The Constitution Of The United States

In 1787, our founding fathers came up with a few principles that would establish what we now know as the United States of America. These principles were put on paper to serve as a guideline for how the United States would be operated and structured. This historical piece paper became known as the Constitution of the United States. In the Constitution, a Preamble is implemented at the beginning that essentially tells what the founding fathers set out to do.

The United States Constitution provides the National Government three distinctive branches of government: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial Branch, each with its own form of powers, duties and roles. Separation of powers and duties within the branches enable them to check and balance one another as well as balance the authority of the other two.

Topic #2. Explain the major points of contention in the writing of the U. S. Constitution.

The US Constitution is made up of three branches, The Legislative, The Executive and The Judicial, each having a part in the US Constitution. The Legislative Branch makes the law and consists of two houses that are the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Executive Branch enforces the law while the Judicial Branch interprets the laws. All branches were given important powers but not enough for one branch to dominate the other branches and the government, which can be supported, by the first three articles of the US Constitution.

People began to realize the problems in the Articles had to be dealt with such as putting the most power in the state governments and leaving a weak central government. With the central government weakened, congress had no power to change the Articles of Confederation and it was left to all thirteen states to make a decision. When the thirteen states got together, they reached the decision to change the Articles of Confederation almost completely. The document resulting from this is the Constitution of the United States of America. It balanced the power of the government, it helped craft a single army unified in protecting the country from threats and dangers, and also gave the governed more power and basic rights by including the creation of the Bill of Rights.

The United States of America has previously experienced failure every now and then. With trial and error, the country has learned to correct its ways and move toward(s) perfecting itself. Realizing the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation is a prime example of the U.S. learning how to better itself. Subsequent to the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States was set as our new and improved framework of government. Possessing knowledge on how America, although strong, is still progressing, the U.S. Constitution holds certain ways allowing the United States government to adapt to changes over time. Judicial review and the Elastic Clause are crucial principles of the document that permit America to do so.

In the 1700s when the United States had detached itself from British rule it was then seen as a plutocracy. The U.S established as a democracy; a government of the people and by the people. However, this establishment was in favor of the rich, educated, and powerful and anyone who was categorized or known as elites and it has remained in favor of these people ever since. Yes we can say we have witnessed variations and seen a semi-democratic rise in the past two centuries, but we have remained a plutocracy hidden behind the word that people use to cover its true identity, democracy. Those like the framers, the public opinion role, interest groups, and money all portray our hidden plutocracy.

As a new, democratic country, the United States of America had many obstacles that they had to overcome. One of these obstacles was coming up with a framework for the new government to follow and abide to. The first written attempt was the Articles of Confederation, which failed because of some weaknesses that it possessed. Of these weaknesses included a weak central government, over powerful state governments, and no national court system, so instead of uniting the country, it just loosely kept them together. In order to write, or modify this into a better framework, the Continental Congress called for a convention of delegates to meet in May of 1787 in Philadelphia. After much arguing between the delegates (federalists and antifederalists), the Constitution of the United States was passed under the condition that the Bill of Rights would be adopted. The Bill of Rights, at the time, consisted of 10 amendments; of these 10 comes one of the most controversial ones, the Second Amendment, which is the right for individuals to bear arms. This amendment was, and will continue to be one of the most controversial issues from the time of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States up to the 21st century. As a nation, there is still a battle between people who want to put restrictions on this amendment and people who believe that it should be left alone. The book, A Well Regulated Militia by Saul Cornell, goes on to describe the controversies of the Second Amendment, as

On June 12, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee, consisting of one delegate from each of the thirteen states, for the purpose of setting up a cohesive Federal Government. Headed by John Dickinson, the committee presented a draft of the Articles of Confederation to Congress a month later. Though the Articles were not officially ratified until five years later, Congress began operating under them in 1777. The delay that occurred during the years from drafting to ratification was partially caused by the opening of a multi-faceted debate that encompassed the issues of representation for citizens, the balance of power within the country, and state sovereignty. Densely-populated states wanted a system of representation based on

“The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.”-Franklin D. Roosevelt. In order to make “the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written”(Roosevelt) it took multiple modifications, and approximately 116 days to complete. The reason for the creation of the Constitution was to not let any government or any person become too powerful. The other purpose of the constitution was to resolve disputes between the federal government and the state government. In the first versions of the Constitution, there were many examples of what the government was allowed to do, but there were not any examples of what the government was not allowed to

One of the primary purposes of the Constitution of the United States is to divide powers between the Congress and the President. The President of course is the Commander in Chief of all the armed forces. Congress on the other hand is empowered by the Constitution to raise and support armies, to establish a navy, to declare war, to control war through things called letters of marque, and letter of reprisal, and to call forth a militia, the National Guard. So the Constitution envisions a balancing and a complementary relationship between the President and Congress when talking about war powers. But we have also got to recognize that historically when your dealing with times of war and great crisis affecting the United States, the

While a great number of democratic governments from all over the world inevitably succumbed beneath the grasp of a despot, there one country that was able to elude a tyrant in its government by shielding against such corruption. During the period of May 25, 1787 to September 17, 1887, fifty-five US delegates convened in Philadelphia to write the Constitution of the United States of America, which was a new form of government that would replace the United States’ earliest government called the Articles of Confederation. As a young nation, the scrappy American country witnessed the futility in the Articles of Confederation to which it did a poor job in granting the national government with sufficient authority. This resulted with catastrophic displays of disharmony and negligence of government demands in the country, in which was mostly manifested in Shay 's Rebellion of 1787. Consequently, American politicians understood how feeble the Articles of Confederation were in establishing order; they knew that the weak government would eventually lead them to anarchy. Nonetheless, as much the country needed a stronger enforcer of laws, the framers of the Constitution also took into consideration the possibility for tyranny to infiltrate their government. It was a challenge to establish a strong main power that presided over an entire country yet simultaneously prevent an abuse of power from a dictator, otherwise characteristics of a cruel, unjust, and oppressive rule would occur.

In 1787 the Constitution of the United States was written and ratified to better that time period. Many people believe that the Constitution was an excellent tool in previous years but, it is no longer relevant to today’s society. Others disagree, they think that the United States Constitution is still applicable to today’s American citizens. The Constitution is significant to American life, it protects each individual’s rights, limits the federal government’s power, and amendments can be added to accommodate new practices, if necessary. While this document was created two hundred twenty – eight years ago, it is what allows everyone to live their lives freely.

The Constitution was signed over 200 years ago and it still stands as the single most important document in the history of the United States because it laid the groundwork for at the rights and liberties that we enjoy today. This document created a government comprised of three equal parts; the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial branch. This ensured that no one branch had more power than the others; a system of checks and balances with each having a specific role which collectively formed the laws we follow today, while at the same time setting limits for the government itself.

The United States Constitution is a lot more than a bunch of words we don’t really understand, I mean let’s be real…what do half of these words even mean? Impeachment…judicial review…popular sovereignty…okay Thomas Jefferson, stop messing with our minds! Well, how about I let you know what they mean.