Mayflower Compact Essay

2216 Words5 Pages

Government in the Colonies The Mayflower compact was the very first example of government in the colonies. When the settlers arrived in America they soon realized that they would need a form of government. On November 11, 1620 forty one english colonists sat down and wrote the Mayflower compact on the ship. This was a very important moment in our country's history, if this did not happen we would not have our country today. Abusive British Treatment In the seventeen hundreds the British were in debt because of wars they fought in the past. The war that they were needing to pay off was the French and Indian war that was fought against the French in America. So when the the British were under pressure to reduce high taxes at home they …show more content…

So in the fall of 1774 twelve of the thirteen colonies sent representatives to a meeting that was in Philadelphia to figure out what they would do about the British Government. This meeting was called the first continental congress. During the meeting the representatives from the colonies each decided to have their own ban on trade with the British to try to get the British government to change their policies with the colonies. But soon after the meeting British officials ordered officers to arrest some of the main colonists leading the meeting in Massachusetts because they said it was an irresponsible act of defiance against the government. This just pushed the colonists closer to declaring war against the British because they were failing to protect their rights. With this many people wanting to declare war on the British. colonist began to form militias called Minute Men, which were men that would be ready in a minutes notice if the British were going to …show more content…

The vote on what plan to use was on June nineteenth. Even though the New Jersey plan was supported the Virginia plan got the majority and continued to be the main idea in forming the new constitution. The main issues that they had to compromise on were the how the amount of representatives should be decided and how much power the national government should have. After the convention the federalists, the people who wanted the ratification of the constitution, wrote the a paper called the Federalist Papers. This article helped explain the reasons for the changes and why they needed to ratify them. The writers of these article were James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. If it wasn’t for them writing these articles the people would not have ratified the constitution and we would not have the government we have

Open Document