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Creation of the US constitution
Us constitution history essay
The american constitution: its origins and development summary
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The United States Constitution is the document embodying the laws and principles by which our country is governed, and the founders who established it fought doubt and opposition to have it ratified. These federalists believed in a new form of government to unite the divided states into one country. The government would have one executive leader, with divided powers and rights reserved to the states. Following the months long Constitutional Convention, a system was finally decided. Before the constitution, the nation comprised of states governing themselves like independent countries, but they were still joined under a confederation. There was no president or judicial branch, and the powers of central government were limited. By 1787, the …show more content…
It was missing important components needed to hold the country together, and the federalists believed they needed a new and different government to keep the states together. Anti-federalists felt the constitution would give the federal government too much power. The idea of replacing the Articles all together was controversial; people didn’t want all their hard work to be for nothing. And even if they did write the Constitution; what if It didn’t work and the Articles of the Confederation were already …show more content…
On the first day of the convention, he had the Virginian governor, Edmund Randolph, read off his 3-part plan, called the “Virginia Plan”. He proposed the 3 branches of government; Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The first would create laws, and states with bigger populations would have more votes than smaller ones. The second would consist of the president, who would enforce the laws the legislative branch makes. He would be elected by U.S citizens and the electoral college. The third would be a court system, who interpret the laws according to the constitution. Madison believed there should be a system of checks and balances so no branch had more power than the
The Anti-Federalist Party, led by Patrick Henry, objected to the constitution. They objected to it for a few basic reasons. Mostly the Anti-Federalists thought that the Constitution created too strong a central government. They felt that the Constitution did not create a Federal government, but a single national government. They were afraid that the power of the states would be lost and that the people would lose their individual rights because a few individuals would take over. They proposed a “Bill of Rights”, to make sure the citizens were protected by the law. They believed that no Bill of Rights would be equal to no check on our government for the people.
The United States constitution set a foundation for the structure of our government today. The founding fathers went through trial and error, and many compromises in order give order and structure to both the government and to the people. The first initial constitution called the Article of Confederation made the central government weak and gave individual states too much power. In the Article of Confederation, there was only one branch and were not able to collect taxes. The government was only able to receive donations. However, each individual states printed their own currency, and too much money which caused an economic turmoil or inflation. In addition, each individual states had their own army in which caused the mentality of being a union of individual state, instead of union of a country. The national government on the other
In the late 1700’s, men gathered to give the United States a written plan of government. This was meant to replace the Articles of Confederation, a weaker form of government. They called this new plan the Constitution. Federalists supported the idea of a stronger national government, while Anti-Federalists opposed the plan. The Framers came to agreements and made compromises; in the end, mostly everybody was happy with their new form of government.
Three of these compromises were the Virginia plan, the New Jersey plan, and the Great Compromise. Edmund Randolf and James Madison led the Virginia plan. The Virginia plan called for a strong central government with three branches. These branches were the legislative branch that passed laws, the executive branch that carried them out, and the judicial branch that made sure that they were carried out fairly. They also proposed that the legislative branch would consist
The Anti-Federalists were not in favor of ratifying the new Constitution. Some Anti-Federalists wanted to keep the Articles of Confederation, others wanted to add some things and change some things in the new Constitution before they agreed to ratify it. Some very important Anti-Federalist’s were Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. Anti-Federalists tended to be poorer and in lower classes than the Federalists. These people feared a central government and were afraid that the government proposed by the new Constitution could easily turn into a tyranny. The Federalists argued that the United States needed a strong central government in order to stand a chance against foreign powers, amongst other reasons that were all beneficial
The delegates agreed that the new government would be composed of three separate branches, based on ideals enumerated in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government: legislative, judicial, and executive, each with distinct powers to balance those of the other two branches. It was also agreed that the legislative branch, like the British Parliament, and the state legislatures (except Pennsylvania's), should consist of two houses.
Before the adoption of the United States Constitution, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation. These articles stated that almost every function of the government was chartered by the legislature known as Congress. There was no distinction between legislative or executive powers. This was a major shortcoming in how the United States was governed as many leaders became dissatisfied with how the government was structured by the Articles of Confederation. They felt that the government was too weak to effectively deal with the upcoming challenges. In 1787, an agreement was made by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a national judiciary needed to be established. This agreement became known as The Constitution of the United States, which explicitly granted certain powers to each of the three branches of the federal government, while reserving other powers exclusively to the states or to the people as individuals. It is, in its own words, “the supreme Law of the Land” (Shmoop Editorial Team).
The document known as the Constitution acts as the binding fabric of our nation, an embodiment of national identity and a testament to our desire to work together, as one nation, for the pursuit of the values and ideals fought for during the American War of Independence and throughout our history. The Constitution of the United States receives esteem from all corners of the country, both geographically and ideologically, and is considered by most as the document that ensures and exudes the freedom enjoyed in our country based in republican democracy. However, our country was not always united behind such a document. Prior to constitution being made law in 1789, our country was governed by a weak set of documents known as the Articles of Confederation,
The Constitutional Convention was a political assembly that occurred between May and September of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and determined how America was going to be governed. Following the drastic failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Framers gathered, looking toward a new ideal: one with a stronger national government, which would unify the states as one sovereign country. Prompted by the outset of the majority of its proponents, the conference had unanimously concurred the creation of a constitution, which directed the new government. However, the drafting process of the composition was greatly debated, as economic differences between the states created many conflicts.
The first attempt to create national government failed The Article of Confederation was unsuccessfully. Most power was concentrated on the states’ level, so the national government was lack of authority. The framers of the Constitution understood that people would not accept a centralized government which holds ultimate authority like the British tyranny. Therefore, the National Constitution promised “systematic changes” of government (Wood, 154) and thus created a federalist government with three different branches to avoid tyranny. The main concept of it is based on James Madison’s views of how government should be organized.
one of the major compromises that was addresses at the Constitutional Convention was how congress would be represented between the small states and big states. The small states wanted each state to have the same number of representatives in Congress. The big states wanted representation based on population. During the drafting of the Constitution James Madison suggested that instead of starting a new federal constitution that they just revise the original Articles of Confederation coming up with a proposal that would be one of the opening discussion. The proposal he prepared would put the Virginia Plan which called for the New Congress to be divided into two houses (pg. 191), and New Jersey Plan sought to keep the existing structure of equal
The Constitutional Convention, which met from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is among the most important gatherings in America’s history. It is on this date that the modern day Constitution was spawned from the revisions of the original Articles of Confederation. These revisions were justified by the fact that the Articles of Confederation produced an inefficient government, lacking a strong federal branch and set of laws. The Constitution, however, produces an effective government by mending the flaws of the old Articles and by adhering to the peoples and states needs while also maintaining a strong federal administration through a system of checks and balances. The founding fathers agreed that the ratification
The Constitutional Convention took place on May 25 to September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.George Washington presided over the convention. The purpose of the Constitutional Convention was to decide the way that America were going to be governed. The Convention was officially called to revise the existing Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention acknowledged the complications of the frail central government that prevailed under the Articles of Confederation.
A constitution is the system of fundamental principles according to which a nation is governed. Our founding fathers created the US Constitution to set specific standards for our country. We must ask ourselves why our founding fathers created the Constitution in the first place. America revolted against the British due to their monarchy form of government. After the American Revolution, each of the original 13 colonies operated under its own rules of government. Most states were against any form of centralized rule from the government. They feared that what happened in England would happen again. They decided to write the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified in 1781. It was not effective and it led to many problems. The central government could not regulate commerce between states, deal with foreign governments or settle disputes. The country was falling apart at its seams. The central government could not provide assistance to the state because there wasn’t a central army. When they realized that the Articles of Confederation was not up to par, they held a convention, known as the Constitutional Convention of 1787. As a result of t...
The Constitution is the greatest document in American history. It has pushed for progressiveness and equality. The Constitution is basically the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution was written to organize a strong national government for the American states. Before the Constitution, the nation's leaders had established a national government under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles gave independence to each state; the states lacked authority, the ability to work together, and to solve national problems. The U.S. Constitution established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens using five big ideas and this shaped today's America.