; and at Rutledge's urging, the committee went beyond what the Convention had proposed. As Stewart describes it, the committee "hijacked" and remade the Constitution, altering critical agreements the Convention delegates had already made, enhancing the powers of the states at the expense of the national government, and adding several far-reaching provisions that the Convention had never discussed.[21]:165

text: The first major change, insisted on by Rutledge, was meant to sharply curtail the essentially unlimited powers to legislate "in all cases for the general interests of the Union" that the Convention only two weeks earlier had agreed to grant the Congress. Rutledge and Randolph worried that the broad powers implied in the language agreed on by the Convention would have given the national government too much power at the expense of the states. In Randolph's outline the committee replaced that language with a list of 18 specific "enumerated" powers, many adopted from the Articles of Confederation, that would strictly limit the Congress' authority to measures such as imposing taxes, making treaties, going to war, and establishing post offices.[6]:273–74[21]:170–71 Rutledge, however, was not able to completely convince all of the members of the committee to accept the change. Over the course of a series of drafts, a catchall provision (the "Necessary and Proper Clause") was eventually added, most likely by Wilson, a nationalist little concerned with the sovereignty of individual states, giving the Congress the broad power "to make all Laws that shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."[6]:274[21]:171–72 Another revision of Wilson's draft also placed eight specific limits on the states, such as barring them from independently entering into treaties and from printing their own money, providing a certain degree of balance to the limits on the national government intended by Rutledge's list of enumerated powers.[6]:274–75[21]:172 In addition, Wilson's draft modified the language of the Supremacy Clause adopted by the Convention, to ensure that national law would take precedence over inconsistent state laws.[21]:172

text: These changes set the final balance between the national and state governments that would be entered into the final document, as the Convention never challenged this dual-sovereignty between nation and state that had been fashioned by Rutledge and Wilson.[21]:172

text: Another set of radical changes introduced by the Committee of Detail proved far more contentious when the committee's report was presented to the Convention. On the day the Convention had agreed to appoint the committee, Southerner Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, had warned of dire consequences should the committee fail to include protections for slavery in the Southern states, or allow for taxing of Southern agricultural exports.[6]:269, 275[21]:173 Pinckney and his fellow Southern delegates must have been delighted to see that the committee had included three provisions that explicitly restricted the Congress' authority in ways favorable to Southern interests. The proposed language would bar the Congress from ever interfering with the slave trade. It would also prohibit taxation of exports, and would require that any legislation concerning regulation of foreign commerce through tariffs or quotas (that is, any laws akin to England's "Navigation Acts") pass only with two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress. While much of the rest of the committee's report would be accepted without serious challenge on the Convention floor, these last three proposals would provoke outrage from Northern delegates and slavery opponents.[6]:275[21]:173–74

text: The final report of the committee, which became the first draft of the Constitution, was the first workable constitutional plan, as Madison's Virginia Plan had simply been an outline of goals and a broad structure. Even after it issued this report, the committee continued to meet off and on until early September.

text: Further modifications and concluding debate[edit]

text: Another month of discussion and relatively minor refinement followed, during which several attempts were made to alter the Rutledge draft, though few were successful. Some wanted to add property qualifications for people to hold office, while others wanted to prevent the national government from issuing paper money.[21]:187 Madison in particular wanted to push the Constitution back in the direction of his Virginia plan.

text: One important change that did make it into the final version included the agreement between northern and southern delegates to empower Congress to end the slave trade starting in 1808. Southern and northern delegates also agreed to strengthen the Fugitive Slave Clause in exchange for removing a requirement that two-thirds of Congress agree on "navigation acts" (regulations of commerce between states and foreign governments). The two-thirds requirement was favored by southern delegates, who thought Congress might pass navigation acts that would be economically harmful to slaveholders.[21]:196

text: Once the Convention had finished amending the first draft from the Committee of Detail, a new set of unresolved questions were sent to several different committees for resolution. The Committee of Detail was considering several questions related to habeas corpus, freedom of the press, and an executive council to advise the president. Two committees addressed questions related to the slave trade and the assumption of war debts.

text: A new committee was created, the Committee on Postponed Parts, to address other questions that had been postponed. Its members, such as Madison, were delegates who had shown a greater desire for compromise and were chosen for this reason as most in the Convention wanted to finish their work and go home.[21]:207 The committee dealt with questions related to the taxes, war making, patents and copyrights, relations with Indian tribes, and Franklin's compromise to require money bills to originate in the House. The biggest issue they addressed was the presidency, and the final compromise was written by Madison with the committee's input.[21]:209 They adopted Wilson's earlier plan for choosing the president by an electoral college, and settled on the method of choosing the president if no candidate had an electoral college majority, which many such as Madison thought would be "nineteen times out of twenty".

text: The committee also shortened the president's term from seven years to four years, freed the president to seek re-election after an initial term, and moved impeachment trials from the courts to the Senate. They also created the office of the vice president, whose only roles were to succeed a president unable to complete a term of office, to preside over the Senate, and to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate. The committee transferred important powers from the Senate to the president, for example the power to make treaties and appoint ambassadors.[21]:212 One controversial issue throughout much of the Convention had been the length of the president's term, and whether the president was to be term limited. The problem had resulted from the understanding that the president would be chosen by Congress; the decision to have the president be chosen instead by an electoral college reduced the chance of the president becoming beholden to Congress, so a shorter term with eligibility for re-election became a viable option.

text: Near the end of the Convention, Gerry, Randolph, and Mason emerged as the main force of opposition. Their fears were increased as the Convention moved from Madison's vague Virginia Plan to the concrete plan of Rutledge's Committee of Detail.[21]:235 Some have argued that Randolph's attacks on the Constitution were motivated by political ambition, in particular his anticipation of possibly facing rival Patrick Henry in a future election. The main objection of the three was the compromise that would allow Congress to pass "navigation acts" with a simple majority in exchange for strengthened slave provisions.[21]:236 Among their other objections was an opposition to the office of vice president.

text: Though most of their complaints did not result in changes, a couple did. Mason succeeded in adding "high crimes and misdemeanors" to the impeachment clause. Gerry also convinced the Convention to include a second method for ratification of amendments. The report out of the Committee of Detail had included only one mechanism for constitutional amendment, in which two-thirds of the states had to ask Congress to convene a convention for consideration of amendments. Upon Gerry's urging, the Convention added back the Virginia Plan's original method whereby Congress would propose amendments that the states would then ratify.[21]:238 All amendments to the Constitution, save the 21st amendment, have been made through this latter method.

text: Despite their successes, these three dissenters grew increasingly unpopular as most other delegates wanted to bring the Convention's business to an end and return home. As the Convention was drawing to a conclusion, and delegates prepared to refer the Constitution to the Committee on Style to pen the final version, one delegate raised an objection over civil trials. He wanted to guarantee the right to a jury trial in civil matters, and Mason saw in this a larger opportunity. Mason told the Convention that the constitution should include a bill of rights, which he thought could be prepared in a few hours. Gerry agreed, though the rest of the committee overruled them. They wanted to go home, and thought this was nothing more than another delaying tactic.[21]:241

text: Few at the time realized how important the issue would become, with the absence of a bill of rights becoming the main argument of the anti-Federalists against ratification. Most of the Convention's delegates thought that states already protected individual rights, and that the Constitution did not authorize the national government to take away rights, so there was no need to include protections of rights. Once the Convention moved beyond this point, the delegates addressed a couple of last-minute issues. Importantly, they modified the language that required spending bills to originate in the House of Representatives and be flatly accepted or rejected, unmodified, by the Senate. The new language empowered the Senate to modify spending bills proposed by the House.[21]:243

text: Drafting and signing[edit]

text: Once the final modifications had been made, the Committee of Style and Arrangement was appointed "to revise the style of and arrange the articles which had been agreed to by the house." Unlike other committees, whose members were named so the committees included members from different regions, this final committee included no champions of the small states. Its members were mostly in favor of a strong national government and unsympathetic to calls for states' rights.[21]:229–30 They were William Samuel Johnson (Connecticut), Alexander Hamilton (New York), Gouverneur Morris (Pennsylvania), James Madison (Virginia), and Rufus King (Massachusetts). On Wednesday, September 12, the report of the "committee of style" was ordered printed for the convenience of the delegates. For three days, the Convention compared this final version with the proceedings of the Convention. The Constitution was then ordered engrossed on Saturday, September 15 by Jacob Shallus, and was submitted for signing on September 17. It made at least one important change to what the Convention had agreed to; King wanted to prevent states from interfering in contracts. Although the Convention never took up the matter, his language was now inserted, creating the contract clause.[21]:243

text: Gouverneur Morris is credited, both now and then, as the chief draftsman of the final document, including the stirring preamble. Not all the delegates were pleased with the results; thirteen left before the ceremony, and three of those remaining refused to sign: Edmund Randolph of Virginia, George Mason of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. George Mason demanded a Bill of Rights if he was to support the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was not included in the Constitution submitted to the states for ratification, but many states ratified the Constitution with the understanding that a bill of rights would soon follow.[23] Shortly before the document was to be signed, Gorham proposed to lower the size of congressional districts from 40,000 to 30,000 citizens. A similar measure had been proposed earlier, and failed by one vote. George Washington spoke up here, making his only substantive contribution to the text of the Constitution in supporting this move. The Convention adopted it without further debate. Gorham would sign the document, although he had openly doubted whether the United States would remain a single, unified nation for more than 150 years.[21]:112 Ultimately, 39 of the original 55 delegates ended up signing, but it is likely that none were completely satisfied. Their views were summed up by Benjamin Franklin, who said,

text: I confess that There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. ... I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. ... It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies ...[24]

text: Rhode Island never sent delegates, and two of New York's three delegates did not stay at the Convention for long. Therefore, as George Washington stated, the document was executed by "eleven states, and Colonel Hamilton."[21]:244 Washington signed the document first, and then moving by state delegation from north to south, as had been the custom throughout the Convention, the delegates filed to the front of the room to sign their names.

text: At the time the document was signed, Franklin gave a persuasive speech involving an anecdote on a sun that was painted on the back of Washington's Chippendale chair.[25] As recounted in Madison's notes:

text: Whilst the last members were signing it Doctor. Franklin looking towards the Presidents Chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have said he, often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.[25][26]

text: The Constitution was then submitted to the states for ratification, pursuant to its own Article VII.[27]

text: Proposed plans[edit]

text: Several plans were introduced, with the most important plan being that of James Madison (the Virginia Plan). The Convention's work was mostly a matter of modifying this plan. Charles Pinckney also introduced a plan, although this wasn't considered and its exact character has been lost to history. After the Convention was well under way, the New Jersey Plan was introduced though never seriously considered.[6]:230 It was mainly a protest to what some delegates thought was the excessively radical change from the Articles of Confederation.[6]:230 Alexander Hamilton also offered a plan after the Convention was well under way, though it included an executive serving for life and therefore the delegates felt it too closely resembled a monarchy.[6]:137 Historians are unsure how serious he was about this, and some have speculated that he may have done it to make Madison's plan look moderate by comparison.[6]:137 The Connecticut Compromise wasn't a plan but one of several compromises offered by the Connecticut delegation. It was key to the ultimate ratification of the constitution, but was only included after being modified by Benjamin Franklin in order to make it more appealing to larger states.[6]:199

text: Virginia Plan[edit]

text: Prior to the start of the Convention, the Virginian delegates met and, drawing largely from Madison's suggestions, came up with what came to be known as the Virginia Plan, also known as the Large State Plan.[28] For this reason, James Madison is sometimes called the Father of the Constitution.[28] Presented by Virginia governor Edmund Randolph on May 29, 1787, the Virginia Plan proposed a very powerful bicameral legislature.[28] Both houses of the legislature would be determined proportionately.[28] The lower house would be elected by the people, and the upper house would be elected by the lower house.[28] The executive would exist solely to ensure that the will of the legislature was carried out and would therefore be selected by the legislature.[28] The Virginia Plan also created a judiciary, and gave both the executive and some of the judiciary the power to veto, subject to override.

text: New Jersey Plan[edit]

text: After the Virginia Plan was introduced, New Jersey delegate William Paterson asked for an adjournment to contemplate the Plan.[28] Under the Articles of Confederation, each state had equal representation in Congress, exercising one vote each.[28] The Virginia Plan threatened to limit the smaller states' power by making both houses of the legislature proportionate to population. On June 14 and 15, 1787, a small-state caucus met to create a response to the Virginia Plan. The result was the New Jersey Plan, otherwise known as the Small State Plan.[28]

text: Paterson's New Jersey Plan was ultimately a rebuttal to the Virginia Plan, and was much closer to the initial call for the Convention: drafting amendments to the Articles of Confederation to fix the problems in it.[28] Under the New Jersey Plan, the existing Continental Congress would remain, but it would be granted new powers, such as the power to levy taxes and force their collection.[28] An executive branch was created, to be elected by Congress (the plan allowed for a multi-person executive).[28] The executives would serve a single term and were subject to recall on the request of state governors.[28] The plan also created a judiciary that would serve for life, to be appointed by the executives.[28] Lastly, any laws set by Congress would take precedence over state laws.[28] When Paterson reported the plan to the Convention on June 15, 1787, it was ultimately rejected, but it gave the smaller states a rallying point for their interests.[28]

text: Hamilton's plan[edit]

text: Unsatisfied with the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan, Alexander Hamilton proposed his own plan. It also was known as the British Plan, because of its resemblance to the British system of strong centralized government.[28] In his plan, Hamilton advocated virtually doing away with state sovereignty and consolidating the states into a single nation.[28] The plan featured a bicameral legislature, the lower house elected by the people for three years. The upper house would be elected by electors chosen by the people and would serve for life.[28] The plan also gave the Governor, an executive elected by electors for a life-term of service, an absolute veto over bills.[28] State governors would be appointed by the national legislature,[28] and the national legislature had veto power over any state legislation.[28]

text: Hamilton presented his plan to the Convention on June 18, 1787.[28] The plan was perceived as a well-thought-out plan, but it was not considered, because it resembled the British system too closely.[28] It also contemplated the loss of most state authority, which the states were unwilling to allow.

text: Pinckney's plan[edit]

text: Immediately after Randolph finished laying out the Virginia Plan, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina presented his own plan to the Convention. As Pinckney did not write it down, the only evidence of the plan are Madison's notes,[29] so the details are somewhat vague. It was a confederation, or treaty, among the thirteen states. There was to be a bicameral legislature made up of a Senate and a House of Delegates. The House would have one member for every one thousand inhabitants. The House would elect Senators who would serve by rotation for four years and represent one of four regions. Congress would meet in a joint session to elect a President, and would also appoint members of the cabinet. Congress, in joint session, would serve as the court of appeal of last resort in disputes between states. Pinckney did also provide for a supreme Federal Judicial Court. The Pinckney plan was not debated, but it may have been referred to by the Committee of Detail.[30]

text: Connecticut Compromise[edit]

text: The Connecticut Compromise, forged by Roger Sherman from Connecticut, was proposed on June 11.[28] In a sense it blended the Virginia (large-state) and New Jersey (small-state) proposals. Ultimately, however, its main contribution was in determining the apportionment of the Senate, and thus retaining a federal character in the constitution. Sherman sided with the two-house national legislature of the Virginia Plan, but proposed "That the proportion of suffrage in the 1st. branch [house] should be according to the respective numbers of free inhabitants; and that in the second branch or Senate, each State should have one vote and no more."[28] This plan failed at first, but on July 23 the question was finally settled.[28]

text: What was ultimately included in the constitution was a modified form of this plan. In the Grand Committee, Benjamin Franklin successfully proposed the requirement that revenue bills originate in the house. But the final July 16 vote on the compromise still left the Senate looking like the Confederation Congress. In the preceding weeks of debate, Madison, King, and Gouverneur Morris each vigorously opposed the compromise for this reason.[31] Then on July 23, just before most of the convention's work was referred to the Committee of Detail, Morris and King moved that state representatives in the Senate be given individual votes, rather than voting en bloc, as they had in the Confederation Congress. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, a leading proponent of the compromise, supported their motion, and the Convention adopted it.[19] As the personally powerful senators were to receive terms much longer than the state legislators who appointed them, they became substantially independent. The compromise nonetheless continued to serve the self-interest of small-state political leaders, who were assured of access to more seats in the Senate than they might otherwise have obtained.[20]

text: Slavery[edit]

text: Among the most controversial issues confronting the delegates was that of slavery. Slavery was widespread in the states at the time of the Convention.[21]:68 At least a third of the Convention's 55 delegates owned slaves, including all of the delegates from Virginia and South Carolina.[21]:68–69 Slaves comprised approximately one-fifth of the population of the states;[32]:139 and apart from northernmost New England, where slavery had largely been eliminated, slaves lived throughout all regions of the country.[32]:132 The majority of the slaves (more than 90%),[32]:132 however, lived in the South, where approximately 1 in 3 families owned slaves (in the largest and wealthiest state, Virginia, that figure was nearly 1 in 2 families).[32]:135 The entire agrarian economy of the South was based on slave labor, and the Southern delegates to the Convention were unwilling to accept any proposals that they believed would threaten the institution.

text: Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise[edit]

text: Whether slavery was to be regulated under the new Constitution was a matter of such intense conflict between the North and South that several Southern states refused to join the Union if slavery were not to be allowed. Delegates opposed to slavery were forced to yield in their demands that slavery practiced within the confines of the new nation be completely outlawed. However, they continued to argue that the Constitution should prohibit the states from participating in the international slave trade, including in the importation of new slaves from Africa and the export of slaves to other countries. The Convention postponed making a final decision on the international slave trade until late in the deliberations because of the contentious nature of the issue. During the Convention's late July recess, the Committee of Detail had inserted language that would prohibit the federal government from attempting to ban international slave trading and from imposing taxes on the purchase or sale of slaves. The Convention could not agree on these provisions when the subject came up again in late August, so they referred the matter to an eleven-member committee for further discussion. This committee helped work out a compromise: Congress would have the power to ban the international slave trade, but not for another twenty years (that is, not until 1808). In exchange for this concession, the federal government's power to regulate foreign commerce would be strengthened by provisions that allowed for taxation of slave trades in the international market and that reduced the requirement for passage of navigation acts from two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress to simple majorities.[6]:318–29

text: Three-Fifths Compromise[edit]

text: Another contentious slavery-related question was whether slaves would be counted as part of the population in determining representation of the states in the Congress, or would instead be considered property and as such not be considered for purposes of representation.[33] Delegates from states with a large population of slaves argued that slaves should be considered persons in determining representation, but as property if the new government were to levy taxes on the states on the basis of population.[33] Delegates from states where slavery had become rare argued that slaves should be included in taxation, but not in determining representation.[33] Finally, delegate James Wilson proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise.[28] This was eventually adopted by the Convention.

text: Framers of the Constitution[edit]

text: Fifty-five delegates attended sessions of the Constitutional Convention, and are considered the Framers of the Constitution, although only 39 delegates actually signed.[34][35] The states had originally appointed 70 representatives to the Convention, but a number of the appointees did not accept or could not attend, leaving 55 who would ultimately craft the Constitution.[34]

text: Almost all of the 55 Framers had taken part in the Revolution, with at least 29 having served in the Continental forces, most in positions of command.[36] All but two or three had served in colonial or state government during their careers.[6]:65 The vast majority (about 75%) of the delegates were or had been members of the Confederation Congress, and many had been members of the Continental Congress during the Revolution.[21]:25 Several had been state governors.[6]:65[36] Just two delegates, Roger Sherman and Robert Morris, would be signatories to all three of the nation's founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.[36]

text: More than half of the delegates had trained as lawyers (several had even been judges), although only about a quarter had practiced law as their principal means of business. There were also merchants, manufacturers, shippers, land speculators, bankers or financiers, two or three physicians, a minister, and several small farmers.[6]:65–68[36] Of the 25 who owned slaves, 16 depended on slave labor to run the plantations or other businesses that formed the mainstay of their income. Most of the delegates were landowners with substantial holdings, and most, with the possible exception of Roger Sherman and William Few, were very comfortably wealthy.[6]:66–67 George Washington and Robert Morris were among the wealthiest men in the entire country.[36]

text:
Connecticut

Oliver Ellsworth*
William Samuel Johnson
Roger Sherman

Delaware

Richard Bassett
Gunning Bedford, Jr.
Jacob Broom
John Dickinson
George Read

Georgia

Abraham Baldwin
William Few
William Houstoun*
William Pierce*

Maryland

Daniel Carroll
Luther Martin*
James McHenry
John Francis Mercer*
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer

Massachusetts

Elbridge Gerry*
Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King
Caleb Strong*

New Hampshire

Nicholas Gilman
John Langdon

New Jersey

David Brearley
Jonathan Dayton
William Houston*
William Livingston
William Paterson

New York

Alexander Hamilton
John Lansing, Jr.*
Robert Yates*

North Carolina

William Blount
William Richardson Davie*
Alexander Martin*
Richard Dobbs Spaight
Hugh Williamson

Pennsylvania

George Clymer
Thomas Fitzsimons
Benjamin Franklin
Jared Ingersoll
Thomas Mifflin
Gouverneur Morris
Robert Morris
James Wilson

South Carolina

Pierce Butler
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
John Rutledge

Virginia

John Blair
James Madison
George Mason*
James McClurg*
Edmund Randolph*
George Washington
George Wythe*

Rhode Island Rhode Island did not send delegates to the Convention.

text: (*) Did not sign the final draft of the U.S. Constitution. Randolph, Mason, and Gerry were the only three present in Philadelphia at the time who refused to sign.

text: Several prominent Founders are notable for not participating in the Constitutional Convention. Thomas Jefferson was abroad, serving as the minister to France (nonetheless, Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams, would describe the delegates approvingly as a gathering of "demi-gods").[37]:13 John Adams was in Britain, serving as minister to that country, but he wrote home to encourage the delegates. Patrick Henry refused to participate because he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy." Also absent were John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Many of the states' older and more experienced leaders may have simply been too busy with the local affairs of their states to attend the Convention,[6]:65 which had originally been planned to strengthen the existing Articles of Confederation, not to write a constitution for a completely new national government.