The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia during the spring and summer of 1787, and was charged with replacing the Articles of Confederation with a more effective constitution. The Articles were widely considered an ineffective governing document. Our nation had two constitutions. Although the Articles of Confederation weakened our government, the current Constitution strengthened our central government and established our country to where we are today.
The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, which was our first constitution but an unanimous approval of the states was needed to change or amend the Articles. Because of the Articles of Confederation, the sovereignty was in the states, we had a weak central
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It established a strong central government but protected state autonomy and rights. The new plan of government divided power equally between the central government and the states. The Constitution created 3 branch's executive, judicial and legislative. Powers were shared between the states and central government. The national government had the power to tax and regulate trade. After a lengthy debate, three major compromises were decided that shaped the foundation of the U.S. Constitution. The first of the compromises was The Connecticut Compromise or better known as the Great Compromise. The Virginia Plan wanted representation based on the population of each state and the New Jersey Plan wanted equal representation for every state. It then decided that there would be two chambers in Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate would be based on equal representation and the House would be based on population.The Second of the Compromises was the Three-Fifths Compromise. This compromise was between southern and northern states in which each slave counted as three-fifths of a person in order to determine representation and taxation for the federal government. Lastly, the Slave Trade Compromise was what the north and south worked out which forbade Congress from banning the slave trade for 20 years. For the North, this meant the slave trade hypothetically …show more content…
Yet some are more significant then others. For example, one of the most important is the first amendment, which guarantees the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and the right to petition government. In addition, the fourth amendment is major as well because it protects our right from un-reasonable searches and seizures. Two more amendments are powerful as well which are our sixth and eighth rights. The sixth amendment guarantees our right to a speedy, impartial public trial in criminal cases with counsel and the right to cross-examine and our eighth amendment prohibits excessive bail, fines, or cruel and unusual
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two different types of Government. There are many differences between the two, for example, the Articles of Confederation were made for the original 13 colonies. The constitution was made for the United States of America.
It was then when Continental Congress met up in Pennsylvania and created a secured a document known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was written on November 15, 1777, and ratified by all thirteen states on March 1, 1781. When the Articles of Confederation were written it had many goals in mind to set and preserve the country with all its freedoms, keeping America an independent nation. Since the states were coming from Great Britain, a country where they weren 't represented by
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two very important guidelines of government that shaped the political minds of the Americans. Mainly because these guidelines limited, or expanded the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The Articles of Confederation were a series of laws that gave more power to the state government than the federal government. As a result, the federal government could not enforce laws or levy taxes. After Shay’s Rebellion, the Founding Fathers realized that a change was necessary. So the Constitution was created. The most important change of the Constitution was that the majority of power was then shifted into the hands of the federal or central government. This allowed the federal
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 marked the evolution from the Articles of Confederation to the U.S. Constitution. The ratification argument led to disagreements between the Federalists, who wanted to approve the Constitution, and Anti-Federalists, who opposed the document. The latter believed that the new system forced by the Constitution failed to protect the individual rights of citizens and threatened liberties.
Following the United States’ independence from Great Britain, the Articles of Confederation were formed in order to hold the country together politically. The Articles proved inefficient, as Congress couldn’t collect taxes or regulate interstate commerce, the government couldn’t raise an army, there was no national currency and most importantly, there was no central government. But the spark that triggered Americans’ realization that they needed to call a constitutional convention happened after an event in Massachusetts in 1786, called Shays’ Rebellion.
In May 1787, the Founding Fathers, who were made up of 55 delegates from one of the 13 states besides Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia for what would come to be called the Constitutional Convention [BRE]. When they met they intended to fix the consitution that was already in place, which was called the Articles of Confederation. This document had many weaknesses which ultimatly led to its downfall: it only had a legislative branch, so it could not hold trials or enforce laws, it could not raise taxes (it was able to raise money, however to do this the legislative branch had to ask the states for funds), it could not draft an army, so the federal government would have to use state militia, it could not control interstate or foreign commmerce,
Following the creation of the United States of America, a constitution of laws was desperately needed to create firm unity in the young nation. The original constitution that the Congress brought forth was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation left most of the power with the state governments, which many people approved of. However, many problems were created by this law of the land. A convention was called in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the Articles where they eventually scrapped it and wrote a new, but similar in ideals, document which is now known as the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution was, in fact, very different from the Articles of Confederation. So much so that they do not even appear to be similar in any
The Articles of Confederation became the first guiding principles of the original thirteen states. However, the weaknesses embedded in the articles became obvious, outweighing its positive impact and they were ratified in 1781. George Washington sated that the articles were "little more than a shadow without the substance."1 They limited the central government’s ability to work smoothly and adversely affected the economy. Lack of power left the government in dismay and they sought a fix to their problems without becoming a tyrannical monarchy. The founding fathers believed that replacing the articles with The Constitution was the best way to give the central government enough power to carry out its tasks. In 1787 delegates from all 13 states met in Pennsylvania to begin amending the articles. This process revealed many of the similarities and differences that were contained within The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution.
During the American Revolution, the founding fathers wrote the Articles Confederation, a written set of laws that intended to provide a framework for government. The Articles of Confederation failed to create an effective form of government and could not promote stability for the nation. In 1787, 55 delegates met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. The result was an entirely new document, the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution addressed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, promote unity through compromise, and established a framework for government that effectively promotes the ideals of American Government.
Tensions were high in the united states during 1788. There were two sides as to what the union should do to move forward. After everybody realized that the Articles of Confederation isn’t going to be work for the country, there was a need for a plan. The plan was to get rid of the Articles of Confederation and replace it with the Constitution. There were many factors in the Constitution that hesitated people to ratify it. The main issue was that the new national government under the new constitution would have a lot more power than the one under the Articles of Confederation. Therefore, it created two different sides; people who wanted the ratification of the new constitution, or federalists, and those who does not, Anti-federalists. To convince the Anti-federalists to change their minds, federalists wrote a series of essays to convince them, known as the federalists’ papers. I agreed with the arguments expressed in the federalists’ papers.
George Washington called for a convention in late May 1787; in order speak about the nation 's political and economical problems and revise the Articles. Delegates from eleven out of the thirteen states attended this convention. They decided on a government consisting of three branches: legislative (Congress), executive (the President), and judicial (Supreme Court). These branches were under the checks-and-balances in order to maintain balance in powers and to prevent tyranny in the country. The Great Compromise solved the issue that arose between the delegates that believed the separation of powers into three different branches would ensure that the United States would not become another monarchy.
Representation in Congress was resolved when delegates from Virginia corrected the Articles of Confederation. Their plan went better than expected. The Virginia plan provided three branches of government. They struggled with how the states were to be represented in congress. Extreme debates over Connecticut’s compromise took place and after about two weeks the delegates finally came together and agreed to the Connecticut compromise on July 16th.
The federal government was weak because the colonist did not trust the government, due to the abuse from King George III and his authority, so the states are almost independent nations. Under the Articles of Confederation, there was only one branch of government, the legislative branch, and the congress was made up of 13 members, one from each state. This meant that each state had one vote. The problem with only allowing one vote per state is the fact that all states are not equal in size and population. The larger states had more influence than smaller states, but only received one vote. In order to change any of these articles, all thirteen states had to agree, which was
In 1787 The Constitutional Convention met in philadelphia, planning to change the government and make it stronger. The goal of the convention was to balance the rights of the states and also provide a strong national government. The two important delegates were George Washington and James Madison.
The Articles of Confederation were approved by all the early American states in 1781, but by 1787, it was apparent that the Articles were insufficient for the young nation to operate on. A convention was formed with the priority job being to revise the Articles of Confederation; however, they only concluded that an entire new structure was needed to fulfill the demands of the growing country. The Constitution was then born. The Constitution provided the structure of government and power that was needed to achieve a strong union. This structure “saved” the American republic from collapse while under the Articles of Confederation.