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What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Us Constitution

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United States Constitution Ever since 1787, the U.S. constitution has remained one of the most influential and important documents in the history of the United States. It set the foundation for which this great nation could be built upon, and there have been more than one hundred countries that have used it to model their own constitutions upon (Constitutionfacts.com, n.a.). There were a lot of very critical elements and circumstances involved in its creation. The Revolutionary War (1775-1783) that we fought against Great Britain resulted in the Treaty of Paris being signed, which gave the U.S. the authority to govern itself in 1783. The U.S., four years later, was still not united though. The U.S. was under a confederation, that is, the states were all sovereign and not ruled by one central authority for the nation. The power of the central government remained …show more content…

Some of the heads of states felt a transformation of the political to that of federalism-where central government is leading the states was completely essential. Ultimately the Articles of confederation would need to be changed (History.com Staff, 2009). After the American Revolution there was a lot of concern over what rights each state should have. There were numerous debates that led to the final creation of the U.S. constitution (Constitutionfacts.com, n.a.). Over the course of the next few sections we will be discussing those different areas of debate. Articles of Confederation vs. the Constitution of 1787 In 1777, thirteen states had adopted the Articles of Confederation, after the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was recognized as the first official constitution of our country, but the problem was that it gave more power to the states than the central government (The Library of Congress, 2015). Sitting on upwards of $40 million in debt after the American Revolution,

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Once the American Revolution had ended, America required a new form of government to happen. November of 1777, the Continental Congress accepted the first American Constitution known as the Articles of Confederation. Shortly after the Articles were confirmed by the states in 1781, multiple problems started to arise that provided the United States with an ineffective government from 1781 all the way to 1789. They were not able to address any of the problems dealing with the American Nation due to the lacking features of the government under the Articles. Moreover, the Articles presented each state with too much power that lead to a loose confederation creating a limited power to the central government.

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DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal

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However, they did not form this kind of government because they were fear of a government with so much authority, which same as British system. This cause guided the Article of Confederation had an inherent weakness which set sovereign power in the hands of each state. In Article II, which explicitly stated, “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right (Brackemyre, 2015).” They didn’t make a strong national government, but constructed an American government rely on dominant state governments. Thus, due to the reason of absence of strong, powerful government that generated a series of limitations and issues to make it lost efficacy.

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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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But many problem still challenged this new nation. After the Article of Confederation failing due to the weakness of the central government, the different states had to develop a new a form of government. But the different states did not seem to be agreeing on one single plan, the bigger states want the government to work in their favor, and the smaller states wanted equal representation in the government despite of size, wealth and population. All the delegates from the different states had to work together and make many different compromised to all agree one a well-drafted constitution. However, the ratification of this Constitution still faced many issues, some states wanted more individual state power and rights granted to individual American citizens.

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The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787, but there was a grapple for its ratification that went on until about two decades after the ratification. Members of Congress believed that the first government of the United States or the Articles of Confederation, needed to be adjusted while others did not want anything to change. After the Revolutionary War, the people did not want a strong central government, because it reminded them too much of what they were trying to escape from. Under the Articles, each state had their own laws, and the need for a new Constitution was desired by many. The Constitution of 1787 created huge debates, arguments and splits in the nation that lasted for several year after its ratification between people who

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The Articles of Confederation which had been first adopted by the continental congress in 1777, At the time had only been able to provide the newly found states with a similar national government which had already semi- existed. With Congress remaining the indeed only form of a central institution of a natural government, it had gained few expanded powers giving congress the authority to conduct wars and foreign relations also to appropriate, borrow, and issue money. During the process of ratifying the Articles of Confederation, A broad disagreement in the plans had quickly become evident. The process of ratification on the Articles of Confederation requires approval from all thirteen states.

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Before the U.S. Constitution there was the Articles of Confederation. The document could declare war, negotiate treaties, and control foreign affairs. It couldn’t enforce laws, tax, and raise its own army. What the Articles Of Confederation lacked was a strong central government. Alexander Hamilton called for a constitutional convention in 1786, and it took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787.

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Factually, the confederation type of constitution proved to be a very fragile one for the US, this being the reason for

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When the colonists were still with Great Britain, King George III misused his power. As a result, colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, to the king, to state their separation from Great Britain, to form a new country, the United States of America. After creating a new country, Americans wrote the Articles of Confederation in the year 1777, which they purposely weakened central government, so the abuse of power, wouldn’t exist. This meant the states had all the power. Although this structure of government seemed great, the creators of the Articles quickly realized that with no central government, states weren’t united because they were busy on increasing the growth of only their state.

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One of these rough patches was the Articles of Confederation, which taught us that a balance of power is of great importance. We abandoned the Articles of Confederation and adopted a new Constitution because of State powers, and lack of Congressional powers. The fear of a Central Government like Great Britain led The United States away from having such a strong Central Government. So the States were given autonomy to make most decisions & have many powers under early American Government.

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Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.

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The Articles of Confederation, which were ratified in 1781, created the first form of federal government, named the Articles of Confederation. In 1787, a convention was called to revise the Articles of Confederation due to the Articles creating a weak central government, which gave states more power over the central government. Alexander Hamilton wanted a strong central government, which led him to envision Congress calling a convention to revise the Articles. The two detrimental problems of the Articles of Confederation were that the federal government had too little power and could not take action without 9/13 states approval, which is 70% of the total states. Furthermore, the other detrimental problem with the Articles of Confederation is not being able to enforce laws, they made the federal government so weak that they couldn’t even enforce laws amongst themselves.

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The Articles of Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.

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In Article 2, section 2 of the Constitution, it states that the president is seen as the commander and chief of the military and that he had the authority to make deals and treaties with the input of the Senate and under the Constitution, the Congress is approved to increase and support armies, which was something quite different than before, when the Confederation was in place. When more power was handed over to the government by the president, they were able to have more authority to govern over its constituencies and to make sure that the nation was safe from any danger both within and outside the United

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