Charles Beard’s Article, Framing the Constitution

In Charles A. Beard’s “Framing the Constitution”, we see some really good arguments. The first argument we come across is him saying how there was two great parties at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. He goes into detail by saying that one party lays an emphasis on strength and efficiency. While the other focuses on its popular features. He goes into detail saying that the men with good moral who led the revolt were the boldest and most radical thinkers.

From 1781 to 1789, the newly created United States of America put its trust in the Articles of Confederation to adequately govern itself in times of war and distress. The Articles of Confederation was the United States’ first attempt at a guideline for creating an effective federal government. It was efficient in holding the new country together during the Revolutionary War and managed to help the country attend to pressing foreign and economic problems right after the war. Although the Articles helped bring about momentous and significant change in one decade, it was not the suitable framework for the federal government to effectively govern the new country over a long period of time.

Following the United States’ independence from Great Britain, delegates from each collective state set out to establish a body to govern the newly formed nation. From this came the Articles of Confederation, which was officially ratified in 1781. The Articles of Confederation proved to be a landmark in government for those days because it was a model of what a loose confederation could be. However, this soon failed because the official

Historians of the mid nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries completely switched gears as they believed that an intent of self-gain and favorability of the wealthy elite spurred the decisions within the Constitution, rather than nationalism and protecting civil rights. Charles Austin Beard, author of An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), was firm in his conviction that the framers set up the Constitution the way they did because of capitalism. Capitalism is almost the opposite of nationalism, the reason being that while nationalism consists of doing good for the whole country, capitalism is protecting one’s individual rights. This is very commonly associated with the protection of personal property. (CAPITALISM)

Charles Beard lived in a time when a vast majority of politicians and economists considered the views of the founding fathers to be infallible. In fact, many people nowadays still believe that to be the case. Beard, however, held a different opinion in regards to their writing of the Constitution. Whereas most people believe that it was written entirely due to the pressing issues concerning the economic state and unity of the country, Beard believed that it was at least in part due to those same politician’s selfish economic interests since all of them were wealthy men. He argued in An Economic Interpretation of the Constitutionthat the way the Constitution’s system of power and representation “were devices for keeping power in the hands of the rich” [1]. He makes an interesting case in his highly controversial book, but one

The Articles of Confederation were the first attempt of the American people to make a national government. The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the United States of America. Under the Articles of Confederation a legislative Congress was the only part of the government. Even though the legislative Congress was the only part of the government, it had no power to force states to do anything against their will. This made the government extremely weak since it was not able to force states to follow laws that were passed or pay taxes.

After gaining independence from England, the Founding Fathers created a government under the Articles of Confederation. This was conceived around an almost powerless central government, and very powerful state governments. However, when the Articles of Confederation failed, they decided it was time for something new. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created major problems which led to the conception of the United States Constitution. There are two flaws of the Articles of Confederation, and building on the first, how two of the decisions made by the Framers of the Constitution fixed issues of the Articles of Confederation.

After the Revolutionary war, the thirteen American Colonies needed a government to replace the British System. The founding Fathers’ first attempt for governance was founded around the Articles of Confederation. In the Article of Confederation it called for a confederacy, which placed sovereign power in the hands of the states. The American government began to be based on powerful state government, and the article of confederation became ineffective at governing American states. The main cause of the ineffective was the lack of a strong central government. This led to economic disorganization, lack of central leadership, and legislative inefficiency. The Articles of Confederation were America 's first failure at government (Brackemyre, 2015).

On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention sent their new constitution to the states for ratification. The Federalists highly approved of the Constitution because it allowed for a more central and powerful government that was previously undermined under the Articles of Confederation. The Anti-Federalists, however, didn’t want a powerful central government, but, instead, powerful state governments; in response to the Constitution, many Anti-Federalists began writing essays and creating pamphlets as a means of arguing against it. In retaliation to the Anti-Federalists attempt at getting states to not ratify the Constitution, many Federalists developed a group of essays known as the Federalist Papers, which argued for the

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” ("Avalon Project - Constitution of the United States : Preamble," n.d.) The constitution divided government authority by giving the national government certain specific powers, and reserving all other powers to the states or the people. The constitution has preserved the basic design of federalism. The constitution grants three types of power to national government. Examples are expressed, implied, and inherent powers;

P1. According to professor Douglas Linder, the delegates assembled in Philadelphia were under no illusions that the constitutional scheme they were struggling to establish was perfect for present circumstances, much less perfect

American economist Charles Beard, wrote an economic interpretation of the Constitution, that shed light on the elite bias it was founded on and supported his statements with credible information. In Beard’s economic interpretation of the Constitution he writes that the Constitution was written for the founding fathers personnel benefits. Through his research on the founding fathers he discovered that the all of delegates had upper class occupations including lawyers, merchants, manufacturers, slave owners, and etcetera. Beard states founding fathers specifically had protection of their personal assets in mind when crafting the document such as; plantation owners wanted to guard slavery, money lenders were against paper money, and the list

Not long after the inception of the Articles of Confederation, it became clear that the several states functioning as independent units would not be able to provide a sufficient defense for the whole country. Following a constitutional convention, the present day Constitution was devised with a federal structure with three co-equal branches endowed with certain enumerated functions. During the period from the Revolution to the Civil war, America's branches of government had always been in constant conflict. However, the period of reconstruction brought this strife to the forefront.

The creation of the United States Constitution can be traced back to those individuals and historic events that spurred a necessary change in the specific role government should play in society. Historical study tends to myopically direct the credit of the United States Constitution to the Founding Fathers when in reality; there were

fifty-five men have recently gathered to create an all-encompassing document to define the laws and principles surrounding our newfound country. They wish for each state to ratify this document that is being called the Constitution. People have been calling the supporters of this new constitution Federalists; however, the intentions of the Constitution are still uncertain for many. There has been intense debate about the intentions of these men writing this new start for our country. Most of these fifty-five men, who have been placed in charge of determining our interests as a country, are all from a very similar background; most of them are wealthy, half are moneylender, many are lawyers. With this group of men, many believe this document