Yes, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was essential to preserve the Union, as the Articles of Confederation did a meager job establishing a stable America. Only a handful of people from the entire nation were pleased with the issues addressed in the Articles of Confederation. This document didn’t unite the nation, but created more differences among the people. The Articles of Confederation failed to properly allocate power between Congress and the states, giving the states supreme control, rather than Congress. This unbalance in society left each individual state on their own, besides the alliances they could form within each other (creating even more rifts within the country). The Congress didn’t hold the power to tax or create a national military, navy, and army, which didn’t allow America to strengthen as a nation. By vesting these powers in the state, the Articles of Confederation technically created thirteen small countries. After the Revolution, the United States became even more susceptible to foreign invaders and if a minute state militia was responsible for warding off these trespassers, the state would be easily attacked. This is just once consequence that could have occurred, if the Constitution of 1787 wasn’t accepted. The Constitution bestowed essential powers to the nation, without which, America would crumble. Under this newly created document, three different branches of government were created: the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive. The legislative was composed of Congress, which now had the power to create a military, control interstate and international commerce, and create laws. The Judicial branch was the Supreme Court, which would review the decision of the President (in the executive branch... ... middle of paper ... ...ge was created, to voice the people’s opinion and maintain distance from mob rule. Having members in the country’s capital vote based on their state’s decision enables the country to not suffer the fate of being controlled by a radical crowd. Now, the question of slave representation became an issue for the delegates at the Constitutional Convention. The southern states wanted the slave population to have a say, while the northern states were dead against counting something that was bought as property, to be counted as a person. By counting slaves, the representation of the south in Congress would increase, allowing plantation owners to have the most say with the country’s decisions. Overtime, the north had to create the Three-Fifths Compromise with slaves (giving each slave three-fifths of a vote), since the South threatened to cut off the North’s food supply.
At the time, larger states like Virginia were creating an unfair amount of power for themselves that the small states didn’t have. In the new government, Congress was created to make laws, and was made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives would give states a number of Representatives they could have based on their population. This would give fair power deserved to the larger states. The Senate however would be two and only two Senators for each state, no matter how large or small, bringing some equality to Congress.
The founders’ disagreements about this issue based on their economic backgrounds and coming from states with different economy had influence the creation of the Three-Fifths Compromise which dealt with how to count slaves as a part of the population. According to "The Slavery Compromises,” the Southern state 's economy, such as South Carolina, depends on the labor of slaves working in their large plantations (University of Louisiana Lafayette 2016). Since the Southern states that depended on slavery naturally owned more slaves, many of the founders from these states wanted slaves to be counted as any other white people to gain more representatives and more voice in Congress. On the other hand, the Northern states’ economy does not heavily rely on slavery, and many of these states are “free” states which restrict slavery (University of Louisiana Lafayette 2016). Many of these Northern delegates such as Elbridge Gerry countered that “Blacks are properties” and should be counted as properties that can be taxed, but not as people when they don’t have the rights of citizens (Hart et al. 111). From this, we can infer that the Northern delegates fear that the South will get more voice, more representation due to more slaves, and they thought it was ironic how the
There were many differences between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. At the end of the American Revolution the free states needed some sort of control that would generate to a unified country. Issues arose such as: How should power be divided between local and national governments? How should laws be made, and by whom? Who should be authorized to govern those laws? How could the government be designed to protect the unalienable individual rights? Their first attempt at solving this issue was the Articles of Confederation, which was a failure for the most part, but not completely. After the failure of the articles, the state delegates tried to revise the articles, but instead, constructed the Constitution. There were so many changes made and very little remained the same.
In one house, the Senate, every state is represented equally regardless of population. In the lower house, the House of Representatives each state receives one representative for a set number of people. This satisfied all of the states and helped resolve one of the greatest conflicts while writing the Constitution. Another conflict that arose was with the counting of slaves in the census used to set the number of representatives per state. This was resolved under the Three-Fifths Compromise which stated that every slave would be counted as 3/5 of a person, although these slaves were given no voice or rights.
Since the beginning of their new nation, the United States had many differences between the Northern and Southern states. During the Constitutional Convention they disagreed on how to determine their representation in the house based on population; the Southerners wanted to count their slaves and the Northerners did not, which lead to the three-fifths compromise. Later in the Convention there were concessions given to the South, which left the Northerners feeling uneasy, such as: a guarantee that the slave trade would not be interfered with by Congress until 1808 and slave owners were given the right to recover refugee slaves from anywhere in the United States. While many Northern delegates were disappointed with the rights given to the South, they felt it was necessary for the good of the Nation. This was necessary to form a strong central government and union between the states.
Therefore, in 1787, two delegates by the names of Roger Sherman and James Wilson introduced the Three Fifths compromise in the Philadelphia Convention. The Three Fifths compromise states that a slave be counted as three-fifths of a person. Therefore, the population of the southern states equaled the population of the northern states. Now that the populations were balanced, the south and the north sent the same amount of representatives to The House of Representatives. Pro-slavery southerners felt as if the north still had an advantage, but it was actually the south that had the advantage in the Senate and The House of Rep...
Out of frustration with the British monarchy during the colonial period the original legal framework The Articles of Confederation was born in an effort of mobilizing and organizing the United states original thirteen colonies. The Articles of Confederation forced the amendment process for federal laws to be unanimous, had no executive, encouraged a loose association of states and required a two-thirds majority for the passage of federal bills. Before inception of the Articles all American activities deemed insurgent to the Crown of England were viewed the same way we would view terrorist today. These were looked on as rebellious actions acting autonomous of a sovereign government. Thus, the revolutionary forces in the United States couldn’t
The U.S Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 and established the United States Government. It created three branches of government: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. James Madison proclaimed, “The constitution proposed by the convention may be considered under two general points of view . . . The second, to the particular structure of the government and the distribution of this power among its several branches” (Madison 251). Some branches were intended to have more important responsibilities. However over time, the branches evolved and the power of the government became more equal. The government when the Constitution was created is vastly different than the modern
The Articles were ineffective because Congress only had the power to recommend actions to the States. It could not enforce its recommendations or laws. Each State had its own constitution, monetary system, and means to enforce the law. Each State had a stronger commitment to the State laws and to the State's own self interests than to the recommendations of Congress. Regionalism pitted one State against another, which decreased the sense of unity in the country. For example, when Congress recommended an impost, or duty, on imported goods, the State of Rhode Island voted to reject the idea because they felt it was unfair and was against the constitution of the State (Document A). Defending the Articles is tough but not impossible. Even though Shays' Rebellion did not succeed, Congress did get to raise troops which, at the end were not needed (Document G).
The primary people that received authorship for the Constitution include, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and John Adams. In addition, George Washington is credited for taking responsibility for overseeing the Constitutional Convention. By 1786, Americans realized that the Articles of Confederation needed to be revised and edited. The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14th to September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The fundamental reason of this convention was to revise the Articles of Confederation but the delegates had much bigger plans. A secondary reason behind the convention was to decide how America was going to be governed. When there was ideas proposed to upgrade the Articles of Confederation, “The
If the Articles of Confederation was strong enough for our country, our Founding Fathers would never have proposed the Constitution to the thirteen states. The Articles were a good start for our country, but the Constitution was going to be what kept our country together for the future. In the preamble of the Constitution, it is stated, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union…”. Nothing is perfect. Not even the Founding Fathers. They created a weak document in the Articles of Confederation. They did, however, fix their mistake by not only writing the Constitution, but convincing the states to have it ratified. The Founding Fathers turned their biggest mistake into their best decision with these two documents.
The American government is truly a carefully crafted literary masterpiece that is a template that other governments strive to follow. That isn't to say it is without flaws but none are as significant as the colossal flop that was The Articles of Confederation. This prerequisite government to The United States of America was a total and complete failure. Its many flaws include: the limited ability to raise an army, the limited ability for revision and change, and lastly it had no power to tax.
The Articles of Confederation was the first U.S constitution that was written during wartime (Moehn, 2003). Its objective was to create cohesion and enhance unity among states in the United States, but fears regarding central authority hampered its progress would bring an English ruling system to the U.S. The articles were inadequate to meet the needs of governing a diverse nation as in the following ways. They granted more power and control to States instead of the central government. This federal government could also not enforce taxes or laws. The federal government could not even gather men and women for the national army, and this inadequacy was portrayed during the Shay's Rebellion as the national army was unable to organize a standing
Essay IV The Articles of Confederation was one of the first official documents of the United States. The purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to create a confederation of states whereby each state retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence. Every state was as independent as possible, with the Federal government only responsible for the common defense, security of liberties, and the general welfare. There were many problems that soon became evident as the Articles took effect, the Articles contained more weaknesses than strengths which let the authority to get rid of them and create a new document.
Every state had their own interpretation of the document and the different types of lifestyles of the framers and citizens delayed ratification time after time. But, as to what really prompted the creation of the United States Constitution could be because there were so many problems with the Articles of Confederation which served as the constitution before this one. Also is that we needed another form of government and the constitution gave us two branches that was the judicial branch and executive branch. Even though wide differences of opinion existed among all of the delegates concerning the proper balance between liberty and order. What Alexander Hamilton values was order more than liberty and was all for the creation of a very strong executive. The federal system was meant to correct the chaos of the country during the Articles of Confederation. At the same time though, it was still mindful of the threat of a central government. The relationship between national and state governments was defined in not just one but other parts of the constitution as well. Article 1 section 10 says that the states should not form alliances or enter with other countries or to coin their own money. In 1787 the founders stepped up and they threw out the Articles of Confederation and created the Constitution. The Constitution they created has now been around for more than two hundred years. They took humungous risks, but those risks resulted in the longest lasting written constitution in world