The framers of the Constitution established a federal form of government to provide for a central government which could overcome the failures of the Articles of Confederation. This new federal government lets states retain many of their powers, while simultaneously creating a strong central government, thus essentially creating two governments which run side by side: the state governments and the federal government. The need for a divided government was validated by the armed uprising known as Shay’s Rebellion. After the Revolutionary War, America’s economy was all but destroyed, and many veterans who fought in the war came home to massive debts and crushing economic policies. Because the Articles did not give the central government the power to tax, they could not afford to pay them, causing them to rebel. Without the ability to tax citizens in addition to several other flaws in the Articles, it was …show more content…
In Federalist 71, James Madison said that ambition must be made to counteract ambition. This idea certainly applies to federalism, as each government’s trek for power limits the other’s power. For example, Madison argued in Federalist 45 that in Article 2 Section 2, state legislators still had power over the federal government because it is state legislators that select the electoral college, which in turn selects the president, and because the Senate originally was elected by state legislators. States then control who makes the national laws and who enforces them. At the same time, the supremacy clause in Article 6 forces states to obey federal laws, as ruled in Cooper v. Aaron where the Supreme Court upheld that Arkansas had to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and desegregate schools. This case affirmed that states are bound to federal courts and that they cannot nullify a federal
This made it difficult for the government to solve national issues without the approval from each state. For example, prior to the constitution the government was not able to regulate high taxation for Farmers nation wide, which led to the farmer’s rebellion known as Shays rebellion. In addition to this, the weak federal government was not able to unify currency that made them very vulnerable
The ruling resulted in the leverage that federal law presides over state
During the Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation provided a necessary government that weakly bonded the thirteen states together. The Articles essentially made the states a confederacy without much order. Firstly, governments require a stream of revenue to function properly, and the weak tax authority of the Articles prevented America from paying debts. The Revolutionary War came with staggering costs that left the Continental Congress in debt.
Colonists blocked courthouses so taxes could not be raised. There was no national army to put the rebellion down, Massachusetts had to rely on militia to end the rebellion. The colonists were going to invade the government however one of the rebels could not make it. They sent a letter but the government intercepted it this led to the rebels being out numbered.
Despite their effort to create a new government different from Britain's following their Independence in 1776, America’s executive branch paralleled Britain’s. One of the main concerns many Revolutionists had with Britain’s government was that it had too much unregulated power. To avoid this, America wrote down its laws clearly in the Articles of Confederation and ratified it among the colonies in 1781, creating a decentralized government. Through practice, the colonists realized the Articles of Confederation needed tweaking; Massachusetts farmers saw the prices for crops plummet in 1786 but the government still demanded they their mortgages. Shay’s rebellion followed, in which the farmers insisted that it was the government’s job to assist
The arguments between the Federalist and Massachusetts Anti-Federalist caused by Federalist paper #84 would have been very difficult to resolve without modifications to the items that were to be included in the Constitution like the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights were considered to be relevant and deleterious to the Constitution by Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who stated in the essay Federalist Paper #84 that the Bill of Rights is “...not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous.” In addition Hamilton pointed out that many natural rights, like the right to redress grievances, were already implied in the body of the Constitution, therefore no further listing was necessary. However, Anti-Federalist counteracted
Under the Articles of Confederation, the government endured successes and failures while trying to figure out the process of managing what it inherited. From the get go it lacked adequate powers to deal with interstate issues or to enforce its will on the states, and it had little stature in the eyes of the world (p. 153). Little stature because of the unpersuasiveness in keeping Great Britain to fulfilling its terms of the peace treaty and the inability to repay their debt at home and to foreign nations. The nation also faced a postwar depression, state-to-state taxation, and rioting of farmers because of increased taxes which led to Shay’s Rebellion.
Around this era of the late 1700’s, the citizens of the newly independent nation of “America” were in the process of ratifying their government from the Articles of Confederation to the current Constitution which allowed for a democratic republic. The people in support of this ratification were the “Federalist” whom often used pamphlet writings known as the “Federalist Papers” to persuade and inform the public of their ideas and Constitution ratification. The most influential paper among the 85, is the Federalist paper #10 that disproves the Antifederalists’ argument that a republic of any kind would fall from the pressure of multiple divisive opinions among its citizens. Given the nature of humans by God, creating factions based on similar
When delegates formed The Articles of Confederation “Most delegates realized that the Articles were a flawed compromise, but believed that it was better than an absence of formal national government” (“Articles of Confederation”). To ratify the articles, the states needed to approve of its provisions, some argued that without approval of some type of government foundation that the country would remain weak and divided and open to foreign manipulation. Although the Articles were passed, the national government “only had the power to declare war, appoint military officers, sign treaties, make alliances, appoint foreign ambassadors and manage relations with the American Indians” (“The Articles of Confederation”). Because the national government did not have the power to excise a tax, states would tax its citizens heavily to raise money to pay for the war. These heavy taxes imposed by the states put many farmers into debt, Daniel Shay soon became the leader of a group consisting of angry farmers in Massachusetts, and led them through a violent protest.
It could be argued that as the history of the United States has unfolded, the ratification of the Constitution was relatively successful. One might also argue that the Document Americans hold so sacred was ratified with the wrong intent in the first place. Nonetheless, the state representatives chosen to vote on the ratification had a substantial task in front of them. Had I been one of those representatives, I believe that I would have voted against the ratification of the Constitution due to the lack of rights left in the hands of individual states, the absence of term regulations for elected presidents, and the turn away from a truly republican governmental system. Based on the political climate of the late 1700s surrounding the state representatives
The second guard against tyranny was federalism which implies the division of force amongst focal and state governments. Federalism is a compound method for overseeing, with a central government and a state government. Every administration had their own particular forces, yet to finish the greater objectives the key was to have participation and cooperation to solve this issue. The central government 's influence forces were exclusively centered around wars, cash and relations with each different nations and states outside the United States. In understanding, the state government dealt with the more particular things going ahead in that specific state.
Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.
Federalism Federalism is the process by which two or more government share powers over the same geographic area. Normally the two governments are National government and the State(s) government. Federalism has changed a lot over the years; starting from Dual Federalism and ending with New Federalism. A common way that Federalism is explained is through cakes. Dual Federalism is also known as divided sovereignty political arrangement, in which power is divided between the federal and state government.
Federalism increases inequities between and among states because different state governments have different rulings and motives, and by giving them the power to do so will drive them apart. The legacy of Ogden is the use of congressional power over commercial activity, and set the grounds for Congress using the Commerce Clause to regulate and exercise power of interstate commerce using the Commerce
After the failures of the Articles of Confederation, the federal government was made the most powerful group in the United States, and all citizens must listen to their laws. Shay’s rebellion shined a light on the ineffectiveness of the federal government. As a final point, the states were unable to be united under one body. Because the states were all separate, no state could agree on anything. The idea of a