what major agreement did the constitutional convention reach after only five days of meetings
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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 . 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 . '' 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 . 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 .
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 . 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 . '' 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 . 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 .