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The United States

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When the United States of America declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, its original government was not the one we have today. In March, 1781, the thirteen colonies ratified the Articles of Confederation. Likely attributed to their fear of a tyrannical dictator oppressing the masses, the Articles of Confederation were purposely weak, and gave most of the actual power to the states. When indebted Massachusetts farmer Daniel Shay started a rebellion that took far too long to quell, it was clear that a new basis for federal power had to be established or the young nation was doomed. At the Philadelphia Convention, representatives from most of the states, instead of revising the Articles wrote an entirely new document; the Constitution. Called “a bundle of compromises”it has gone over many interpretations but it is essentially the same document that governs us today.And because so many different people and politicians have different opinions on it, it could be called “a living document”. The Constitution, however, was not signed without arguments and compromise. The first issue was between states with large populations and states with small populations. James Madison 's Virginia plan called for representation proportional to a state’s population, and the New Jersey Plan called for equal representation. Called “The Great Compromise”, we ended up with a House of Representatives and a Senate. Although this did not entirely solve the issue of representation.

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