The late eighteenth century was a time filled with much government reform throughout America with the creation of vital documents such as the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. Through a few centuries of buffer, it is often forgotten what some of these political changes are meant to revise. Some of these changes, like ones found in the Constitution, have proven extremely helpful in the molding of the nation we live in today, changes such as the Privileges and Immunities clause. The Privileges and Immunities clause is one clause meant to protect the rights of individuals by guarding their personal rights while in the different states of the country. The Privileges and Immunities clause is found in Article IV Section 2 of the Constitution and it states, “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.” This clause was made to keep traveling individuals from becoming discriminated against by the people owning that land. The clause would give these visitors the same rights as the rights they would have in their home state. James Madison’s explanation of the Privileges and Immunities clause in …show more content…
Said clause was meant to keeps the states unified but mainly through commerce and trade so that these traders could visit a state and have the ability to buy and sell without a special grant from the host-state. The writers of the constitution preemptively added this clause to fight the feared possibility of interstate commerce, or any other form of mercantilism, where the members of that state would only trade with members from their home in order to dramatically boost their economy and dampen that of the rival states, and anybody trying to sell from outside of the state would possibly be taxed or even prohibited to
Webster argued the Constitution was design to settle such economic disputes between states. Allowing concurrent laws to conflict would be dangerous and contagious if not handled by the federal government. Attorney Writ supported the federal supremacy over these states was enumerated in the Constitution. Gibbons’ steamboats operated “among several states” (US National Archives & Records Administration n.d.), and the Commerce Clause states, “ Congress shall have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among several States, and with Indian tribes” (US National Archives & Records Administration n.d.). Gibbons’ steamboats in fact operated in New Jersey and in New York; therefore it aptly applied in this situation.
In addition, the Articles prohibited Congress from regulating commerce which meant inhibited foreign trade and a weak national economy. Therefore, the Constitution solved this problem by giving Congress the right to regulate interstate
It gave character to the country [Doc. B]. Instead of uniting as a nation to reach middle ground on issues of state constitutional rights to govern themselves, which states would be free states and which would be slave states, the regions began to look out for
That statement is the beginning of how and why this country was created. In the case of states’ rights the Declaration of Independence did not matter, nor did the Supremacy Clause when it came to slavery. Only after a war and loss of many lives did we start to see how important it is to follow the Constitution. Great men on both sides argued for and against slavery, and in the end nothing matters. Believe it or not, today we still argue about how to get around the constitution.
During the Federal Convention the importance was on getting all thirteen states to join the union and therefore compromising played a big role. As a Mr. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut points out that “the morality or wisdom of slavery are considerations belonging to the states themselves”. There were a few that did oppose slavery thinking that it would “bring the judgment of Heaven on a country” and believed that the federal government did have the right to regulate slave trade. With such division in their thoughts and views of slavery plus the trade of them Mr. Roger Sherman “observed that the abolition of slavery seemed to be going on in the United States, and that the good sense of the several states would probably by degrees complete it”. In the long run, men that were against slavery thought it was more important for the thirteen colonies to come together than the abolishment of slavery knowing that it will come to extinction in the long
As it applies to the Articles of Confederation there were many weaknesses in the way it went about governing the United States. For one, the loose federation of the states was too weak to act as a foundation to be considered or act as a central government. In addition the state legislatures had too much power and in turn had the ability to influence economic issues of all kinds. This strong legislature is the same one that allowed for mob ruling and actions by debtors. The Articles of confederation were also weak because the required congress to have all 13 colonies in agreement when a new tax was to be passed.
Jonah Brenner Federalist Paper 33 Alexander Hamilton begins Federalist Paper 33 by stating the following clauses: The Constitution authorizes the national legislature “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.” Also “the Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.” These two clauses have been subject to intense accusations against the
The three-fifths clause was the most important constitutional compromise because it granted the Southern states more political authority, which the Southerners then used to maintain slavery as an institution in the upcoming decades. The three-fifths clause made it so that three-fifths of a state’s slave population would be used in order to decide how many electoral votes and how many representatives a state could have. It was a compromise between the South (which relied on slaves for its economy) and the North (which had fewer slaves) for the sake of political unity. This clause guaranteed Southern states more political power than Northern States through votes or representation, so that laws would pass that allowed slavery to continue and flourish.
5. Johnson discusses “privilege as paradox” to explain that being identified as individuals of the privileged group doesn’t really say much about who they are individually as a person. People are treated with privilege because others have a perception that they are associated with those particular groups and social categories. For example, white privilege is more about having the white skin color rather than who they are as people in general. One is not privileged because of who they are as a person but rather belonging the “white” category.
Therefore the bill did not pass. The third thing was that “commerce between states suffered because there was no centralized authority to manage it. Because each state had its own currency, its own levels of inflation, and its own taxes, it was difficult to transport goods across state lines or engineer large programs that would encompass an entire region” (Shultz, 2014, p.
The Alien and Sedition Acts that were designed and passed by Congress in 1798 established a range of restrictions on the society. Among those laws, the Naturalization Act made the process of gaining American citizenship longer and the Sedition Act was designed to forbid publishing the materials against the government. While those documents “were in conflict with the Bill of Rights”, the Congress considered them appropriate (Roark 281). The positions of people within the society regarding these laws differed. From the point of view of a recent immigrant, these laws were inappropriate for the American democratic society.
He states “...the declarations of rights in the separate states are no security.” He is talking about how if the states had individualized citizens rights,
The Commerce clause refers to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, which gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foregin nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes”. This clause is one of the most fundamental powers delegated to congress by the founders. It has helped to seprate the powers between the federal governemtn and the states, along with the branches of governemtn and Judiciary. In simpler terms the commerce clause was to help regulate commerce among navigable waters.
To keep in simple terms government made rights where citizens have equal right, and to protect discrimination by
If not for the clause, anything that is not stated in the constitution, such as the examples listed before, would fall under Reserved Powers to the states and the government would not be able to take the necessary steps to accomplish their list of powers. Thus, the elasticity of the clause is ever changing and what is “necessary and proper” now may not hold true in the