1875-1876 Texas Constitutional Convention

In May 25, 1787, a convention was called in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to express the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, the intention from many delegates was to draft a new constitution; create a new government rather than fix the existing one. Rhode Island was the only one of the 13 original states to refuse to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, the first issues they had to address was the representation in Congress. Under the Articles, each state only has one vote in Congress, regardless of its size. The larger states wanted presentation to be based on population. James Madison of Virginia crafted the Virginia Plan, which guaranteed equivalent representation and granted powers

Following the American victory against Britain in the American Revolution, the Americans found themselves in need of a new government that would not repeat the mistakes of their oppressors, and their answer could only be found in a compromise between two brilliant but conflicting ideas. Fifty-Five men all gathered to represent each of the states except Rhode Island, with one goal in mind; to make a new, functional government that would not oppress or burden the people of their nation in any way. Two main ideas were proposed, The Virginia plan and a plan created by William Paterson. These two plans conflicted in many ways and caused heated debates among the state representatives.

The Texas Constitution is similar to the U.S. Constitution in many ways. One of the many ways is that both have a Bill of Rights, and the Texas constitution embodies certain ideas from the U.S. Bill of Rights, which are that all free men are declared to have free and equal rights that cannot be taken away because of sex, race, color, creed, or national origin. Another way they are related is because they both have a constitutional law for the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial department. The U.S. Constitution has two virtues; brevity and flexibility. The Texas Constitution in the other hand, does not, the U.S. Constitution is limited to 7 short articles and 27 amendments. The Texas Constitution in 2012 contained 16 articles and has been

The Constitution—the foundation of the American government—has been quintessential for the lives of the American people for over 200 years. Without this document America today would not have basic human rights, such as those stated in the Bill of Rights, which includes freedom of speech and religion. To some, the Constitution was an embodiment of the American Revolution, yet others believe that it was a betrayal of the Revolution. I personally believe that the Constitution did betray the Revolution because it did not live up to the ideals of the Revolution, and the views of the Anti-Federalists most closely embodied the “Spirit of ‘76.”

The Federalists had a better belief on improving the government. They believed in ratification. They knew if you separated the powers of government under three branches, it would protect the rights of people. No one branch has more authority than the other. The Federalists were more educated while the Anti-Federalists were of poor families and less educated. They believed the Article of Confederation were ineffective. They believed the government should be strong and should protect the people.

The Articles of Confederation were the first set of guidelines for the government in America that was ratified in 1781. The Articles of Confederation limited the powers of the government, gave most of the control to each individual state, did not require a president, and was quickly found to be ineffective. It left America at risk to be invaded by other countries or to suffer from economic problems. If another country wanted to conduct business in America, they had to deal with each state individually. Any amendment required unanimous approval (Evans & Michaud, 2015).

Hence Federalists came up with the Bill of Rights as a way to get the Constitution ratified and for people to really see a needed change. The Bill Of Rights which lists specific prohibitions on governmental power, lead the Anti-Federalists to be less fearful of the new Constitution . This guaranteed that the people would still remain to have rights, but the strong central government that the country needed would have to be approved. The 1804 Map of the nation shows that even after the ratification of the United States Constitution there still continued to be “commotion” and dispute in the country.(Document 8) George Washington stated that the people should have a say in the nation and government and everything should not be left to the government to decide.(Document 3) Although George Washington was a Federalist many believed he showed a point of view that seemed to be Anti-Federalists. Many believed that The Bill of Rights needed to be changed and modified and a new document’s time to come into place. As it was definitely difficult to do so, the Constitution was ratified in

On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed and The United States of America declared itself a separate and independent nation. On June 21, 1788 the United States Constitution was made official, replacing the Articles of Confederation. Since its ratification, the Constitution has been amended several times in order to better apply to current times and situations the Founding Fathers could not have predicted. Despite all the changes the Constitution has gone through, its core principles remain.

May 1787. 55 delegates, one long, sweaty conference. The Constitutional Convention was a huge event for the United States. During this convention, the 55 delegates from all states except Rhode Island met up to change their Articles of Confederation. Instead of editing, however, the 55 delegates rewrote the whole thing into the Constitution, which is still used today. The delegates wrote this Constitution with tyranny in mind; how could the Constitution guard against one person or group from gaining too much power? The Constitution protects against tyranny because the 55 delegates established: federalism, separation of powers, checks & balances, and equal representation.

Texas is the second most populated and second largest state in United State. Due to its size, Texas contains diverse landscapes that resemble both American South and Southwest. Most of the population centers are located in areas of formers prairies, grass lands, forests, and the coastline. The current Texas Constitution was adopted in 1876. Like most of the states, it also provides for a separation off power. The state Bill of Rights is much larger than its federal counterpart, and has provisions unique to Texas. The Texas constitution defines the responsibilities of country governments, which serve as agents of the state. Greg Abbott is the current governor of Texas and Dan Patrick is the Lieutenant governor of Texas.

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

The original constitution of the United States was drafted for multiple reasons. Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government was extremely weak. The individual states had more power than the federal government, and each of the states acted more like independent countries. Additionally, the Articles of Confederation did not distribute power well. The revised Constitution allowed for 3 branches of government, which divided federal power so that one branch could not become more powerful than another.

The Federalist agreed with the Constitution and its provisions. The wanted to create a strong federal government that will combine both the federal and the states as one nation. One of the weakness that the Articles of Confederation address is that the state had rights to levy taxes and regulate commerce. The states where in charge of the money coming in. The government concern was that if the states did not provide funds for the military they could not do anything about it. Plus, they were in debt, to begin with, because of the war and would make it difficult to find creditors that would help handle the nation’s fiscal affairs. They were also unable to transport goods between states because there was no central authority to manage it. Each state had its own currency, levels of inflation and own taxes

It was the Presidential election of 1800 where Thomas Jefferson won against John Adams. Around this time, Congress had passed the Judiciary Act of 1801. This act altered the Judiciary Act of 1789 in establishing ten new district courts. This was to expand the number of circuit courts from three to six, add additional judges to each circuit, and give the President the authority to appoint Federal judges and justices of the peace. This act also reduced the number of Supreme Court justices from six to five.

Briefly, in the evolution of the Texas political system, Texas’s history has been through many situations that shaped the political structure in Texas to become to what it is today. Many changes were responsible for the impact in the history of Texas such as the Texas revolution, the Alamo war with Mexico, military reconstruction act in 1867, etc. Before the war with Mexico, one of the most important impact in Texas history was the Republic of Texas Constitution in 1836. Texas and Mexico have an escalating tension and is responsible for the new change in the Texas state constitution. For the cause of the Republic of Texas Constitution in 1836, Texas begins by declaring its independence in 1836, established the Republic of Texas, and decided to adopt the new constitution. As for the United States constitution, the Texas state constitution of 1836 rose a major section of the of the