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Assignment on the declaration of independence
Features of federalism within the USA
Assignment on the declaration of independence
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Under Article 1 Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution “ All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives” .The Legislative Branch is made up of two houses of Congress that try to represent the States’ views as equally as possible. Congress is broken up into two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Under Article 1 Section 3 “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state” that are elected by the people of which the state they represent. The House of Representatives are under Article 1 Section 2 “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people …show more content…
The Articles of Confederation was the first attempt “for a new continental union of the states” (pg 38). Many states had their own written laws in place and were not anxious enough to ratify the AOC. They had concerns “over the amount of power given to the confederation government” which resulted in a delay of ratification. The Articles of Confederation consisted of a unicameral legislative body with no separation of a executive or judiciary branch or clear executive authority. In reality the states wanted to keep their own constitutions that did pay some respect to a separation of powers. “The Articles of Confederation reflected American distrust of central authority” (39) which ended up consisting up of a confederation of separate states and lack of authority. With no power to enforce regulation upon the states, a reform of the AOC needed to …show more content…
It was written by Madison and was introduced at the convention by Edmund Randolph. The plan stated that the powers of the central government were to be separated into a bicameral legislature with representation to congress based on a states population. The bicameral legislature would “give congress more power than it had under the AOC” (43). The Virginia plan was heavily supported by the larger states and feared by the small states. With the eminent fear of a diminished influence in a the reconstruction of the national government, the less populous states put out a proposal of their
The Articles of Confederation was the nation’s first Constitution. The articles created a loose Confederation of independent states that gave limited powers to the central government. Each state would have one vote in the House of Congress, no matter the size of the population. Members of the one-house Congress, such as Pennsylvania, agreed that the new government should be a unicameral legislature, without an executive branch or a separate judiciary. Under the article, there wasn’t a strong independent executive.
The New Jersey Plan was proposed during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where the delegates from each state were creating their new government. One of the plans that were proposed at the Conventional Convention was the Virginia Plan. This plan was written by James Madison who grew up on a wealthy plantation in Virginia. The plan said that the government should be split into three branches to keep equal power throughout the government. Though it did say seem flawless, there was one factor that displeased the smaller state. It said that the government should use the proportional representation, which is when voting would be based off of how many delegates there were. This was a problem for smaller states because then those states would not have as much of the vote as the larger states.
The Virginia plan was a plan for how the national government should be run, and as Virginia was a large state it naturally favored the larger states than the smaller states. The Virginia plan called for a strong national government that was composed of three branches: the legislative, which was split into two houses, number of representatives based on state population, and had the power to select the executive and judiciary branches. The New Jersey plan favored smaller states and would have the government be composed of a one-house legislature with one vote for each state, regardless of population, and giving Congress the power to raise revenue from imports and postal service fees. The judicial branch would be headed by a
The Articles of Confederation were incapable of providing the United States with an effective form of government. The Articles of Confederation presided weakly over the government as it allowed little or no power to tax, control trade, and branches of government were missing. In addition to this, the thirteen states acted as separate nations and the national government had little control over them.
The Articles of Confederation was the first government of the United States. The Articles had created a very weak national government. At the time the Articles were approved, they had served the will of the people. Americans had just fought a war to get freedom from a great national authority--King George III (Patterson 34). But after this government was put to use, it was evident that it was not going to keep peace between the states. The conflicts got so frequent and malicious that George Washington wondered if the “United” States should be called a Union (Patterson 35). Shays’ Rebellion finally made it evident to the public that the government needed a change.
First, the formation of the Articles of Confederation was the first constitution in the United States. The Articles of Confederation was not the best constitution out there since congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. There was a requirement for unanimous approval before any modifications
The Virginia Plan, created by James Madison, favored large states and Madison wanted a bicameral legislature. A bicameral legislature is where the legislature is divided into two separate parts. The bicameral legislature proposal would later become the footprints to the executive and judicial branches. Madison wanted the number of votes each state received in congress to be based on state population. He proposed this because it would protect the large states’ interest in the new government which would be stronger federally than under the Articles of Confederation. The Virginia Plan also gave power to the states to create laws if they wanted too. Small states such as New Hampshire did not necessarily like the proposal of Madison’s Virginia Plan. The small states wanted more power as they were felt that they were being left out.
When the Articles of Confederation were established, the main goal for the leaders who were composing them, was for the articles to unify the 13 colonies by having each state act as its own type of governed self. The purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to create strong states where each one had its own, "sovereignty, freedom, and independence," as explained in the article, "Why the Articles of Confederation failed." Leaders of the government, under the Articles of Confederation, feared the new plan because the new plan had only one, strong, central government instead of several strong states as a government. The Articles of Confederation leaders’ intention in creating the document was to have several smaller state governments with
At the convention, George Washington was elected to run the convention. After the leader was elected, the Virginia Plan, drafted by James Madison, was proposed. The Virginia Plan scrapped the Articles of Confederation and called for a strong central government with three branches of government. These branches included the executive, judicial, and legislative. The plan called for a bicameral legislature with both houses being decided by a state’s population.
... An important aspect, though, is that the Constitution gave the central government enough power to keep the nation in order while still giving the states some independence. The Articles of Confederation established a league of friendship among the states, but not a political union. Each state remained separate and sovereign, which means that they were under self-rule (). The central government consisted of a one-chamber Congress, in which each state had a single vote. Congress had few powers, lacking even the authority to impose taxes. Any congressional action and the ratification of amendments required the approval of 13 out of the 13 states.
What delegates thought the Articles of Confederation was lacking was a strong national government which it was finally entailed into the U.S. Constitution. It provided a legislative, executive and judicial branch, which were in charge of assembling policies within the states, imposing laws, and inferring laws, respectively. These branches made certain that authority was being distributed equally among the states and that no one would have more of an influence than one another. Another vital attribute that the U.S. constitution has is called the Supremacy Clause, which states that federal is superior over state law and has priority over any law in the U.S. (Greenberg & Page, pg. 44). These key features are what undeniably separated the Articles of Confederations from the U.S. constitution. The Articles of Confederations had a very weak central government since the states were the ones making vital decisions about what was best themselves and not the nation. The U.S. constitution definitely diminished the powers of the state by increasing the power of the federal government and by enabling them to regulate more things than they did
The Articles of Confederation, one of the first attempts at a nation-wide government, was created in November of 1777 (Roark p. 229), though it was not adopted until 1781 (Roark p. 230). Instead of a large and powerful central government, many of the framers sought a looser confederacy of states, with a central government that could only declare either war or peace, engage in foreign relations, establish a postal service, and regulate trade (Roark p. 229). They also sought to create a government that would not have an executive branch and would be unable to issue direct taxes. In essence, the framers did not want to create the very type of sovereign power that they had just rebelled against.
The purpose of this paper is to defend the argument that the Virginia Plan gave too much power to the national government. On May 29, 1787, Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph proposed what became known as "The Virginia Plan Written primarily by James Madison, the plan outlines of what would eventually become the United States Constitution: a national government consisting of three branches with checks and balances to prevent the abuse of power. It describes 2 houses: one with members elected by the people for 3-year terms and the other composed of older leaders elected by the state legislatures for 7-year terms. Both houses would use the population as a basis for dividing seats amongst the states. Each of the states would
Clearly, under the Virginia Plan, the more heavily populated states would control Congress. Of course, the small states were opposed. Delegates from Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey spoke out against the Virginia Plan. William Patterson of New Jersey presented an alternative plan based on the wishes of the small states. The New Jersey Plan called for a one-house legislature in which each state would cast only one vote, as in the Confederation Congress. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, however, the New Jersey Plan would allow Congress to regulate trade and to impose tariffs. It would provide for an executive council and a federal judiciary, but Congress would restrict the powers of
Article I of the Constitution lays out the design of the legislative branches of the US Government. It is broken down into 10 sections with each section having its own set of clauses. Section 8 states that Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. . (US. Constitution, 2015). Article I, Cornell University Law School. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei. This section contains clauses that further expand upon the initial input and specifically has a “Necessary and Proper” or the “Coefficient or