Founding Fathers Beliefs

In comparing Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists, The Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Constitution, it is evident that the basis of all three documents is the idea that all human beings possess God-given fundamental rights and that government is created to protect those rights. The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, is the first of the three documents penned. This is important because it defined the rights of liberty and equality of all American citizens as outlined in John Locke’s natural law thesis (Martin, page 113). In addition to providing an itemized account of the grievances colonist’s held against King George III of England, it served to justify the colonist’s quest for independence and separation from British rule. The Declaration of Independence conveyed to the crown that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, which among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Founders’ of the New World understood that their pursuit of liberties and autonomy specified in the Declaration of Independence could not come to fruition without instituting decrees. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution, was written to replace the Articles of Confederation with a better defined series of stringent laws that would legally uphold the freedoms and privileges established in the Declaration of Independence. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in

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 Articles of Confederation, Adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777, for all practical purposes was the United States’ first Constitution. Created to establish a bond between the newly formed states, “...the Articles purposely established a "constitution" that vested the largest share of power to the individual states” (Early America). This ensured that the government did not have the majority of power. “...the Articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws...allowing the states retained their "sovereignty, freedom and independence” (Early

In May 1787, the Founding Fathers, who were made up of 55 delegates from one of the 13 states besides Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia for what would come to be called the Constitutional Convention [BRE]. When they met they intended to fix the consitution that was already in place, which was called the Articles of Confederation. This document had many weaknesses which ultimatly led to its downfall: it only had a legislative branch, so it could not hold trials or enforce laws, it could not raise taxes (it was able to raise money, however to do this the legislative branch had to ask the states for funds), it could not draft an army, so the federal government would have to use state militia, it could not control interstate or foreign commmerce,

Following the creation of the United States of America, a constitution of laws was desperately needed to create firm unity in the young nation. The original constitution that the Congress brought forth was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation left most of the power with the state governments, which many people approved of. However, many problems were created by this law of the land. A convention was called in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the Articles where they eventually scrapped it and wrote a new, but similar in ideals, document which is now known as the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution was, in fact, very different from the Articles of Confederation. So much so that they do not even appear to be similar in any

When delegates met in 1787 they aimed to create a new constitution for a stronger central government. The delegates deemed the older Articles of Confederation weak because there was no court system and government didn't have enough power to tax the states. The delegates decided to draft a new governing document because they needed a stronger central government.The previous governmental charter, the Articles of Confederation, failed because did not guard against tyranny and had a weak stronger government..Anti-federalists and Federalists pushed for a government that was strong enough to hold the states and the people without letting

The Constitution was created so one person or group wasn’t able to get too much power. At first, the Articles of Confederation was made. The Articles of Confederation was not working because the central government didn’t have enough power to protect the nation. The Constitution was made in order to hold the states together and the people together, and make sure the government doesn’t gain too much power. The Constitution guards against tyranny. Tyranny is “The accumulation of all powers…in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many” (Federalism Paper #47). The Constitution guards against tyranny by separation of powers, creating federalism, and having checks and balances.

The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. Although, it established a weak central government, it contributed to U.S principles because The Articles of Confederation were the basis of the first government of the United States of America. The Articles were essentially the “training wheels” of the government; it was a learning point to create something much greater which became the Constitution. The problems that this weak document created, combined with the Confederation government’s ineffectual response to Shays’ Rebellion, convinced national leaders that a more powerful central government was necessary.

After the American Revolution, states from the thirteen colonies came together to modify the Articles of Confederation. In this meeting, the authors of the Constitution rewrote the Articles of Confederation creating the Constitution, and a new government which altered the United States forever. The Articles needed to be revised to the Constitution because they were weak.

“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power” (Madison, Federalist Paper No. 63). After the Colonists gained their freedom from Great Britain, delegates from the colonies gathered and drafted the first written body of law for the United States, the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation had many flaws, like not instituting an Executive branch to enforce laws and not allowing Congress to tax Americans. It created a weak central government . Realizing this, fifty five delegates representing twelve out of thirteen states, met up in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation. Too many disagreements upon revising this document led the delegates to draft a brand new document, the United States Constitution. The constitution was made to divide power equally among the states’ and central government, while also giving the people power and preserving their rights. The United States’ Constitution, thus, . The constitution prevented the United States from being ruled by tyrants and/or corrupt leaders because it adapted the concept of federalism, created a separation of powers among the branches of government, applied a checks-and-balances system to the branches of its government, and compromised the needs of big states and small states.

During the American Revolution, Congress wanted to have a government that was powerful enough to defeat Great Britain, so they put in place Articles of Confederation as a guide for the way the country would be run, but there were several problems with that, one of which was the government having too much control. On May 14, 1787 The Federal Convention had a meeting in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation. They met in secret, and only two of the 13 colonies showed up for the vote. They decided they would call it The Constitution of the United States, but still not everyone was satisfied.

The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution are all documents that the founding fathers created to start the new world. Although these documents were created years ago, today we as Americans still read and live by many of the ideas the founding fathers had. Like the right to free speech, as well as the most popular quote in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Today we are living with many philosophical ideas the founding fathers had and wrote in the founding documents, as well as some ideas that wouldn’t work with today’s times.

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 Founders' test, as they based on their involvement with a national government under the Articles of Confederation, was to build up an administration that was not all that intense that individuals could utilize it to seek after their own advantages to the detriment of other individuals' rights. Therefore, they settled on what is known as an established republic. That is the reason they separated our administration's energy between official, authoritative, and legal branches. It is additionally why they split Congress into two bodies. The Founders enabled this Congress to make laws, yet gave the energy of directing those laws to the president and the official branch. Isolate from these was the Supreme Court, its individuals selected by the president yet with the Senate's endorsement. The Constitution was designed with the goal that the contending desire of government authorities and in addition the contending aspirations of various branches and levels of government would work to frame an arrangement of balanced governance.

The Articles of Confederation were approved by all the early American states in 1781, but by 1787, it was apparent that the Articles were insufficient for the young nation to operate on. A convention was formed with the priority job being to revise the Articles of Confederation; however, they only concluded that an entire new structure was needed to fulfill the demands of the growing country. The Constitution was then born. The Constitution provided the structure of government and power that was needed to achieve a strong union. This structure “saved” the American republic from collapse while under the Articles of Confederation.