Unifying The Constitution Thematic Essay

The first official constitution of the United States was the Articles of Confederation. A congress consisting of 13 delegates from each of the original colonies worked during and following the American Revolutionary War. The Articles were written in 1777 and formally ratified in 1781. It was one of the nation 's first attempts at establishing diplomacy and reasonable authority. They were well-intentioned, however, the Articles proved to be quite problematic and not entirely functional. One of the major issues was the way that government powers were organized. Under the Articles, the Continental Congress consisted of only one body (this is referred to as "unicameralism"). The problem with unicameralism is that it often leads to a misrepresentation of the minority and can lead to an imbalance of the distribution of power. It is difficult to exercise separation of powers and federalism, or shared power between state and

Federally issued paper currency was rendered worthless as there was no way to regulate interstate commerce and the law-making process was nearly impossible seeing as it required two-thirds of state votes. All of the aforementioned nonsense called for a particularly bitter nation, and this lack of fondness towards the government led to an equally problematic and especially violent country, most notably in Shays ' Rebellion of 1776. Enter the supreme law of the land, otherwise known as the United States Constitution. In 1788, this document officially replaced the Articles of Confederation, and is still currently the basis for all American law. Its goal was to make the nation more republic-like, while also maintaining peaceful relations between states. The new central government was much stronger under the Constitution, seeing as the union was no longer confederate and the new federal system allowed both state and federal governments to be