Explain Why The Constitution Was Not America's First Form Of Government

The United States has worked under two constitutions. Articles of Confederation was the first constitution in our nation. It was in effect from March 1st, 1781, after Maryland ratified it. Articles of Confederation was replaced by The Constitution on June 21, 1788, which was ratified by New Hampshire. The main principles behind the modern constitution were human rights, accountability, power separation, representative government, and independence of judiciary. The focus was on how the individual liberty could be permanently secured and preserved.

Tyranny can come in many different forms. It could only be one person ruling everything, or it could be any group of people. Tyranny means a cruel or oppressive government rule, which is usually started by someone with too much power, and they become corrupt. For this reason, In Philadelphia, 1787, 55 men met up for the Constitutional Convention. This convention aimed to fix all problems with the Articles of Confederation. However this idea was eventually scrapped and they wrote a whole new constitution. This constitution would protect America from tyranny, so they could keep a civilized and united country. The Constitution that was made helped defend America from almost all types of tyranny and is still helping us hundreds of years later.

had major issues that lead to exposure of problems through, what could have been, dangerous events like Shay’s Rebellion. Although crushed before it could do substantial damage to the country, this group of 300 men exposed some serious problems with the A of C. Some of these include the government not having a standing army, and the fact the the national government couldn’t levy taxes. Under the Articles, the states had these powers under the idea that a weak Federal government was best. One of the first privileges discussed was shown in Document 1 (letter from James Madison to George Washington). It is stated that “the national government should be armed with positive and complete authority in all cases which require uniformity; such as the regulation of trade, including the right of taxing both exports and imports, the fixing of terms and forms of naturalization….” These authorities that the national government should have, were all up to the states to decide under the Articles. With the taking away some of the states rights in the Constitution, Anti-federalists feared that this would leave the states too weak, resulting in more problems. Under the new Constitution, many powers that were now in the government 's hands are: the power to levy and collect taxes, the power to regulate interstate commerce, the government set up a national court system consisting of district, circuit, and a supreme court, the government could enforce laws, there was now a house based on population, and a senate based on equal representation (two votes per state), to amend the Constitution, a ⅔ vote of Congress was needed, and a ¾ vote of the states were needed, and a majority rule was needed to pass bills. These new powers and abilities of the national government helped to create a strong, new

The reason that the Articles of Confederation established such a weak government was because the colonists were afraid that a strong central government would become tyrannical and oppressive like the British were towards the colonists. However, instead of leading to the downfall of America, the deficiencies that were evident in the Articles of Confederation furthered the definition of the principles of America because the insufficient government of that time voiced a need for a stronger government. To answer this need, the colonists passed the Constitution of the United States. The founding fathers ratified the Constitution in 1787, and it established a much stronger government than the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution founded the laws that would govern America for centuries; it was a crucial factor in the development of the identity of America. The Constitution gave Americans the freedom and rights that have become the hallmark of the country. It organized the foundations of America that would eventually evolve to become one of the most powerful and influential nations in the

Although the Articles of Confederation was America's first national document, it came with many weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses was that the federal government was too weak and therefore could not enforce laws. The Continental Congress borrowed money to fight in both the Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War therefore were in debt. Because they could not forcefully tax the citizens, they were unable to collect money and repay their debt. In relation to the federal government being weak, the Powers of the State had far more power. Due to the states having more power, they were acting as if they were independent countries. Another

One of the reasons that the constitution guards against tyranny is Federalism. Federalism is dividing power between the state governments and the central government. The central government has no more power over the states that the states have over that central government. According to federalist paper number 51, 1788 the central government has the power to regulate trade, provide an army and navy, conduct foreign relations, and a couple other powers. The powers given to the states include: setting up local governments, establishing schools, holding elections, passing marriage and divorce laws, and regulating in state business. Federalism gives the states and the central government equal power to guard against tyranny.

Considered one of the most important documents in United States history, the Constitution was the basis of a government still functioning today. In the summer of 1787, 55 delegates from eleven of the thirteen states gathered in Philadelphia to fix the first attempt at a constitution, the Acts of Confederation. The government set up by this functioned so poorly that the entire document was scrapped thus making way for the Constitution. This provided a functioning government organized in a way that would eliminate any chance of a single party or person becoming a tyrant. The Constitution created an outline for a government with powers fairly distributed between the federal government, state governments, three branches of government and small

“The purpose of the United States Constitution is to limit the power of the federal government not the American people.” – The Federalist Papers. Our government is not the exact same way it was from the very beginning of its creation. It has changed dramatically over the course of about two-hundred years, as said in the video, “The Constitution must change for challenges in the future.” Truthfully, it has been changed and adapted to meet the ever changing needs of our society. In the very beginning or the “birth,” of our United States government we did not have a constitution, in fact the democratic experiment did not begin in 1776. The American government went through several trial and errors to see what worked and what did not before creating and establishing the U.S. Constitution.

When the colonists were still with Great Britain, King George III misused his power. As a result, colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, to the king, to state their separation from Great Britain, to form a new country, the United States of America. After creating a new country, Americans wrote the Articles of Confederation in the year 1777, which they purposely weakened central government, so the abuse of power, wouldn’t exist. This meant the states had all the power. Although this structure of government seemed great, the creators of the Articles quickly realized that with no central government, states weren’t united because they were busy on increasing the growth of only their state. To fix the Articles of Confederation,

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).

The United States of America declared its independence from England because the king was abusing his powers like a tyrant. For example, the king set taxes without consent, unfair laws, and set soldiers in times of peace. According to James Madison, “The accumulation of all powers...in the same hands whether at one, a few, or many is the very definition of tyranny.” In 1781, the United States’ first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was approved. The Articles of Confederation gave most of the power to the states but unfortunately failed because there was no leader, no court system, and no power to tax. Because of this, a new constitution had to be made. The Constitution was written in the city of Philadelphia, in May 1787, by 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states. The Constitution guarded against tyranny through federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the Great Compromise.

Our national government has not always dad this much influence over matters concerning this country. Under the Articles of Confederation, power for the national government was vastly limited compared to the current central government today. The people who wrote the Articles where worried about a strong central government that would oppress them like the King did. In turn they came up with the Articles of Confederation which gave greater power to the states instead of the national government. Under the Us Constitution the central government know has more power than it did under the Articles of Confederation to stabilize the United States.

The Articles of Confederation created a loose system of government led by the states, in which Congress could not levy taxes without the approval of every state or pass even a simple law without the approval of seven states. This was especially evident when the Congress attempted to establish a universal interstate tariff (as interstate commerce was largely unregulated), the Rhode Island assembly denied the resolution, citing the law “bearing hardest on the most commercial states,” the introduction of “officers unknown and unaccountable to them,” and the tax

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…” The U.S. Constitution came into power in 1789, replacing the Articles of Confederation, which was a complete and utter failure. Therefore, the colonies needed to establish a government, but not just any sort of government, a government with limited power. With this in mind, The Constitution was written exclusively to limit powers in the government. The U.S. Constitution wasn’t designed to make a pure democracy, it wasn’t designed to be a monarch, it required taking certain rights away from people in order to protect the future of the nation. As a result, these actions by the Framers created a strong government that could adequately support a nation.

The United States worked together to establish a strong government in Iraq along with its leaders. The issue that was being debated was, which type of government would work best for Iraq? Here in the United States, our government is based off of a federal system. A federal system is “a system government in which the national government and state government share power and derive authority from its people” (O’Connor, Sabato, and Yanus, 41). America was not always based off of the federal system. Our first form of government after declaring ourselves independent from Britain was a confederate system named The Articles of Confederation. A confederation is “a type of government in which the national government derives its powers from