The Constitution And The Federal Government

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

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,

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.

There were many reasons for the constitution. The first reason for the constitution was that the Articles of Confederation were weak. The Articles only focused on the states individually and not as a whole country. The second reason was that the federal government needed to be limited. The federal government was too powerful for the country and so they created the constitution. The third reason was the purpose of a constitution itself. They need a document to protect the natural rights. Those rights are liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness. We also were granted the right to protect

The Constitution was created in 1781 to solve the problems that the Articles of Confederation had created within the national government. There were two different reactions to the creation of the new government, Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Federalists were the colonists who agreed with the Constitution and believed that we needed a strong national government, while the Anti-Federalists were against the new government and instead wanted to keep the separate state governments. During this time, Anti-Federalists were mostly made up of farmers, while Federalists were wealthy merchants who had more experience with government ideas. The Anti-Federalists believed that there were certain issues in the Constitution that could not be ignored, but

The United States Constitution was created in fear of protecting the people that it governed from the government itself. The Framers pursued the Constitution to prevent the government that they had left behind, the Monarchy of England. After the failed Articles of Confederation, they needed a strong, balanced federal government. Leaving tyrannical England where leaders were not held accountable, disparaging towards natural rights, and lack of consent from the people it governs. The Framers were able to cultivate a constitution dedicated towards the people. They believed that consent from the governed was the only way to create legitimate governance. The Framers laid out a Constitution that would provide for a strong, national government

Although the Articles of the Confederation became known as the United States’ first written constitution, it did not became ratified by all states until after four years after it was adopted and only lasted for 12 years until it was later replaced with the Constitution we used today. The Articles did set a foundation for our modern day constitution but in its early stages posed serious problems that lead to the drafting of a new constitution. Some of those problems included vesting the entire central government within just Congress (lack of Executive, and Judicial Branch), giving central government very limited power on how it handled state to state affair, and lack of national army because the army was composed of state militias. The articles

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

After the American Revolution, the newly founded independent country needed stability and unification in government, so the continental congress drafted the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation focused on the ideas of independence and was geared towards the states sovereignty because many feared the federal government becoming to powerful. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses and later showed the fragility in having a weak central government leading the country to eventually “revise” the articles ( more like just tossed it out the door) and created the Constitution that many of us know today.

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 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

Before the United States had the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation. The articles of confederation was basically stating that each form of government was functioned by congress. The articles of confederation was a huge breakthrough until many leaders became dissatisfied with how the government was centered around the articles of confederation. Around this time the U.S. really didn’t have a strong government to deal with all the challenges that lay up ahead. In 1787 an arrangement was made that the delegates at the time come up with a judiciary at the constitutional convention.

One reason why states rights are emphasized in the Articles of Confederation is America’s weariness of strong, oppressive figures governing over smaller groups. This was in reference to the American oppression by the British and the ensuing American Revolution. America was fearful that if there were to be one commanding power of the nation that the result would be a repetition of history. Whig ideology was the basic foundation of the Articles of Confederation, which explains why there is a strong distrust of executive authority, resulting in the federation having minimal power over states. There was a deep desire of strict separation of powers, resulting in a schism between the states and federal government understanding and cooperating with each other. There was no executive branch to delegate over the Union, which allowed an abundance of freedom for the states. The Constitution of 1787 solved this issue by establishing a separation of power into 3 branches (legislative, judicial, executive) with a bicameral representation (House of Representatives and the Senate). The new government also has a system of checks and balances where no one branch of government can have any more power than another; each branch is checking to ensure balance over all 3. Previous to the Constitution, it was very difficult for all the states to come to a unanimous 9/13 decision when trying to

Federalists argued that the national government only had the power specifically to it under the Constitution. Federalists also, argued that, by separating the basic powers of government into three separate and equal branches and not rewarding too much power to any singular person or group, the Constitution provided balance and stopped the potential for any tyranny