Shay's Rebellion Dbq

For our founding fathers creating a new government was a very lengthy and difficult task in which all thirteen colonies had to come together and make compromises. One of the critical moments in which the founding fathers were urgently forced to have a meeting was because of what we historically know as Shay’s Rebellion, an unruly mob led by a revolutionary soldier Daniel Shay (Ginsberg et al. 37). According to the text book We the People, Shay’s Rebellion showed the flaws in the Articles of Confederation, a weak government unable to act promptly in critical emergencies (Ginsberg et al. 38). The founding fathers had to go from the Articles of Confederation to creating a completely new government, the U.S Constitution. As you can image this

was an enormous responsibility. The founding fathers designed a new government, with a bicameral legislature, separation of powers, established a system of checks and balances and included a federal democratic structure.

Congress under the Articles of Confederation was the central government without an executive branch unable to tax or monitor the economy and lacked union among states with only one vote per state. (Ginsberg et al. 35). Therefore, it was practically impossible for all states to agree on any changes to flourish as a nation. This divided government urged our leaders to create a strong government, but before they were able to do so they were proposed by two national government plans that created disagreement among states: the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan (Ginsberg et al. 39). The Virginia Plan “…provided for a system of representation in the national legislature based upon the population of each state or the proportion of each state’s revenue contribution to the national government or both” (Ginsberg et al. 39). The Virginia Plan favored larger state and many smaller states became oppose to this plan. However, the smaller states quickly answered back proposing the New Jersey Plan asking for “…equal state representation in the national legislature regardless of population (Ginsberg et al. 39).” This disagreement on representation further divided the states and

debates continues until a new plan was proposed one which all founding fathers agreed on. Defined by We the People, the Great compromised is ”the agreement reached at the Constitution convention of 1787 that gave each state an equal number of senators regardless of its population but linked representation in the House of Representatives to population (Ginsberg et al. 62).” In other words the Great Compromise created a bicameral legislature creating two chambers: House of Representatives and Senate. Congress was created and broken into two houses the upper and lower house. In the House of Representatives, the members are based on population of each state and in the lower house, senators would be equal regardless of population or size. (Ginsberg et al. 39). As a result a bicameral legislature helped all delegates to agree to the Great Compromise in order to keep the thirteen colonies united and through the house and senate the fathers were able to limit power.
For the founding fathers the government’s framework was very crucial in the Constitution. In the documentary U.S Constitution, John Robert’s explains the division of national government. The rights given to the national government were to be made into three divisions and each division was to ensure that their authority remain inside their own domain (U.S Constitution, 2006). The U.S Constitution created what we know today as a legislature, executive and judicial branches. According to John Robert’s separation of powers “was where the main protection of our liberty resides that is their way of preventing the government from becoming too powerful… (U.S Constitution, 2006).” To further emphasize on the point of limited powers the authors in We the People, mentions that the founding fathers wanted to limit democracy so they established some rules they created the bicameral legislature and checks and balances (Ginsberg et al. 42). As a result these two principles helped our government gain support of the people who were skeptical of the new Constitution. The branches of government to this day have helped make laws, execute laws and further understand laws to present day and the next generations to come.
Checks and balance is a very important component of the U.S government structure.

According to textbook We the People, checks and balances is a rule to limit abuse of power, each division of government is able to take part in and impact other alternative divisions (Ginsberg et al. 42). This rule of checks and balances makes it possible for our branches to check one another and to limit the abuse of power. In the book We the People, explains “each branch is given not only its own powers but also some power to the other branches. (Ginsberg et al. 47).” In the end you will understand how this concept of checks and balance applies throughout the structure of the U.S

Constitution.
After establishing a bicameral legislature the founding fathers had to decide how much power to give to the new government. For Congress they included the powers to “…collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, declare war and to maintain an army and navy (Ginsberg et al. 44).” In providing significant power to Congress the leaders proposed to make a functioning and great government so they included the power necessary and proper clause which in simple terms allows Congress the power to create laws in order to manage and effectively used its expressed powers. (Ginsberg et al. 44).” The necessary and proper clause is the foundation in which Congress has the most power compared to the other branches. This ability also allowed our government to further expand on the laws for future generations to come. Thus, according to the book We the People, “Congress is the most important representative institution in American Government (Ginsberg et al. 275).” The powers of Congress as described by the narrator of the documentary The United States Congress, discusses some of congress’ powers as “…lay and collect taxes. To regulate commerce, coin money, to declare war, to raise and support armies and to create a judicial system (The United States Congress, 1993).” As mentioned before the body of Congress is made up of two houses. The members of the House representative are chosen by Americans every two years and senators are chosen in a statewide vote and serve six years in office (Ginsberg et al. 275). According to the authors of We the People, in order to safeguard and limit democracy the Constitution checks the actions of the House of Representatives with that of the Senate, whose individuals are to be selected by the states rather than the American people. (Ginsberg et al. 43). Thus according to the Ilona Nickels “the senate was design to answer a different question and the question is structure to answer what’s good for the nation (The United States Congress, 1993).” In conclusion, these two power’s the House and Senate further distributes authority and shows how the U.S Constitution is divided between federal and state.
The second branch of the government is the executive branch. According to the book We the People, the designer’s objective’s included to expand authority to the national government, president is allowed to welcome diplomats from different countries and has the ability to arrange agreements although two-thirds of the senate are required to approve such agreements. The authors emphasize the Senate’s power to consent on agreements with the executive branch allows the principle of checks and balance, as to ensure the executive branch is not given too much power (Ginsberg et al. 44). Another power provided to the President through the Constitution is “the unconditional right to grant reprieves and pardons, except in cases of impeachment, and the powers to appoint major departmental personnel, to convene Congress in special session, and to veto congressional enactments (Ginsberg et al. 45).” According to We the People the author’s point out, that the veto ability is not totally official since legislature can over turn it with two-thirds of votes by senate, again this demonstrates the writer’s emphasize of the principle of checks and balances (Ginsberg et al. 45). Thus, this department of government is also checked by congress in order to have protections on abuse of power.
Lastly, the courts also known as the judicial branch is the third branch created by the founding fathers. According to the authors of We the People, the designers created the principle court of the Country and the national government. The purpose of courts was the ability to determine any disputes between the federal and state law (Ginsberg et al. 45). The judicial branch other power’s include “…the right to determine whether a power is exclusive to the national government, concurrent with the states, or exclusive to the states (Ginsberg et al. 45).” The courts ability to what is called judicial review is the ability to examine the actions by the other branches and determine if they are invalid or unlawful (Ginsberg et al. 382). In conclusion, the principle of checks and balances are demonstrated throughout the structure of the U.S Constitution and the judicial branch is no exception.
The fundamental concept of federalism according to We the People is “…a system of two sovereigns- the states and the nation- with the hope that competition between the two would be effective limitation on the power of both (Ginsberg et al. 382)” What this essentially means is power is divided between the national government and state. As mentioned previous the founding fathers framework consist of this key concept. According to the book We the People, the writers of the Constitution tried to restrict the national government by also granting power to the state government (Ginsberg et al. 67). Consequently, federalism was a concept many of the colonist could not trust. However, once the different branches were established and key principles structure of a bicameral legislature and concepts of checks and balances was put into play people began to belief in the U.S Constitution. In addition the tenth amendment protected the right for federalism. In the book We the People states” the tenth amendment says that if the Constitution does not mentioned or found in the Constitution then it the responsibility to the states (Ginsberg et al. 68). These power’s in the book We the People include “…the power to develop and enforce criminal codes, to administer health and safety rules, and to regulate the family via marriage and divorce laws (Ginsberg et al. 68). The division of government within Federal and state and additional protections within the other departments have helped with a secure government in which the people can belief in and trust.

Overall, in effectively creating a government for the people of the New World to be able to trust and to have their rights protected the founding fathers established a unique system. The bicameral legislature helped bring states together while protecting their rights and establishing a strong national government. The separation of powers helped secured each division of government by consistently checking each other. From one side you have the national government and state governments both working together in protecting the right of the people and each in charge of governments within their own boundaries. The key concept of checks and balances can be seen in each branch and effectively limiting democracy and protecting the national government from having too much power.