After America declared independence from England the colonies were not under the rule of a Central Government. The Revolution formed a government without a monarchy also referred to as a Republic, there were several attempts at government that included The Articles of Confederation, The Virginia Plan, The New Jersey Plan and The Great Compromise.
The Continental Congress drafted a written agreement called the Articles of Confederation which were adopted in 1777 but did not take effect until 1781. A Confederation is an association of independent states that agree to work together on certain matters and each state holds sovereignty. The Articles of Confederation clearly showed how much the delegates feared a strong government because it
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Separation of powers protects liberty by making sure that all government powers do not fall in the hands of a single person or a group of people it also ensure that one branch does not exercise the powers of another branch. The legislative branch is mainly responsible for lawmaking, in article one of the constitution congress is granted limited but substantial legislative power. For Example, in section 8 it mentions “congress shall have the power to establish Post offices and Post roads meaning that neither the executive branch nor the Judiciary branch can exercise these powers. The Executive branch is mainly responsible for enforcing laws, Article II of the constitution grants executive power to the President, Some of the president’s powers are to veto legislation, recommend legislation, grant pardons and nominate judges. The Judicial branch is the law interpreting branch of government, article III of the constitution establishes a federal system of courts that are separate from the state courts, judges are appointed for life unless they are impeached and judges are also independent of the other two branches and through their exercise of judicial powers judges cannot be threatened by either the executive or the legislative branch. Separation of powers helps guarantees that all government power doesn’t …show more content…
They stop the national government from interfering with the essential rights and civil liberties of citizens and they also accentuate how limited the national government’s power is. For instance, Amendment I guarantees the freedom of religion, Freedom of speech where the government cannot interfere with people’s personal beliefs. Another common amendment today is the 5th amendment which gives people the right to choose not to testify in court if they feel their own testimony will incriminate them, it also protects citizens from being subject to criminal prosecution and punishment without due process and protects people from being tried for the same case twice. Government’s power is limited through the bill of rights through the 3rd amendment which requires the owner’s consent when it comes to housing troops in their private homes which was something that was problematic during the American Revolutionary war. The Bill of Rights were added to the constitution due to the fact that citizens were unhappy because the constitution did not list the basic civil liberties of citizen’s and their individual freedoms. The Main Purpose of the Bill of Rights is to guarantee certain freedoms and rights to American