Have you ever wondered why the constitution was made by our founding fathers? Well there was a couple reasons, first off the constitution was meant to replace the Articles of Confederation, which granted little power to the federal government. Also to limit the power of federal government and protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Although the main reason was to change the Articles of Confederation because it lacked separations of power because they had a unicameral legislature. Another reason was it had little power in central government, which meant central government had no authority to tax, so they couldn’t raise money for common defense or regulate interstate trade. Since the Article of Confederations wasn’t that organized, our founding fathers decided to write the …show more content…
With the Constitution now, all the systems listed have written rules that people can appeal to reach agreement on how to work together to solve problems. Although the disadvantage of it is that complexity of modern issues makes most policy decisions beyond the intellectual capacity of any system composed of human beings. Also too many people are not educated well enough to appreciate the limits on what government can do, which does not include everything we might want it to do. If there was adjustments I would make to the constitution it would be adding an amendment where we balance our budget where the cost of servicing the national debt would be excluded. Congress must reduce spending proportionately across areas of the federal budget and that tax increases must maintain the present progressivity of the tax code, phased in within ten years of the amendment’s passage. With this change it will help society decrease interest rates, making it easier for businesses and individuals to invest, and increase savings and investment, which would provide security to individuals. I believe
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
The first way that the Constitution helped with the weaknesses of the United States were the different ways it made passing laws more fair. When amending a document the Articles of Confederation needed 13 out of 13 people to approve of the document. The Constitution provided a more reasonable way by having ⅔ of both houses and ¾ of the state legislature. This is a better method because not 100% of people are going to agree on everything. The same type of thing worked when passing laws. 9/13 people needed to approve in the Articles of Confederation while it’s now 50% +1 of both houses plus the signature of the President. This allows for things to be more fair and it makes sure everyone in power somewhat agrees on what is going on and not just a couple of people are deciding on what the citizens new laws will be.
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two very important guidelines of government that shaped the political minds of the Americans. Mainly because these guidelines limited, or expanded the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The Articles of Confederation were a series of laws that gave more power to the state government than the federal government. As a result, the federal government could not enforce laws or levy taxes. After Shay’s Rebellion, the Founding Fathers realized that a change was necessary. So the Constitution was created. The most important change of the Constitution was that the majority of power was then shifted into the hands of the federal or central government. This allowed the federal
Created on November 15, 1777 and ratified by the first 13 colonies on March 1, 1781, the articles of confederation is known for being the first constitution of the united states. “The constitution provides a division of powers, meaning it assigns certain powers to the national government and reserves others for the states.” (crouse, slide 4) The constitution is needed because if we didn't have it the government would be weak and would most likely have no power. Framers of the constitution chose a system of government on a territorial basis, between a central government and several states. “ the framers were worried about the government being too powerful because; government power inevitably poses a threat to individual liberty. Therefore the
If an issue raises between states Articles states to use the system of negotiation. Now the federal court deals with state to state issues. With passing laws before the Constitution, the Articles wanted 9/13 to pass any law. After it states 50%+1 of both of the houses plus the president needs to sign it. Also in the Articles term limit for legislative office is no more than three out of every six years. In the constitution there isn’t a term limit. The Chair of legislature is the president according to the Articles but in the constitution, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Vice President of the Senate.
The United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation because the document lacks the complete effectiveness to govern a body of people. The initial Constitution (articles of confederation) asked a lot from its colonies that wasn’t reciprocated. The articles were all over the place in-structure, causing many discrepancies. Within less than a decade its weakness in the ability to govern a body of people and required complete restructure, if the people were to move forward. At a time when the new states were operating on their own no longer under British rule.
The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.
The Articles of Confederation was a sort of rough draft for the Constitution of the United States. Written in 1781, it set the basis of our country’s government during the Revolutionary war and gave power to the states. The founding fathers of the Articles were fearful of losing the rights of the people as they had with Britain, and therefore did not grant the central government the power to tax. Nonetheless, the states were believed to hold too much sovereignty, for the Articles of Confederation was revised after a short period of only six years. This revision gave birth to the Constitution in 1887 and with it, a stronger central government. Even so, this change in power was not favorable for every citizen of the United States. A particular
Before the U.S Constitution was ever set in motion, there was a constitution called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation followed after America gained their independence from the British. This constitution gave limited power to a central government, and gave state governments, major authority. Whereas the new constitution intended to generate a powerful government in which various states could unite under a central authority. The administration of the new government wanted to implement new approaches to help expand to Western lands and to develop a stronger economy. However, the fact that the new government was federal and not state, angered many people. So, with countless crowds opposing the new government, why were
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 Constitution devotes the national domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare and to liberty” (Maier 154). This quote, stated by William Henry Seward, displays the strength and stability that the Constitution had over the nation, and the liberty and justice it supplied for all of its citizens. Although the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation have similarities, they have many differences, which proved that the Articles of Confederation were a weaker document in comparison. It can be said that the Articles were the “rough draft” to the final living document, which significantly influenced and “ruled” our government, as it still does today.
The Articles of Confederation was written to create a new government after the British were chased away. The Articles gave more power to the state governments and made the central government weaker. The founding fathers were still not willing to give power to one person thus letting state governments have more power. The government also provided each state with one vote in the Congress and nine out of thirteen states had to agree for a law to be passed. The main purpose of the Articles was to “form a perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” (Sabato 63). The Constitution is similar to the Articles
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
The constitution and bill of rights one sees today is not the original constitution of America. After the Revolutionary war, the Article of Confederation emerged as the ruling government of the new nation of United States of America. Not only did the article have it weak points but also it proved not to be able to work and govern the new nation. The Article of Confederation had powers to, “declare war and make peace, to make treaties and alliances, to coin money or borrow money…” (Ginsbery, 2015 page 35). Other than a handful of powers the new nation needed a new constitution to hold the new nation together. As the debate of the nature of federalism, which emerges after the Revolutionary War, can be tied to the weak Article of Confederation, which showed just how
The U.S. Constitution is an ageless book of wisdom written by James Madison to establish a federal government and to balance the legislative, executive, and judicial powers. In the book, A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country by Larry Sabato, he develops 23 proposals to bring our Constitution up to date. In order for this to happen, we would have to have another Constitutional Convention. In my opinion, the United States needs to have another Constitutional Convention to make a more perfect Union by making a more perfect Constitution. We need to apply the wisdom developed by the founders in the Preamble to the new demands of a very different country than the one that existed