Ap Us History Dbq Research Paper

The background of “Unruly Americans: and the origins of the Constitution” by Woody Holton is how the American society was taught to believe that the US Constitution was created to encourage democracy and protect civil rights. However, Holton offers a different view. He even goes to the extent of stating that, in 1776 the 13 colonies of North America left the Empire of Britain and 55 of the world’s most notable men known as the Founding Fathers work on the Constitution in Philadelphia as it became the most powerful and wealthiest state in 1787. The Framers’ gathered 1787 and they only could help citizens partially, yet their motives were never revealed. The purpose of the Constitution was to help America more attractive to investors.

Each party present during the drafting of the Constitution had their own ideas about what it should accomplish. As a result, it was very difficult to formulate a document that appeased all groups and parties, who often voiced their opinions of how it should be written. The U.S. Constitution was the father of many worries concerning the rights of the people, the role of government, and the balance between the aristocrats and poor, the government and the people. The Federalists, or supporters of the Constitution, were not completely satisfied with the task they were given. They were supposed to revise the old Articles of Confederation, but they felt like it needed to be completely rewritten.

When the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain, they no longer had a government or authority to rule. So, the Articles of Confederation was created and became the first constitution to govern the United States. This plan was created in order to organize the nation and fight the Revolutionary War for independence. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses such as the government only had one branch that only created laws and did not have branches to execute, interpret, or enforce the laws. As a result, the Confederation failed the nation and it was abolished then a new constitution was created entitled the U.S Constitution.

Believe it or not, the Constitution was not America 's first form of government. Our country started out with the Articles of Confederation, which were...shall we say... less than perfect. They gave the states much more power than the central government, due to a pervasive fear of strong central governments. This fear stemmed from the reign of the tyrannical King George III, and the founding fathers did not want to give their country the ability to establish another monarchy. In the Articles of Confederation, the central government had no power to tax, regulate trade or commerce, enforce laws, settle disputes between states.

In the earlier years slaves or blacks were being used for work and treated unequal. It is unamerican to constitutionalize equality for mankind when in reality you only want equality for yourself. Document 5- Plan of a slave ship. Individual or Human Rights is an undemocratic feature. The right to vote opposed the Fifteenth Amendment, prohibiting

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.

According to document 3, digital history, growth of the African-American population in 2016 the claim shows that when the population of African-Americans have increased so have the number of slaves that are African Americans over 40 years, this shows that this group of people were treated unfairly because more and more people have became slaves other that free men. The number has increased by over 2 million African-American slaves over 40 years This is just one way to show that they did not have equal political, social, or economical rights as free men. Also according to document 4 Charles Mackay, life and Liberty in America: or sketches of a tour in the United States and Canada in 1857-1858 London 1859. ”We shall not make the black man a slave; we shall not buy him or sell him; but we shall not associate with him.” Through his observation he was able to see that even free men were not treated equally like the Declaration was meant to do.

Are “all men created equal”? Why did the Constitution allow slavery to continue? The framers of the Constitution allowed slavery to continue because of political, economic, and social issues. They wanted their nation to be unified and the number of states to stay intact. They wanted to secure wealth and slavery was a great part of their economy.

The Articles of Confederation, the new nation’s first attempt at creating a framework of government, was a dismal failure. Under the Articles of Confederation, almost all of the power was in

The primary concern of the framers of the constitution was the proper and just balance of powers in order to protect against tyranny, ensure fair representation, and safeguard individual rights. The American Constitution was framed with the citizens past experience fully in mind. While under British control, American citizens were severely undercut in both federal power and representation in parliament. Parliament was insanely corrupt, purposefully taking more power for itself over the population of Britain en masse. While making the constitution the framers kept these issues in mind, holding to the firmly held belief of their colonial constituents that, as stated by Lord Acton in 1887, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

They believed that because people are instinctively selfish, that people would have a hard time coexisting in a land where all people were supposed to be treated equal. Though the government was created to aid the people, it was also established to teach the people how to “live properly”. The fact that the constitution was written in the mindset that people needed to be, in a sense, controlled is was and remains a controversial topic. Many view the constitution’s favor for the rich, white, and male property owners was not so much of an “easier way to unify a nation” but more of a list of who it was going to be more desireable to govern. These facts aside, in order to instill equality to a newlywed nation, the people were given some basic human rights and the power to choose who was going to represent them in order to still make sure that the people were still the basis of the new government while still having control over them.

Constitutions that were man-made created societies based on hierarchy. That meaning, blacks were separated from white and rich separated from poor. How could America call itself "land of the free", when white men had more rights than others and had more freedom? Only white men could economically and socially move upward, while woman, African Americans, people with disabilities, and other races could not. This was an immobile society.

The Articles of the Confederation was the first form of government created by the Continental Congress, which developed an alliance between the thirteen states. Congress was a single-chamber legislature which allowed for each state to possess the same amount of authority no matter the size of the community. The Constitution

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.

The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.