The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law that rules over the United States. It is a written document that promoted federalism and it focused on the division of power between the national and state government. Before there was a constitution the government was governed by the Articles of Confederation. There were many flaws to the Articles of Confederation, and it was ratified by all 13 states in 1781. Some flaws of the Articles of Confederation consisted of having a weak central government, having no national court system, and Congress having no power. This led to the creation of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which would be used in building a new constitution that would create a stronger federal government while still …show more content…
Supporters of the new Constitution were known as Federalists and the ones that opposed the new Constitution were known as Anti-Federalists. Federalists argued that we needed a stronger central government to address the economic and political problems facing the country. While Anti-Federalists argued that the new Central government would be too strong and that it would take away individual liberties. Before the ratification process began there were a series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay known as the Federalist Papers. They were published in support of the new Constitution, and it helped to sway the public’s opinion in its favor. Eventually, the Constitution was ratified but in order to address the concerns of the Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights, which consisted of the first ten amendments of the Constitution, was added to the Constitution in 1791. The Bill of Rights protected the individual rights and liberties of individuals including freedom of speech, religion, and the press. This helped to maintain control over the central government and to limit its …show more content…
This is significant due to the Constitution being designed to protect the individual rights of citizens and it keeps the government accountable to the people. One of the main ideas of the Constitution is popular sovereignty, which basically means that people are the ultimate authority in the United States. We the people of the United state elect officials to represent us. This gives the people power over the government as we control who controls us. The government’s power is also divided through the separation of power. This ensures that the government is here to represent us and is responsible for tending to our needs and