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How Did The Constitution Influence The Integrity Of The Government

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The Constitution of United States of America was ratified in 1787. Prior to the Constitution the Articles of Confederation had been the law of the land since the Revolutionary War. They proved weak and inefficient and a new governing document was needed. The drafters of the Constitution studied past texts of philosophy and government in order to create their ideal government. Although, the creators of the Constitution were influenced by many previous documents the most influential documents were the Articles of Confederation, the English Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta. These documents limited state power, allowed for government criticism, and protected citizen’s individual rights. The failure of the Articles of Confederation created the desire of a stronger federal government and limited state power. The Articles allowed the states to raise …show more content…

This allowed citizens to obtain rights that threatened the government’s power. “That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal” (English Bill of Rights). The Constitution similarly allows for petitioning of the government, this can be seen as a way to gather constructive criticism from the general public even if it does weaken the integrity of the government (U.S. Constitution Amendment I). The English Bill of Rights and the Constitution both allow for citizens to own arms. (U.S. Constitution Amendment II) This allows for citizens to form a resistance if the government becomes corrupt, keeping the government in check. The English Bill of Rights and the Constitution also allows for peaceful assembly of people to protest. The right to assembly allows for large groups of people to spread their ideals and publicly bring the government’s shortcomings to the light. This allows for rapid spread in ideas that can benefit a government such as the civil rights

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The United States has worked under two constitutions. Articles of Confederation was the first constitution in our nation. It was in effect from March 1st, 1781, after Maryland ratified it. Articles of Confederation was replaced by The Constitution on June 21, 1788, which was ratified by New Hampshire. The main principles behind the modern constitution were human rights, accountability, power separation, representative government, and independence of judiciary.

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The Constitution was written in 1776. The reason why the Constitution was written is that the Founding Fathers did not like how the Articles of Confederation was going. They decided to reorganize the Articles of Confederation into a new document. So in July, they set up a convention and they agreed and disagreed about many things. Overall though, they were able to finally draw up the United States Constitution.

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Hence Federalists came up with the Bill of Rights as a way to get the Constitution ratified and for people to really see a needed change. The Bill Of Rights which lists specific prohibitions on governmental power, lead the Anti-Federalists to be less fearful of the new Constitution . This guaranteed that the people would still remain to have rights, but the strong central government that the country needed would have to be approved. The 1804 Map of the nation shows that even after the ratification of the United States Constitution there still continued to be “commotion” and dispute in the country.(Document 8) George Washington stated that the people should have a say in the nation and government and everything should not be left to the government to decide.(Document 3) Although George Washington was a Federalist many believed he showed a point of view that seemed to be Anti-Federalists. Many believed that The Bill of Rights needed to be changed and modified and a new document’s time to come into place.

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After the Articles of Confederation failed because they failed to give enough power to the national government and congress, our founding father’s needed to reflect on its flaws for a new system to be set in place. Their new creation, our Constitution, was then set into place, and was created from a basis of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation directly influence the Constitution by its failure by changing some of the responsibilities of the federal and state governments. The Articles of Confederation gave too much power to the states, and the Constitution changed that.

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In 1689, the English Bill of Rights was signed into law by Sir William the third after King James the second was overthrown. It was proposed by the English Parliament to establish free elections and freedom of speech in hopes of taking power away from the monarchy and giving some of it back to the individual. At the time, speaking out against the king was illegal and there were no fair elections. When the English Bill of Rights was signed into law, citizens were given the right to free speech and elections became more diverse, among other rights. The English Bill of Rights says, "And they do claim, demand and insist upon all and singular the premises as their undoubted rights and liberties, and that no declarations, judgements, doings or proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example.

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When our founding fathers first created the Constitution it was found unworkable and had to have some changes before the ratification. In that process people began to have some differences such as the Federalist saw that the enhanced Constitution alone would protect all basic human rights. While Antifederalist saw that we needed an extra addition to the document that would genuinely give the basic rights, liberties, and limit the government from denouncing these rights and liberties from the people. The Bill of Rights was a necessary addition that has and will continue to protect the people from injustice in the government with the help of the Supreme Court.

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Constitution guarantees specific basic rights for America’s citizens and it also established America’s national government and fundamental laws (History.com Staff). The document was signed on September 17, 1787, by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The first governing document of the United States was known as the Articles of Confederation; a document that made the national government very weak and American states act independently. The Constitution was published to replace the Articles of Confederation making a much stronger federal government with three different branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch and a system of checks and balances to guarantee no single branch obtained too much power. The Constitution of the United States remains the governing document of the United States, even though many are attempting to alter or even abolish laws within the document, according to History Staff.

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On September 17, 1787 the constitution was signed by the founding fathers of the United States of America. After many attempts at creating a government and failing the Founders were able to establish a representative democracy that has survived for over two centuries. The purpose of the Constitution was to increase federal authority while still giving citizens protection of their basic rights. The first governing document attempted by the United States was the Articles of Confederation after receiving its independence from Britain. It was unfortunately weak and states ran like their own independent countries.

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The idea of the Constitution was brought up after the failures of Articles of Confederation. The founding fathers had a meeting on what improvements should be made to the Articles of Confederation. But the meeting eventually ended up in creating the United States Constitution. This took place at Constitutional

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They hoped to create a better government. The Constitution replaced the Article of Confederation permanently in March 4, 1789. The Constitution created checks and balances between the three branches. It also, established the Bill of Rights, and the first ten amendments of the constitution. The Constitution had to be ratified by at least nine states out of thirteen.

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Under this constitution nearly all control was given to the states. Nevertheless, while the Articles was weakening due to not having much power over the states, the new and improved Constitution was able to generate something greater. They built a strong central government that united the country as one. The Constitution

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The Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights are important historical documents that aim to limit the power of a monarchy. The Magna Carta was one of the first historical documents that aimed to give rights to citizens of the state. The English Bill of Rights was the document that created a constitutional monarchy in England. England needed the Bill of Rights because the monarchy still had too much power over Parliament and the people. The Bill of Rights gave more power to Parliament because the Magna Carta didn't reduce enough power from the monarchy

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One with checks and balances to protect citizens from falling back into an absolutist form of government. Rights were seen as things for the government to protect, even on occasion from itself. The Bill of Rights, written by James Madison, declared citizens as free from the government, while also placing restrictions on governmental power. Government was now seen, not as apart of the people, but as an operation that serves the people. This differs from the previous views of the monarchy in England, where the people served the monarchy.

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The Bill of Rights gave Americans their preoccupation with rights. Every citizen has guaranteed rights and liberties because of this document. While under British rule, freedom and human nature were depraved which led to our distrust of power and authority. The way Britain treated the colonies encouraged our leaders to develop an adversarial spirit. Our adversarial

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Wonders of the First Amendment The First Amendment, written after the failures of the 'Article of Confederation', to provide rights for the people. Specifically, the First Amendment, made sure rights of religion, assembly, petition, speech, and press are secured accordingly. It was one of the most basic, yet righteous Amendment to be written in the bill of rights, making sure that everyone had equality, unless granted by the public. What does the First Amendment mean?

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