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More handpicked essays just for you.
The relationship between the states and the federal government
The relationship between the states and the federal government
Roles of federal government compared to roles of state government
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Despite its name as “The Supreme Law of the Land”, The United States Constitution is considered to be a contract. The two relevant parties involved in this contract are mainly the state and the federal government. The conditions of this contract are to follow the structure and order of this government system. Finally, like any contract, it can be broken, for example, the declaration of the succession of South Carolina. The United States Constitution is considered to be a contract due to the parties’ involved, agreeable conditions, and the ability to be broken. The first reason why the United Sates Constitution is considered to be a contract because of the two parties’ involved. Those two parties involved in this contract is the state and the federal government. Back during our founding father 's era, the two parties that were …show more content…
The Federalist’s beliefs were to have a strong central government, which is today can be considered as the Democratic Party. Then the Anti-Federalist’s beliefs were to have a strong state government, which in this case is considered to be today’s Republican Party. No matter what type of names they had or have, their beliefs are considered to be the groups involved in this contract. So there is a party that wanted a strong national liberal government and the other party who believe in a strong state conservative party. At the end, no matter in what era, there were always two sides for this contract. The second reason why the United States Constitution is considered to be a contract is to follow the structure and order of the government system that states. The United States Constitution was designed to have a structure and to lay down a foundation for this nation. Calhoun states, “Without this, it is as impossible to lay any solid foundation for the science of government” (3). So the constitution was written to design to structure and lay down the foundation of a government. The Constitution starts off by describing how the
The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, believed in supremacy of national government, broad and loose interpretation of the Constitution, and commercial and industrial development. They were pro-British. They favored national bank and protective tariffs. Therefore, they gained support mainly from American financiers, manufacturers, merchants, and established political leaders mainly outside the South. On the contrary, the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Madison, were suspicious of national government. They believed in strong state governments led by the “common man” and strict interpretation of the Constitution. They were pro-French, and opposed to the national bank and protective tariffs. Since they put emphasis on agriculture, they gained support from wealthy southern planters and ordinary farmers throughout the country.
Before the Constitution was drafted, the United States’ budding government, now independent from Great Britain, acted under a dysfunctional constitution called the Articles of Confederation. Although this constitution kept the new nation running, there were still flaws that needed to be fixed. The Articles of Confederation lacked a developed executive or judicial branch and a method for the main government to collect taxes from state governments, according to the background essay of the DBQ Packet. An assembly of fifty-five men eventually gathered for a Constitutional Convention in order to write a new constitution that would better satisfy the people’s needs. The trouble of creating another constitution lied behind creating a document
In his speech, The Making of the U.S. Constitution, Gordon Wood discusses the history of how the U.S. Constitution came to be. He explains what factors contributed to its making and what the general consensus was about it during the time. He explains that the reason the constitution was created was because the government needed more power. Why did the government need more power? In short, to unify the 13 states and make life, in general, easier for its citizens, officers, artisans, and even to help with commercial interests (Wood, 2012).
In conclusion, political parties had different views and different goals. While the Republicans had showed that they were competent and governed the country effectively, the Federalists were quite behind with their principles and the way they handled the country’s affairs. That explains the downfall of the Federalist Party which eventually led to its dead in the late 1820s. Nonetheless, they all shared the same ultimate goal: to find a way to properly govern and strengthen their country.
After the Constitution was written, the new born nation was immediately split into two political sides, the federalists and the anti-federalists, over the ratification. Federalists, southern planters or people that tended to hold interest in trade, advocated a strong executive. On the other hand, anti-federalists, back country people or people involved in business but not in the mercantile economy, opposed the ratification of the constitution. The two sides, after much debate, were able to come to a compromise after the Bill of Rights was included into the Constitution.
Did the Founding Fathers actually create the constitution to help us? Alternatively, did they create the constitution just to protect their beliefs and so on? The Founding Fathers was an elite group that sought to create a constitution for their own interests. Several members apart from this strategic group agreed to create the constitution only for their selfish ambitions. The Founding Fathers created the constitution rather than amend the Articles of Confederation. Just because some decline the ideas of others apart from the group, which created a break in the group. As a result, members of the elite group saw this as a way of starting over to fresh new start. Therefore, the person who always seemed to make everything a problem in this elite
These parties were the federalists and the republicans. They had very few geographical divisions, and views were mixed on both sides. See the best example of this in the Maysville Road article. There was a dispute over the proposed road, and whether or not it should be built. federal money.
The United States' Constitution is one the most heralded documents in our nation's history. It is also the most copied Constitution in the world. Many nations have taken the ideals and values from our Constitution and instilled them in their own. It is amazing to think that after 200 years, it still holds relevance to our nation's politics and procedures. However, regardless of how important this document is to our government, the operation remains time consuming and ineffective. The U.S. Constitution established an inefficient system that encourages careful deliberation between government factions representing different and sometimes competing interests.
A constitution is the system of fundamental principles according to which a nation is governed. Our founding fathers created the US Constitution to set specific standards for our country. We must ask ourselves why our founding fathers created the Constitution in the first place. America revolted against the British due to their monarchy form of government. After the American Revolution, each of the original 13 colonies operated under its own rules of government. Most states were against any form of centralized rule from the government. They feared that what happened in England would happen again. They decided to write the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified in 1781. It was not effective and it led to many problems. The central government could not regulate commerce between states, deal with foreign governments or settle disputes. The country was falling apart at its seams. The central government could not provide assistance to the state because there wasn’t a central army. When they realized that the Articles of Confederation was not up to par, they held a convention, known as the Constitutional Convention of 1787. As a result of t...
In today's day in age, the Democratic and Republican parties seem to be completely diverse. These two parties have completely opposing views on topics ranging from social issues, health care, tax policy, labor and free trade, foreign policy, crime and capital punishment, energy and environmental issues, and even education. Once upon a time however, these two groups were not as polarized as they have become. Both were once a single party known as the Democratic-Republican Party, formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1791. This sole party favored the idea of a decentralized, democratic government. They despised the idea of the U.S government becoming anything similar to England's monarchy system at the time. They also supported states’ rights as well as the literal and strict interpretation of the U.S Constitution. The group's purpose was to stand against the Federalists who were
While the Federalists believe in a strong, central government, the Anti-Federalists believe in the shared power of state and national governments to maintain the rights of all Americans .The Anti-Federalist favored a confederated government were the state and national governments could share power ,protect citizen’s freedom ,and independence. The Anti-Federalists found many problems in the Constitution. Many were concerned the central government take was all individual rights. Anti-Federalist primarily consisted of farmers and tradesmen and was less likely to be a part of the wealthy elite than were members of their rival the Federalist. Many Anti-federalists were local politicians who feared losing power should the Constitution be ratified and argued that senators that served for too long and represented excessively large territories would cause senators to forget what their responsibilities were for that state. They argued that the Constitution would give the country an entirely new and unknown form of government and saw no reason in throwing out the current government. Instead, they believed that the Federalists had over-stated the current problems of the country and wanted improved characterization of power allowable to the states. They also maintained that the Framers of the Constitution had met as a discriminatory group under an order of secrecy and had violated the stipulations of the Articles of Confederation in the hopes for the for ratification of the Constitution. The Anti-Federalist were sure that the Constitution would take away the rights of the American citizens and fought hard to stop the ratification on the
The document I chose to write about is the United States Constitution. When the thirteen British colonies in North America declared their independence in 1776, they laid down that “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The “colonies” had to establish a government, which would be the framework for the United States. The purpose of a written constitution is to define and therefore more specifically limit government powers. After the Articles of Confederation failed to work in the 13 colonies, the U.S. Constitution was created in 1787.
Thorpe, Francis Newton, and the United States Constitution. The federal and state constitutions, colonial charters, and other organic laws of the state, territories, and colonies now or heretofore forming the United States of America (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909).
Regarding the Constitution, the Federalists and Anti-federalists (otherwise known as the Democratic-Republican Party or the Jeffersonians), held drastically different opinions.2 The Federalists, for one, believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, where only those words directly stated in the Constitution were to grant permission for pow...
The Constitution of the United States is an intricate document, that has influenced and shaped many newly formed Democratic nations. Many people believe that the ideas in the American Constitution are all novel and original, but that is untrue. The roots of American Constitutionalism are found in the historical paradigms of Western tradition. The fact is, constitutional doctrines were long developed and put into use long before the birth of America. The Greeks, the Romans, the English, and even the Colonialist in the New World all formed constitutional doctrines that would later influence the Founding Fathers of the American Constitution.