How Are the Six Principles of the Constitution Embedded in the Constitution?
Bernardo Moyza
Mr. Collin
29 August 2014
Word Count:
Plan of Investigation The Constitution of the United States was written to form and maintain the government. It consists of six basic principles. The following question will be answered by this investigation: “In what ways are the six principles of the Constitution of the U.S. embedded in the Constitution?” An issue that will be evaluated is the definition and an explanation of the six principles. Another issue will be explaining in what ways the principles are embedded in the Constitution. One source used will be a transcript of the Constitution. I found access to the Constitution through
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When the Constitution was signed, it replaced the previous government plan, The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were unsatisfactory. They created what Alexander Hamilton described as “an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government.” (Library of Congress). After the incident of Shays’ Rebellion, many politically involved figures thought that a new plan of government was needed. These men were known as Federalists. Other men opposed the idea of a strong central government. These were known as Anti-Federalists. In order to come to a solution, these men met at a convention in Philadelphia, where they debated and discussed a new plan for government. After the Constitution was put into action, the government underwent a very positive change. The Constitution gave citizens new rights. Later on, the Bill of Rights was added, which are ten amendments giving citizens basic rights. The Constitution is very important for the people. It limits the power that the government has, but also gives it enough power to function as a government. It makes sure that every citizen has a set of rights that can’t be taken from them. It’s important because these rights are what the revolutionaries fought for, and if they are taken away, the whole war was for …show more content…
Limited government is similar to popular sovereignty. Basically, this principle limits the government’s power. The politicians at the time wanted to preserve the personal rights of every citizen, and the rights of the states. To do this, the Constitution only gives the government certain powers. These powers are outlined in the Constitution and fall under the next of the six principles. In the Bill of Rights, under Amendment X, it says the following, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” (National Archives). This means that any power that isn’t given to government is given to states or to individual citizens. This limitation to the government is important because it prevents a dictatorship or anything leading to
In September 1787, a well written document called the U.S. Constitution was being created by our founding fathers, like George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and others, and was ratified on 1791 in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention. The Constitution to was established because our founding fathers wanted to “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”, which says the Preamble, for everyone. The Preamble is a statement that is the introduction to the Constitution and was written to explain the purpose of the Constitution. The seven principles of the
The Constitution guards against the abuse of power. Having a bill of rights prevents the government from not giving the people
In 1787, the Constitution was written and submitted for ratification by the 13 states, but not everyone agreed with it. There were two groups of though. One was the Anti-federalists, who opposed the Constitution and the other group were the Federalists, who supported it. The Anti-federalists were people who supported the Articles of Confederation because they were doing well under them. They were mostly poor people from rural areas and were supported by the big states. They believed that the Constitution did not secure their rights and gave the central government too much power. The Federalists were mostly the wealthy people who lived in or near city areas and were supported by the smaller states. They believed that the separation of
The Articles of Confederation were like a loose contract between the states. There was deepening debt, no power of the government to levy taxes to pay for the cost of the war, some states had a navy while others did not. Shay’s Rebellion, in which the government raised the taxes against farmers to help pay off war debts, caused the farmers to rebel. Hamilton and Madison decided that something needed to be done and so they called together representatives from each state to draw up a new version of the Articles. Instead of another Articles of Confederation being drawn up the United States Constitution was written. The new Constitution had a “weak” central government with strong state powers. It also ensured each state that they would be equally represented in the national government. In one house the representatives were based on the state’s population and in the other house each state gets two representatives. New ideas to the Constitution included: an executive branch
When the first ten amendments were added to the Constitution, they were planned to shield the public from the national government and not the states. States had their individual constitutions, and their laws only had to comply with their constitution. The founders of our country were very concerned about creating too powerful of a centralized government that might overstep on the given civil liberties of the public. As a protection of individual liberties, the Bill of Rights was formed. The Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments of the Constitution and protect and preserve inalienable rights against abuse by the federal government.
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 for the US has 7 Articles, and they are all very detailed. They help lead our country toward success and let us strive to be the best country that we can possibly be. It is crazy how they wrote it in the 1700’s, and we are now in the 2000’s and still obey it. The writers of it must have been genius’!
Anti-Federalism, an 18th century political movement led primarily by Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, opposed the ratification of the new United States Constitution for multiple reasons. [B] The new U.S. Constitution was written by a group of delegates selected for the 1787 Constitutional Convention which took place in Philadelphia. A chief reason Anti-Federalists were highly concerned with this document was the amount of power it would give the federal government. They worried that the implementation of a strong centralized government could only be possible at the expense of individual states rights and freedoms. Anti-Federalists were also concerned that smaller states, who had previously held as much weight in national affairs as larger states, may be ignored or trampled upon in regards to passing interstate laws and amending federal documents. Another concern of the Anti-Federalists was the absence of a Bill of Rights, a specific list of personal rights possessed by American citizens, in the Constitution. They feared that without this bill of stated rights, there would be no guarantee that the American government, under the Constitution, would not pass tyrannical laws resembling those implemented by the British just prior to the American Revolution. [A]
During the Revolutionary War, colonists believed that they needed a sense of unified government, so this led to the creation of the Articles of Confederation, the first written constitution of the United States (history.com). Although the Articles of Confederation had its strengths, such as allowing the central government to create treaties and maintain military, it had many weaknesses, such as preventing the central government to levy taxes and regulate trade. It also could not be changed unless there was a unanimous decision and it lacked a stable currency. Since the creation of the Articles of Confederation had many issues and weaknesses, the Continental Congress rewrote the Articles into what is now known as the U.S Constitution. The Constitution established a national government, guaranteed basic rights for the colonists and revised almost everything that was wrong in the original Articles, such as the sovereignty that resided primarily in the states and the lack of power from the national government. The Constitution was later ratified by all 13 states in May 1790, with the support of the Federalist Party. [A] Federalists believed in the commitment to a strong national government and in the practice of a separation of powers. However, Anti-Federalists had the opposite view which was the opposition of a strong national government, the support for small landowners, and the representation of rights of the people. Anti-Federalists believed that a strong national government
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the subsequent ratification of the constitution proved to be a more significant event in American political history than the Declaration of Independence. Many of the american leaders believed we needed to a new, stronger government. They had to persuade the states that stronger government was the right direction to ensure the country’s success.They did that with the constitutional convention but, To sway the states in the right direction documents such as the Federalist papers led the states to ratify the new U.S. Constitution. Which then led to the U.S. Constitution that we still live by to the day.
The Article of Confederation was ratified in 1781. This Article was part of the formation of a national government in the United States. But, by 1787, a reform convention was held to address the Article’s weaknesses. This event also brought about tension in the country between two groups, the Federalists and Antifederalists. Federalists were a group of people that advocated for a system of government, while Antifederalists opposed the creation of a stronger America. The Article of Confederation was designed as a loose confederation of 13 states, and reflected principles of the Declaration of Independence. But, difficulties began to arise with the new Constitution when economic weakness and farmers revolt proved the Article was a poor form of government, along with opposing views from Federalists and Antifederalists, verifying that an inadequate document had been created.
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.
In the year 1787, early America, officials and delegates came together to form a constitution that would restore the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was the attempt at creating a government for the newly independent America. But, it soon became clear that the document was not strong enough to govern America. Therefore, delegates who came to be known as Federalists and Anti-Federalists issued major arguments on the ratification of the U.S Constitution. Federalists were individuals who wished to unify the 13 states in negotiation, and
The Articles of Confederation was implemented into the U.S. government in 1777, this document supported a weak central government and supported states rights. This document did not give congress the power to impose taxes or regulate commerce. It did however give congress the power to form alliances, treaties, manage coin money and keep armed forces. Anti-federalists mainly supported a weak central government and states rights, they opposed the constitution because of the strong central power that was supported by it. Most people that were anti-federalists were agricultural states unlike federalist loyalties were primarily larger population states. Federalists on the other hand supported a strong central government that was based on a republic.
In the USA and in each of the fifty states, the most basic fundamental is a constitution, which is a relatively simple document and is the self-designated supreme law of the land. As the supreme law of the land, Constitutional Law texts are generally divided into two parts. The first part is about the allocation of powers. This entails two basic principles of American Constitution:separation of powers and division of powers. The former one discusses the interaction among the three constituent elements of national goverment, while the latter one refers to the extent of power possessing by the federal goverment and specification of states' power. Both of the two principles function under one