Emily Alexander
Pima Community College
March 9, 2015
The Constitution of the United States
After gaining independence from Britain, America was faced with the challenge of creating a new government for the people of the American colonies. The Founding Fathers first created the Articles of Confederation but after much criticism the Founding Fathers met again and created the Constitution of the United States. The Founding Fathers wanted to form a government that was unlike the British government they broke away from. They set up a government that had checks and balances so that one government branch would not grow too powerful and take over. A federal government and state governments were establish to satisfy the needs
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The Founding Fathers had no right to draft the Constitution. They were delegates that were sent to revise the Articles of confederation. “Though authorized only to propose amendments to the article, the convention resolved to scrap them entirely and propose a brand new constitution” (Currie, 1). The Constitution should not have had the effect that it did. It is now the document that the entire United States runs on. The constitution should have been looked at as a political philosophy, an idea of what a government should look like. Had the situation been different the constitution would have been seen as just a philosophy but because the United States had just gained its independence from Britain and was in desperate need of some form of government the constitution took over. The constitution was not created without much debate. Founding Father faced the debate of how much power the national government had and how much power the state government had. The Federalist wanted a strong national government but the Anti-Federalist wanted the states to have power. An agreement was reached and the federal government was given the sole power of foreign affairs and coining money. Today states are able to make laws based off of what their citizens and representatives see fit; for example some states such as in Arizona allow for the death penalty whereas other states have ruled it to be illegal. The United States government was formed in a way that
The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the
During the American Revolution, the founding fathers wrote the Articles Confederation, a written set of laws that intended to provide a framework for government. The Articles of Confederation failed to create an effective form of government and could not promote stability for the nation. In 1787, 55 delegates met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. The result was an entirely new document, the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution addressed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, promote unity through compromise, and established a framework for government that effectively promotes the ideals of American Government.
They decided to create the Articles of Confederation, a constitution that gave little power to the federal government and a large amount to the individual states. This created weaknesses in the U.S.A. They had found out that the Article of Confederation created a central government that was too weak to really do what was needed. The framers also chose federalism as a way from preventing tranny, and that was so not needed. They wanted to split up the power of government between the states and the central government so that neither level of government could become too powerful. They felt like splitting up power was a good way to protect people from a government tranny.
After America gained their independence from the British, the founding fathers would create a new form of government named the Articles of Confederation. They had met in Philadelphia to adopt this first official constitution in September of 1777, however, it was not ratified until March of 1781. There were two main purposes of the Articles of Confederation. The first one had been to create unity amongst the colonies, while the second purpose was to prove to the French, along with other foreign countries, that America had a structured government. They needed to win over allies and set their borders. The Articles of Confederation were effective in solving some of the new nation’s problems to an extent. It had been effective in securing American independence and settling disputes over land.
The creation of a government takes time and goes through many failures and successes. The Articles of Confederation, while being the first attempt at a new government fails by trying to keep revolutionary ideals, but not giving the national government enough power. With the Articles failing a new national government was needed. The Constitution was created to fix the failures of the Articles, but this was a gradual process, the state representatives creating it looked towards the past, by putting in revolutionary ideals, to build it.
The Articles of Confederation was created to give the federal government reduced power compared to the states. Before the Articles of Confederation was written, the American Revolution was fought against an authoritarian empire, England. Consequently, the American colonists didn't want another tyrant empire to rule them, they wanted control. A written constitution was constructed to give the states more power over the federal government. States retained control and power over
The Constitution was established under the disquietude of the colonies in an endeavor to escape the idea of the English monarchy. The Founding fathers no longer wanted an excessive amount of control in the hands of the government. In order to limit the power of the federal government the Founding Fathers created the three branches, checks and balances, and the Bill of Rights.
In 1787 our founding father met in Philadelphia to talk about the situation that was happening in our society, therefore the Articles of Confederations were not working. How did the founding fathers set about ensuring that one one or group can control all the States? So after a long discussion, they made a decision to throw out the The Article of Confederation and make a new and improved Constitution. The Constitution consist of Federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances and Large States vs. Small States. The Constitutional guard against tyrannies first way, is Federalism.
The U.S. Constitution was written based off of many different events. After the Declaration of Independence was ratified July 4, 1776, Americans created the Articles of Confederation. The Articles failed because they gave more power to the states than to the country united. There were about 13 different currencies, so buying items from other states was rough. There was no President or National Courts.
A few hundred years ago, the United States first Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was created. This Constitution created a weak central government in order to give the people the rights that they deserve. This plan of government, however, proved to be too weak and it could not control the people or pay the debts that the country had acquired from the Revolutionary War.
The U.S Constitution was established in the United States government September 17, 1787 by signing this document it was supposed to be a guaranteed document that allows all United State Citizen basic rights. The Constitution was created by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, George Washington played a major role in helping creating the first draft of the Constitution. The reason why the leader came together was because a lot of the states were operating like they were independent countries. During the 1787 convention, delegates devised a plan for a stronger federal government with three branches executive, legislative and judicial with a system of checks and balance to ensure that not just one branch of government would have too much
After the American Revolution, the newly founded independent country needed stability and unification in government, so the continental congress drafted the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation focused on the ideas of independence and was geared towards the states sovereignty because many feared the federal government becoming to powerful. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses and later showed the fragility in having a weak central government leading the country to eventually “revise” the articles ( more like just tossed it out the door) and created the Constitution that many of us know today.
Our founding fathers were trying to set up an entirely new style government that had never been attempted before. Our founding fathers had to figure out how to make a strong government, but yet flexible government, to last the test of time. Not only were the Articles of Confederation the first document of its kind, but I feel as if it were a “trial and error” style of document. What I mean by “trial and error” is the founding fathers were trying to figure out who got powers and what type of power did they receive. It was not realized until after the end of the Revolutionary War that the founding fathers had separated the powers unevenly. Once the founding fathers realized that they did not distribute power evenly they knew that the Articles either needed change or a new constitution was needed. This is why I feel as that having the Article of Confederation before the Constitution was a greatly important part to every American
The founding fathers wanted to create a constitution because many believed that the national government had to be stronger than what it had been with the use of the Articles of Confederation. But at the same time they were fearful of human nature and how often it could be seen in the history of other countries such as Britain, for people in the position of power to infringe on the rights of others, by becoming hungry with power. Taking this into account, they wanted to create a government with another power to keep order and to govern. But also make sure there were sufficient checks put in
In the 1700s when the United States had detached itself from British rule it was then seen as a plutocracy. The U.S established as a democracy; a government of the people and by the people. However, this establishment was in favor of the rich, educated, and powerful and anyone who was categorized or known as elites and it has remained in favor of these people ever since. Yes we can say we have witnessed variations and seen a semi-democratic rise in the past two centuries, but we have remained a plutocracy hidden behind the word that people use to cover its true identity, democracy. Those like the framers, the public opinion role, interest groups, and money all portray our hidden plutocracy.