Competing Ideas of the Constitution

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On September 15, 1787, the delegates at the Philadelphia convention agreed on a document that would cause great change in America, the Constitution. Some Americans agreed with this idea of having a reformed Articles of Confederation. Others feared that this new document would stifle the growth of the new nation even more than the Articles of Confederation. Certain citizens even feared the effect the Constitution would have on their rights.The decision of whether to ratify this Constitution became a point of between the people of America and caused debates among the Americans. Nevertheless, protecting the rights of the people was the most important concern of America, which affected the choices of the nation.

One view Americans had of the Constitution was that it would unify the nation. The Constitution proposed a strong federal government and that these people believed would protect the affairs of the nation, while still granting some power to state government. The people for this option also agreed with the system of government that the Constitution formed, which was a number of branches that used checks and balances to protect the government and the citizen from being controlled by one person. These officials would be “leaders of wisdom, experience, justice, and virtue” and would only be able to serve limited terms. Those that agreed with the Constitution wished to ratify the document as soon as possible to fix the civil conflicts that were appearing in the nation.

This approach to the Constitution had both strengths and weaknesses. The proposal of creating a strong federal government would definitely help the nation. A strong central government would help unify the nation under one rule. A federal government wo...

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... nation without a form of centralized government or the Constitution, but there were still faults in this idea. One of the main concerns was federal government, many believed that there should only be power in the states. While a state government can better judge the needs of its citizens, this may disunify the nation into creating separate countries. Not only that, but without a federal government to settle conflicts between states, there could be an escalation into war among them. The supporters of this idea had the hope that the people will have more power without the Constitution. The thought was that by creating a government “around the common citizen” those who are in office will have a “character of virtue” that America and its people could trust. Creating a government like so would ensure a protection of the American citizens’ rights and liberties.

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