The constitution holds great credit even after two hundred and twenty-eight years of existence. Why? This is because of a number of reasons, first due to the fact that this document is the foundations of what this nation stands upon today and what finally brought the country in unison successfully after the revolution. Also because the constitution is the document that protects the citizens of all their liberties and rights still today, not to mention though it was signed in seventy eighty-eight it is still being used in the form it was written in its ratification era, with only twenty-seven changes that have had to be made over the years. That alone can show the significance of this document but the history of how the constitution was …show more content…
Thus creating the document which gave little to no respect and power to the central government to intervene when rebellions and riots began to occur. Under the articles almost all the states in the union were in serious debts and had currency that were worth nothing. With what we may call a recession today, rebellions began to rise to fight mainly the tax appointment that was putting many citizens in deep debt. One of the famous rebellions, Shays rebellion, was what many see as the last straw before having to reassemble and create a new constitution. With the problems form the articles five states met together in September 1786 to discuss trading problems but slowly transitioning to talk about how to improve the country’s well being. The men at this conference then went about to invite all the states representatives to a conference to discuss the revise the constitution. The invitation to this constitution began to show the divide in the peoples opinion and what further would be seen as political parties. Some of the states saw the constitutional convention as a conspiracy to create a central government with too much power, while other states felt that it was necessary with all the chaos that was occurring without one. With the ratification process finally beginning concerns were voiced; namely how to develop the structure of development, the
The Articles of Confederation Following the Revolutionary War, the new American Government was set up under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation did not give the federal government enough authority to be effective. So in 1787 delegates from all the states attended a meeting known as the Constitutional Convention. Among those attending were James Madison, representing Virginia, William Paterson, representing New Jersey, and Roger Sherman, representing Connecticut.
The Articles of Confederation was the first federal foundational laws of the United States. It was composed due to the conflicting views of the politicians at the time and the need to unite the States during the war. Its development and resoluteness had a sluggish inception due to some Americans uncertainties of the government’s substantial central power and property demands by States. The Articles of Confederation was finally sanctioned on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles, each States stayed autonomous, with Congress having the final say over disputes. Congress was also given the ability to make accords and agreements, uphold armies and currencies. The Articles of Confederation did best with territorial expansion in the West, thanks to the Ordinances that were written for the Articles and the benefits they had. However, under the Articles, the central government had no power to impose taxes and manage commerce, because of this the government was consistently short of funds. Despite the lack of funding, money was still required for the war effort, and Congress' meantime solution was to print nearly $250 million paper currency, this led to major inflation in the States. This deficit urged legislators to find a solution; the Constitution of 1787. Both the Articles and the Constitution worked to preserve a free government, different from the tyrannical rule they have experienced from the British Parliament. Also, both documents allowed states the power to manage mercantilism,
However, an uprising led by Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays that took place in western Massachusetts in 1786 was the event that got the attention of the founding fathers. The Shay’s Rebellion demonstrated to the founding fathers that the Articles of Confederation brought commercial problems, threaten civil order, and conflicts between states. Likewise, at the constitutional convention the founding fathers crafted and ratified the U.S constitution to address the problem the Articles of Confederation could not tackle. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the divided the powers of the national government into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Furthermore, the constitution established a one true currency system and presented the job duties and requirements the three branches and individual states. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the constitution presented the rights of its people (Bill of Rights) and a system of check of balance and separation of powers that the United States as democratic country. The Articles of Confederation was a popular democracy with its chaotic results and the constitution was a responsible democracy with its civilized outcomes.
The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781 represented the former colonist’s first attempt to establish a new government after the Revolutionary War. These Articles provided a weak political document that was meant to keep the states united temporarily. The states had all the power, so any changes made to the Article of Confederation would take every state to approve it or amend it. In February 1787, Congress decided that a convention should be convened to revise the Article of Confederation (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2009). Congress felt the Article of Confederation was not enough to effectively deal with the young nations issues. Congress knew it was time for the country to move forward, and to do that, there would be
(Patterson, 2008) This left the national government with little power to achieve anything and resulted in many states operating fully independent of one another. States would negotiate their own trade deals and create their own military forces without regard to what another state was doing. The Articles also gave the congress no power to tax, and therefore the expected duties of defense and care of the national economy could not be accomplished. This continued until 1786, when a citizen revolt referred to as Shay’s Rebellion occurred. The rebellion was made up of former Revolutionary War veterans who were trying to keep the government from foreclosing on their property due to unpaid taxes. The members of the congress were urged to send in help to put down the rebellion, but they had no force to send in. In a growing fear that the revolt and spreading anarchy could not be controlled an emergency meeting, the constitutional convention of 1787, was held to discuss the future of the government and the need for more national control.
“The United States Constitution is the oldest written national constitution still in use” (Confederation and the Constitution, pg. 71). After more than 200 years, the Constitution is still changing to support the next generations needs. This “living document” has many different reasons that allow it to “fit in” with the new generations.
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
The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified in the year 1787. Ever since that date, the document has enforced the laws set forth and created a base for the country to stand upon. The Constitution was created to provide strict, but amenable guidelines that Americans could follow, which could result in a functional country. Aside from the fact that the Constitution was written over two hundred years ago, the document is still necessary and relevant to modern times. The three branches of government, the First Amendment, as well as the Fourth Amendment, are all still present in today’s America. Many of the rules in the Constitution are still accordant to society today, primarily because of the perceptive founding fathers who created them.
With the creation of the Articles remained the lack of a strong central authority to resolve disputes between the states. To organize the states for the collective good, including the organization of a militia, was crucial to the development of the Constitutional Convention (Hamilton et al., 2008). The aftermath of Shay’s Rebellion reinforced the fears of national leaders about the dangers of ineffective state governments and of popular democracy out of control. In the climate of economic turmoil and repressions, the Philadelphian convention was conned to prescribe solutions to the Articles of Confederation. Although the initial thought was instructing delegates to propose revisions for the Articles of Confederation, instead, they wrote an entirely new constitution instead (Hamilton et al., 2008)
Following the United States’ independence from Great Britain, the Articles of Confederation were formed in order to hold the country together politically. The Articles proved inefficient, as Congress couldn’t collect taxes or regulate interstate commerce, the government couldn’t raise an army, there was no national currency and most importantly, there was no central government. But the spark that triggered Americans’ realization that they needed to call a constitutional convention happened after an event in Massachusetts in 1786, called Shays’ Rebellion.
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 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.
This was essential towards the growing abolitionist movement and emancipation movement. Due to the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, a completely new and different Constitution was finally “agreed” upon by all thirteen states by 1790.Virginia called for a convention to modify the Articles of Confederation in 1786, and state representatives from every state, except Rhode Island, gathered in Philadelphia in 17887, numbering 55 in all. The representatives at this gathering all could be considered nationalists, and desired a strong, central government. None of the Representatives were from the lower/poorer classes. They aimed to strengthen America’s foreign affairs and weaknesses in negotiating with the European powers. They aimed to give the federal / national government genuine power and authority in dealing with issues, domestic or overseas. They wanted to preserve the union from runaway anarchy and “mobocracy”. They wanted to halt runaway and unrestrained democracy in the various states. This was accelerated by the fears caused by Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts.Deciding to completely scrap the ineffective Articles of Confederation, the members and representatives of the convention disobeyed orders from the Congress to revise. Choosing a compromise between “the large state plan“ of Virginia (bicarmel house in Congress of which representation would be based on population) and
The U.S. Constitutional Convention was meant to replace the Articles of Confederation, which governed the United States between the Revolution and 1789. These Articles were widely considered to be an ineffective governing document moving forward . They established a very weak central government that had no ability to levy taxes or regulate trade. With the states retaining most power, they constantly argued over borders, trade and commerce. Plus states maintained their own Revolutionary War debt, which some states thought was unfair. Having realized that the Articles were outdated and obselete, the Constitutional Convention convened in 1787 in Philadelphia, and 55 delegates from all states except Rhode Island attended.
By the time that Shay’s Rebellion occurred, the Nationalists ad been trying to amend the Articles of Confederation for several years. Unfortunately, doing so required a unanimous vote among the states and the Confederation Congress could not leverage such unanimity. In September of 1786, representatives from the five states bordering the Chesapeake Bay convened in Annapolis, Maryland, for the supposed purpose of discussing trade issues. “The Nationalists among the Annapolis Convention delegates proceeded to plant the seed of a peaceful counterrevolution against the Confederation Congress” (Text, 109). The Nationalist delegates at this convention purposed to invite representatives from all thirteen states to a meeting in Philadelphia in the spring of 1787. However, they worded the invitation to indicate only a