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What was the significance of the declaration of independence
The significance of the Declaration of Independence
The significance of the Declaration of Independence
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The President of the United States is commonly referred to as the most powerful man in the world. The President is the head of the country which boasts the world’s largest economy, commander and chief of the most powerful military in the world, and has command authority over the largest active nuclear arsenal in the world. However, his power is not unlimited. Throughout the history of the United States, some presidents have attempted to go beyond the powers granted to them. Most of these attempts have ended in scandal. Regardless of whether these actions were for the good of the nation or for personal gain, laws must be obeyed. Otherwise the United States would become the same tyrannical government our forefathers fought to escape from. In 1620, the Mayflower landed in what is now the United States. The Mayflower carried the Puritans and Separatists, also known as pilgrims, who wished to seek religious freedom from the King of Great Britain. By sailing to America, or the new world, the pilgrims could practice their religion without government interference. After the pilgrims colonized the new world and established trade, the King of Britain realized how profitable America could be. The King began to impose laws and taxes on the colonies. Each law and tax was put into to place to benefit Great Britain, not the colonies. Furthermore, the colonies were being taxed without representation. Britain could pass any law or tax without the colonies’ consent. This eventually led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which in turn led to the American revolution. After gaining independence from Britain, the colonies created a constitution which is still the governing document of the United States. It was formed to allow the... ... middle of paper ... ...es of his administration. While investigating a scandal, officials have come to ask two important questions; "What did the President know?" and "When did he know it?" Whether knowledgeable or not, the president should still be held accountable. If laws prevent the president from upholding the duties of his office, the he should work with other elected officials to change or remove the laws. Not even the President can break the law and to do so is to undermine the very existence of the Constitution of the United States. Several Presidents have been involved in scandals. Some of these scandals have caused the American people to lose faith in their government. Other scandals have pushed the United States to the brink of nuclear war. The law must be upheld at all costs. The only way to prevent future scandals is to always hold individuals accountable for their actions.
...ess time for the corruption brought on by one man with a plan and carried out by a few men with a hunger for more money to manipulate one man that had no real, true plan to be the President of the United States. Once Hamon’s plan took root, it only took about a year for planning, less than a year to have the “right” people in position, and about one year for the actual deed of drilling on the Naval oil reserve. Yet, it took a large amount of people investigating a case of so few, six years to complete the hearings. Water and oil do not mix just like politicians and big oil companies should not. The end result will always be one, nasty mess that no one wants to wash their hands in. Unfortunately, history has proven itself, The Teapot Dome scandal in 1922, and the Watergate scandal in 1972. If this continues, the next major political scandal will happen in 2022.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
The thirteen American colonies were under the British control until they declared their independence from British in 1776. A year after the declaration of independence, the continental congress established the Article Of Confederation, which was the first constitution in the United States. According to manythings.org, “During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation”. It was later ratified in 1781, but it had many negatives because it was very weak. According to manythings.org, the Articles Of Confederation did not: organize a central government, create courts or decide laws, nor provide an executive to carry out the laws, and all it did was just create a Congress. This congress was very useless
The year of 1776 was a time of revolution, independence, and patriotism. American colonists had severed their umbilical cord to the Mother Country and declared themselves “Free and Independent States”.1 The chains of monarchy had been thrown off and a new government was formed. Shying away from a totalitarian government, the Second Continental Congress drafted a document called the Articles of Confederation which established a loose union of the states. It was an attempt at self-government that ended in failure. The Articles of Confederation had many defects which included a weak central government that lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, required equal representation and a unanimous vote to amend the Articles, and had only a legislative branch. As a result the United States lacked respect from foreign countries. These flaws were so severe that a new government had to be drafted and as a result the Constitution was born. This document remedied the weak points of the federal government and created one that was strong and fair, yet still governed by the people.
The Articles of Confederation was America’s first constitution. The Articles of Confederation failed to create a strong central government, however. With the demise of the states in sight, the need for a stronger and more structured central government became apparent. An invitation was sent to all thirteen states in February 1787 by the Confederation Congress to resolve the matter. The events that took place over the next several months would create the United States Constitution. Going down in history as a revolutionary form of government, the U.S. Constitution would give life to a country that is still running strong over 200 years later.
When Nixon was inaugurated, he took a sworn oath to protect the people and the country. He lied to his people. He states, “The major problem on the Watergate is simply to clean the thing up by having whoever was responsible admit what happened. Certainly I am satisfied that nobody in the White House had any knowledge or approved any such activity.” (Memoirs 646).
It is clear that while political scandal, primarily the 1974 Watergate scandal, played a large role in the rapidly declining confidence in government between 1968 and 1980, it is not the sole or even the dominant factor. The Watergate scandal only impacted on the Nixon era, and subsequently lead to measures that should have prevented further distrust in the government. Instead, the role played by the four presidents who held office in those years was the main reason behind the decline in confidence. The role of the presidents and their White House administrations encompassed political scandals, and also clearly influenced other factors such as the role
The Watergate Scandal and the resignation of President Nixon was the beginning of American’s mistrust of politicians. This can be viewed as a positive effect. As a result three important open record reforms created. The first of the reforms is the Sunshine Act in 1976. This requires government agencies to conduct meetings that are open to public, with a few exceptions. In 1978, the Ethics in Government Act requires public officials to disclose financial and employment records. The Presidential Records Act, also initiated in 1978, required preservati...
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...
Over the following decade following the Declaration of Independence, the appointed leaders created the U.S. Constitution (1787), which established America’s national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens (History.com).
In the 1600’s there was the foundations of representative government. In the 1600’s the colonists came up with something called a democracy. A democracy is a government in which people rule themselves. The colonists had voted for many certain laws. They ruled themselves by using the laws of society. The carter named “Magna Carta” was a character of liberties which was agreed by King John of England, it had made the king obey the same laws as the citizens. Protestantism is a branch within Christianity; this was mostly participated during the 16th century. These were people who had reformed certain practices in the Catholic churches. On November 11, 1620 the Mayflower Compact was signed. The Mayflower Compact is a legal contract which was agreed to have fair laws to protect the good.
In 1776 when the Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain with the Declaration of Independence they had one clear goal in mind: become a sovereign nation and avoid the tyranny of Great Britain. What they did not know, however, is that they had to face many more issues beyond simply cutting the ties with Great Britain; they also had to create and maintain a working system of rules which could guide them into becoming the United States of America. Once Independence was gained in 1783, the Articles of Confederation were created, but with many deep flaws in the system. The Federal government had no power, and the states were loosely held together and hardly acted as if they were a single united nation. After recognizing that these problems were too large to overcome easily, several of the greatest men in the nation gathered together to rectify these problems.
On September 6, 1620, 102 men, women and children from England boarded a small cargo boat called the Mayflower and set sail for the New World. The passengers left their homes in England in search of religious freedom from the King of England. Today they are known as "pilgrims."
Only three times in the 226 year history of the office of the President of the United States has the idea of impeachment reared its head. Only twice has a president been impeached, and only one president has been driven out of office due to possible high crimes and misdemeanors. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton both were impeached by the House of Representatives, and faced trial in the Senate. Both presidents were acquitted of their supposed transgressions, and were allowed to remain in office. Richard Nixon, despite never experiencing impeachment, vacated his office due to increasing pressure to resign and spare the Senate from going through the process due to his obvious guilt. Nixon was actually in violation of his duties as President, but Clinton and Johnson were impeached by political rivals. Nixon’s actions were considered in such grave violation of the Constitution, that he did not keep his office, whereas Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton stayed.
The United States Justice System is founded on In it's historical context, Watergate was not a surprising development when it is considered that Nixon was a paranoid personality capable of using any avenue to insure that his political objectives were attained. He had proved that early in his political career in his famous Checkers speech. By the early 70's however the nation had changed. It wasn't as easy to dupe the public with sappy speeches to explain away political indiscretions. The country was seriously concerned about our involvement in Southeast Asia and how the administration was going to extricate itself from the disaster. The media was on the job during this watershed period in our political history.