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Struggle for power between state and federal
Essays about the history behind the constitution
Relationship between federal government, state government, local government
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The United States constitution was written roughly 200 years ago and at the time the framers laid out a system of government that they thought would function effectively and represent their vision for the nation. I believe that the modern political system does not reflect the framers vision at all because the relationship between state and federal government has drastically changed, the balance of power within the federal government changed in favor of the executive branch and in the modern system citizenship has been expanded. The framers had a very restrictive attitude towards citizenship. Citizenship in my opinion is the ability of a person to effectively participate in the political process. The framers gave the impression that they wanted the average American to have citizenship. For example, running for office in the House of Representatives required “No qualification of wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil …show more content…
After the Civil War, the 15th amendment gave African Americans the right to vote . On paper this amendment gave African Americans the right to vote, southern states began to implement Jim Crow laws which restricted African Americans from voting through things such as poll taxes and literacy tests. In the North “racism increasingly restricted the lives and opportunities of the growing number of blacks” . Despite racism in the North and the Jim Crow laws in the South effectively restricting African American citizenship, I feel the framers would fear that the 15th amendment would increase the chances that a tyrannical faction would form and that it would make regulating the effects of factions more difficult. Eventually, the Civil rights act of 1964 abolished Jim Crow laws making the process of voting for African Americans easier. I think that any expansion of who can vote is against what the framers intended as the more people who are allowed the vote, the more powerful and larger factions
Additionally, the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed blacks the right to vote, but the South found ways to get around this amendment.
...h and 15th Amendments were made to improve the lives of African Americans and give them equal rights with white citizens. While the intention of the lawmakers was good, the amendments failed because of the strength of the feelings of former slave owners and their ability to influence the people that enforced the law.
...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.
The purpose of a revolution is to bring forth change in government and political standing. There has been revolutions happening throughout the course of history. The opposite of a revolution is a counter-revolution. A counter-revolution is revolution against a government recently established by a previous revolution. One particular culprit to the counter revolution is the United States' Constitution. This document is debated to be counter-revolutionary while still keeping the fundamental principles of the American Revolution alive. There is definitely proof for both arguments. Therefore, the U.S. Constitution was both a counter-revolutionary document and an extension to the American Revolution.
The United States Constitution and the Articles have several ever present difference that some considered to be too radical. In terms of levying taxes, the Articles Congress could request states to pay taxes while with the Constitution; the Congress has the right to levy taxes on individuals. The Articles government had no court system while the Constitution created a court system to deal with issues between citizens and states. The lack of provisions to regulate interstate trade the Articles possessed created large economic problems, leading into a depression in the mid 1780's. The Constitutional Congress has the right to regulate trade between states. The Constitution has a strong executive branch headed by our president who chooses cabinet and has checks on power of the other two branches; the Articles had no executive with power. The president merely presided over Congress. The Articles took almost 5 years to ratify due to the fact that 13/13 colonies needed to amend the Articles before it could go into affect, with the Constitution, 2/3 of both houses of Congress plus ¾ of the states legislatures or national convention had to approve. During the years under the Articles, foreign soldiers occupied US forts during our early years, we were unable to force them out due to the fact that Congress could not draft troops, and they depended on the states to contribute to the forces. Under the Constitution we have the ability to raise an army to deal with any sort of military situations. In terms of passing laws, under the Articles 9/13 states needed to approve legislation while under the Constitution, 50% plus 1 of both houses plus the signature of the president is needed to pass a law. The Articles had a huge problem when it came to state representation. Under the Articles every state only received one vote, regardless of its size, this hindered the power of the larger states. With the Constitution, the upper house (Senate) has 2 votes and the lower house (House of Representatives) is based on population. When two states had disputes the Articles had a complicated system of arbitration to go through before any resolution was reached, under the Constitution, the federal Court system handles disputes between states.
Following the victory of the North over the South in the civil war, Black Americans were given independence. This led to court rulings such as the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment, which granted all citizens equality before the law and stated that, the ‘right to vote should not be denied ... on account of race’. However, in practice these Amendments were not upheld, there were no measures in place to implement these rulings and no prevention of the ill treatment of Black Americans. Due to these new rulings, De Facto segregation increased especially with the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Also, in the South although the 15th Amendment gave everyone the right to vote, Jim Crow laws were put in place to deliberately prevent Black Americans from voting. Black Americans had differing views on how to deal with their situation, while some felt it was best to accept the status quo, others wanted to fight for equal rights but disagreed on whether they should integrate with whites or remain separate.
In the latter half of the 18th century, freed slaves possessed the right to vote in all but three states. It was not until the 19th century that states began to pass laws to disenfranchise the black population. In 1850, only 6 out of the 31 states allowed blacks to vote. 1Following the civil war, three reconstruction amendments were passed. The first and second sought to end slavery and guarantee equal rights. The third, the 15th amendment, granted suffrage regardless of color, race, or previous position of servitude.2 The 15th Amendment monumentally changed the structure of American politics as it was no longer the privileged whites who could vote. For some it was as though hell had arrived on earth, but for others, it was freedom singing. However, the song was short lived. While many political cartoons from the period show the freedom that ex-slaves have for voting because of the 15th Amendment, they often neglect to include the fact that many African Americans were coerced into voting a certain way or simply had their rights stripped from them.
Due to that the opposition towards this was heavily influenced. There was, also the denying of voting for women. There was the use of “property qualifications to prevent poor black and white men from voting” (Hine 174). Ensuring the denying of voting to black people, since most of the black community was poor and would never gain enough profit to demonstrate they were capable of voting. Stripping them from their legal right to vote, no matter what circumstances money wise they were in. Due to “the egalitarian movement to remove property qualifications” (Hine 174) the disfranchisement began. According to white race voters the allowing of the black race vote would corrupt the system. Since they “would be encouraged to try to mix socially with white people” (Hine 174). Due to that there was the threat that the voting of the black race would position them in the election to office. Demonstrating the racism there still was. And the unequalness of freedom that African Americans had. Since all the rights they were entitled to were denied to them. Making them feel that the freedom they were enjoying of wasn’t
The passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States gave African-Americans recognized rights under the law. However, a national commitment to the civil and political rights of all U.S. citizens without regard to matters of race was destined to last less then a decade.4
Upon the opening words of the Constitution, "We the People do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America," one must ask, who are these people? While the American Constitution provided its citizens with individual rights, many members were excluded. Elite framers manipulated the idea of a constitution in order to protect their economic interests and the interests of their fellow white land and slave owning men' by restricting the voices of women, slaves, indentured servants and others. Therefore, the Constitution cannot truly be considered a "democratic document." However, because it is a live document, malleable and controllably changeable according to the interest of congress, it has enabled us to make reforms overtime. Such reforms that have greatly impacted America, making us the free, independent nation that we are today.
In 1787, The United States of America formally replaced the Articles of Confederation with a wholly new governing document, written by the delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. This document, known as the Constitution, has served as the supreme law of our land for the past 228 years. It has stood the test of time and a majority of Americans still support it today (Dougherty). The Constitution was designed in a way that allows for it to be amended, in order to address changing societal needs. Article V discusses the process by which the Constitution can be altered. This feature has enabled it to stay in effect and keep up with current times. The Constitution should not be rewritten every 19 years because it would not only weaken its importance, but it would also hurt foreign relations and continuously rewriting it would give political parties too much power.
Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the US Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic. Since then, the design has often been imitated, but important principles have often been ignored in those imitations, with the result that their governments fall short of being true republics or truly constitutional. The Framers of the Constitution tried very hard to design a system that would not allow any one person or group within the government to gain too much power. Personally, I think they succeeded. In order to guard against what one of the Founding Fathers called an "excess of democracy," the Constitution was built with many ways to limit the government's power. Among these methods were separating the three branches, splitting the legislature so laws are carefully considered, and requiring members of Congress to meet certain criteria to qualify for office. The Founders did leave a few problems along with their system.
The system of government we have today was starting to developed centuries ago by the Athenians and Romans. Both governments were established with the intent to give power to the people, even though it did not always play out that way in society. The Athenian democracy and the Roman republic were two very different governments in practice, but also maintained similar characteristics in both systems of government.
The framers of the United States Constitution formed a vision creating a proper government. Their goals were to establish a strong government that met the nation’s needs. A government that would not threaten the existence of the separate states but establish a system of government, where power is divided between the national government and the states. The government would also not threaten liberty. However, it would establish checks and balances. They wanted to establish a government that would be based on the consent of the nation’s people by establishing a voting system to elect public officials (Patterson, 2013).
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, was issued on the grounds to help give African Americans the right to vote. In many states, such as Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, and Virginia, there was and implemented literacy tests, and poll taxes to obstruct the African American’s from voicing their voice. The government had to step into this issue to ensure that African American’s were not being subjected to racial discrimination. Those states would require literacy test to vote, but most of these minorities were not even able to read and write. All changes to the voting rights policy had to be approved by the government before these changes were made. The act had been extended over time, and the last extension was in