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English Bill of Rights
It limited the power of the English sovereign, and was written as an act of Parliament. The King and Queen William and Mary of Orange accepted the English Bill of Rights as a condition of their rule. It asserted that Englishmen had certain inalienable civil and political rights. -
Albany Plan of Union Adopted
It was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. I twas adopted by the sven of the Biritsh North American colonies, but it was never carried out. It was the first plan to consider the states as a collective under one government. -
Boston Massacre
Tensions were running high between the American colonists and the British, since troops first appeared in Massachusetts October 1768. While the British were there to keep order, the colonists felt threatened by their precense. The afternoon of Mar. 5, an insult was hurled at an officer, who in turn hit that person on the ear with the butt of his rifle. It boiled ovr into an angry mob hurling snowballs at the troops, who then fired into the crow, killing five men. -
Articles of Confederation Adopted
The Articles were were adopted by the Continetal Congress in Nov. 15, 1777, but was not ratified by the 13 colonies until March 1, 1781. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government. Most of the power was established within the state governments. It was the first constitution of the US. -
Shay's Rebellion
A bloody confrontation at Springfield, Mass. by farmers against the state government due to innaction by the state senate to enact reforms, The farmers wanted the state senate to issue paper money and to stop foreclosure of porperty and their imprisonment for dept as a result of high land taxes. The rebellion forced Washington and others to rethink the Confederation system. I t helped to transform the US from a government of state authority to based on the authority of citizens. -
Philadelphia Convention (begins)
The Convention was organized via strong encouragement from six of the states to revise the Articles of Confederation into a more powerful document. With the Artilces, the Continental Congress had very little authority to enforce laws upon individuals or the state as well as no power to levy taxes. There were 55 delegates representing 12 states in order to develop a new constitution for ratification by the states. -
The Virginia Plan
It proposed a strong central government composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. It was drafted by James Madison, and presented by Edmund Randolph to the Constitutional Convention. For the legislature. it discussed having two houses: one with members elected by the people for three-year terms and the other composed of older leaders elected by the state legislatures for seven-year terms. -
New Jersey Plan
William Paterson led a New Jersey delegation to offer an alternative to the Virginia Plan. It's aim was to protect the security and power of the small states by limiting each state to one vote in Congress. The smaller states preferred this plan, while the larger states wanted the Viriginia plan. These two plans came together to form the Great Compromise which was proposed on June 12th.
