Powers of the Constitution
By the late 1780's many Americans had grown dissatisfied with the Confederation. It was unable to deal effectively with economic problems and weak in the face of Shay's Rebellion. A decade earlier, Americans had deliberately avoided creating a strong national government. Now they reconsidered. In 1787, the nation produced a new constitution and a new, much more powerful government with three independent branches. The government the Constitution produced has survived far more than two centuries as one of the most stable and most successful in the world. The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution resembled each other in some cases and differed from each other greatly in other aspects. The Articles of Confederation were a foundation for the Constitution. Sometimes even called the Pre-Constitution. It was really the first step to a strong federal government. However, the Confederation, which existed from 1781 until 1789, was not a big success. It lacked power to deal with interstate issues, to enforce its will on states, and had little stature in the eyes of the world. It was time for a revision, a new perspective, and a radical change in our government system. This begins the formation of the Constitution. The
They wanted a strong, effective central government. This was an attempt to justify the colonist's defiance against British and English law. Madison had devised the Virginia Plan, from which the final document ultimately emerged, and he did most of the drafting of the Constitution itself. The Constitution created an instrument of government (a "game plan") on what America stood for and played a key role in defense matters of the American Revolution. Then in the Ordinance of 1785, Congress created a system for surveying and selling the western lands. One of the most pressing problems dealt at Philadelphia was the problem of representation and how the states should be represented in the lower house in proportion to their free (white) population. Everyone agreed that the constitution had to be fair to all. It is pretty obvious that the framers of the Constitution were far-sighted and created a document and system of government that was both firm in its basic foundation though flexible in its execution and interpretation. This was a five percent duty on imported goods to be levied by congress and used to fund the debt. Besides the aforementioned, there are many other ways the Articles differed from the Constitution. Another part of the Great compromise was that it provided for an upper house, the Senate, that states should be represented equally with two members each regardless of size or population. This is how the Plan of Union came to be in 1783. Even more important were men like Robert Morris, the head of the confederation's treasury; Alexander Hamilton his young protege; and James Madison of Virginia. The Americans were not interested in maintaining a balance of power in Europe or in the New World. " How would they achieve that? Well, they realized we needed the power to tax.
Common topics in this essay:
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Virginia Plan,
Grand Council,
Constitution Sometimes,
Founding Fathers,
Thomas Jefferson,
Revolutionary War,
Northwest Territory,
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defense measures,
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Acceptance Essays
