James Madison and Benjamin Franklin

James Madison studied both ancient and modern confederacies and decided that the confederacy wouldn’t last if it only made rules to direct the state. The confederacy had to be good for the individuals of each state. Madison wrote a paper about confederacies and drew up an outline of a new system of government. This outline became the basis of the Virginia Plan. He supported the use of population in order to give larger states …

…the constitution ratified. Benjamin Franklin was an old man and was in poor health but he was well known and respected. People listened to what he had to say. Even though he didn’t lead the debates and had someone else read his speech, when he called for the constitution to be ratified unanimously it was. Even though these two leaders were very different, they were both important in preparing and getting the constitution ratified.