Pros And Cons Of Forming A Government

Writing: Forming a Government
After the Declaration of Independence, each state had some system of government. All the states agreed they did not want a powerful government. While the states were making sure their governments were solid, another issue arose. This issue concerned forming a national government that represented all the states. The states thought there should be one unifying body to hold the country together, or the states would never have strength or power as a nation. As a result of the concerns of the states, the Articles of Confederation were drafted. The Articles were passed by Congress in November 1777, and accepted by all states in 1781. Furthermore, the states accepted the Articles of Confederation because it gave the

In addition, they didn’t want one person or a group of people to be in control, in order to avoid a dictatorship, or worst yet, tyranny. As a result, the government was divided into three branches. First, was the executive branch, which was to be administered by the president. Second, was the legislative branch, which include the Senate and House of Representatives. The job of these two bodies is to make the laws. Third, is the judicial branch, which is headed by the Supreme Court, but also includes Lower Courts. The judicial branch has power to interpret the Constitution, review laws, and decided cases involving states’ rights. Since there are there branches of government, a system of checks and balances prevents one branch from gaining

These two parts of the country had very different geographies types of crops, and economics. In the North, one found small farms, factories, fishing, and trapping operations, while the South was known for growing cotton and tobacco, and using slaves on large plantations. Both the North and the South were afraid that the federal government would pass laws regulating shipping and trading that would affect them negatively. However, more important than shipping and trading, was the issue of slavery. As one would expect, the south wanted slaves counted as part of the population, so they could have more representation in government. In addition, the south did not want to count the slaves as part of the population when it came to determining federal taxes. The viewpoint of the North was different however. The North did not want the slaves counted to determine the number of representatives because they were considered property, not as people. At the same time, the North wanted to include slaves in the population count so more taxes could be collected from the South. Since there were two different viewpoints, a compromise was reach. This compromise was called the Three Fifths Compromise, and it stated that fives slaves would be counted as three people in deciding how many