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Articles of Confederation
When peace came, the United States was not one unified nation as it is today. Each new state had its own government and was organized very much like independent nation. Each made its own laws and handled all of its internal affairs. During the war, the states had agreed to work together by sending representatives to a national congress patterned after the “Congress of Delegates” that conducted the war with England. After the war was won, the Congress would handle only problems and needs that the individual states could not handle alone. It would raise money to pay off debts of the war, establish a money system and deal with foreign nations in making treaties. The agreement that set up this plan of cooperation was called The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation failed because the states did not cooperate with the Congress needed or with each other. When the Congress had to raise money to pay the national army or to pay debts owned to France and other nations, some states refused to contribute. The Congress had given no authority to force any state to do anything. It could not tax any citizen. Only the state in which a citizen lived could do that. Many Americans worried about the future. How could they win the respect of other nations if the states did not pay their debts? How could they improve the country by building roads or canals if the states would not work together? They believed that the Congress needed more power. The Congress asked each state to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia, the city where the Declaration of Independence had been signed, to discuss the changes which would be necessary to strengthen the Articles of Confederation. The smallest state, Rhode Island, refused, but delegates from the other 12 states participated. The meeting, later known as the Constitutional Convention, began in May of 1787. George Washington, the military hero of the War of Independence, was the presiding officer. Fifty-four other men were present. Some wanted a strong, new government. Some did not.
Constitution
In the course of the Convention, the delegates designed a new form of government for the United States. The plan for the government was written in a very simple language in a document called the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution set up a federal system with a strong central government. A federal system is one in which power is shared between a central authority and its constituent parts, with some rights to each. The Constitution also called for the election of a national leader, or president. It provided that federal laws would be made only by a Congress made up of representatives elected by the people. It also provided for a national court system headed by a Supreme Court. In writing the Constitution, the delegates had to deal with two main fears shared by most Americans. One fear was that one person or group, including the majority, might become too powerful or be able to seize control of the country and create a tyranny. To guard against the possibility, the delegates set up a government consisting of three parts, or branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Each branch has powers that the others do not have and each branch has a way of counteracting and limiting any wrongful action by another branch. Another fear was that the new central government might weaken or take away the power of the state governments to run their own affairs. To deal with this the Constitution specified exactly what power the central government had and which power was reserved for the states, the states were allowed to run their own governments as they wished, provided that their governments were democratic. To emphasize its democratic intent, the Constitution opens with a statement, called a Preamble, which makes it clear that the government is set up by “We, the People” and its purpose is to “promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”(descendants). Before the new government could become a reality, a majority of the citizens in nine of the 13 states would have to improve it. Those in favor of the adoption of the Constitution argued long and hard in speeches and writing. They finally prevailed, but the states made it clear that one more change would have to be made as soon as the new government was established. Representatives of various states noted that the Constitution did not have any words guaranteeing the freedoms or the basic rights and privileges of citizens. Though the Convention delegates did not think it necessary to include such explicit guarantees, many people felt that they needed further written protection against tyranny. So, a ‘Bill of Rights’ was added to the Constitution. Although the world has changed greatly in the past 200 years, it has proved possible for the Constitution to be viewed as a living document, one that could be interpreted by scholars and judges who have been called upon to apply its provisions to circumstances unforeseen at the time it was written.
Date: 2015-12-24; view: 924
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