Articles Of Confederation Dbq Essay

Two contradicting ideas in one document, how is that possible? The Constitution was created in 1787 to replace the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was a unicameral legislature, led by the Confederate Congress, that caused many problems between the government and the people. It failed for many reasons, including the fact that all thirteen states needed to be on the same page to ratify the Articles and it was not able to create a united, powerful nation. Congress also did not have the power to “enforce taxes, regulate commerce between states, and compel state cooperation,” to escape debt (Benson 1). Most people who were in favor of a new Constitution also favored democratic ideals. Democracy can be defined as a form of

This group of 55 delegates met for four months in Independence Hall in Pennsylvania (Hubbard-Brown 1). Their intent was to revise the Articles of Confederation, but could not do so because Rhode Island was not present, therefore they created a new document that would be known as the US Constitution (Thomas 1 and Hubbard-Brown 1). George Washington led these men until September 17th, which was the date the Constitution was adopted by the convention (Hubbard-Brown 4). This new governing document was meant to construct a strong central government, that took into account the opinions of the people, describe all powers a government can have, and be the supreme law of the people (Genovese 1 and Thomas 1). Overall, the creators meant to have a democratic system because it supported the ideas of the people and did not allow the governing officials to become

The larger states wanted representation in the legislative branch to be based on population, while the smaller states wanted population to be equal for all states. The solution to this disagreement, called the Great Compromise, was to create two branches of congress, the House of Representatives and the Congress, where the House’s representation is based on population, while the Congress is made up of two representatives per state (Valentine 7). This compromise is one of the most democratic because it gives say to the people and does not allow the bigger states to overpower the smaller, and vice versa. Out of all the branches and sub-branches of government, the House of Representatives seems to support democracy the most considering that it is chosen by the people, but the definition of people at this time was property owning white men (Genovese 2). Another compromise that was made by the delegates was about how the branches would interact with each other and what powers each individual branch would possess. Regarding the executive branch, the Federalists wanted the president to be able to serve for as long as the lived, while Anti-Federalists wanted there to be strict term limits. There was also an argument about how much actual power the president would hold regarding their veto. The democratic solution was to allow a president to serve an unlimited amount of 4 year terms and allow the