...Ratifying the Constitution DBQ essay The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America, one of the greatest documents ever to be written, and the rope that keeps this vast nation tied together. Although this great document may seem flawless, many components and ideas have been amended and argued as allowed by “Article Five” of the U.S. Constitution. When writing and discussing the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention, many of the authors and scholars disagreed on the ratification of the Constitution whilst others favored the ratification of the famous document. Some claimed that liberty will be jeopardized and a tyrannical government may result, as stated in document two. Whilst others claimed that the Constitution was the solution to the political and economic struggles of the current government as stated in document one. The anti-federalists, led by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson favored a weaker central government; whilst the federalists, led by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton favored a strong central government. Overall, the major arguments of the convention can be categorized into two groups, the ones who favored the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and those who didn’t. To continue, the scholars who favored the ratification of...
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...The two speeches, “ Speech in the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry and “Speech in the Convention” by Benjamin Franklin, have many similarities and differences. One of the main difference is their stance (federalist or anti-federalist). They both had different views about when they should compromise and when they should fight for what they wanted. Patrick Henry wanted to fight for their independence while Benjamin Franklin wanted to talk and compromise with Britain. First of all, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin had different views on how to get what they want from Britain. Henry was an federalist (agreed with the constitution) while Benjamin Franklin was an anti-federalist (opposed the constitution). Henry wanted to go war with Britain. In his speech he says, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” (103). He thought that they have tried talking and compromising with the British far too long and haven’t gotten anywhere. He says,...
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...Persuasive argument Leaders of the Philadelphia Convention had completed the Constitution for the United States of America, but many of the convention members had lingering doubts as to whether the states would approve it. According to the Articles of Confederations, unanimous approval was needed to ratify the Constitution, and convention leaders feared that this was unachievable. The constitution has helped create and mold the United States government into what it is today but it also got help from a few other very important documents. The federalist and the anti-federalist were two completely different groups of people who wanted two completely different things to happen that pertained to the constitution. He anti-federalist were completely against the reification of the constitution which without that would have not transformed our nation as it did. The federalist had the right idea that with the ratification of the constitution it would give just as much power to the government if it wasn’t ratified. “The most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome.” The Federalist Papers are considered by many to be among the founding classics of American political thought, along with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The Federalist Papers were part of the national debate over the ratification of the Constitution. Opponents of the Constitution thought the document gave the national government too much power at the expense...
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...if a new government was to be formed. • Even though it was written in the declaration, the Constitution did not say a word about everyone being equally protected under the law. o Representation- The first issue discussed was how to set up the new Congress so that all states have an equal voice. New Jersey Plan- The proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called equal representation of each state in Congress regardless of the state’s population. Virginia Plan- The proposal at the Constitutional Convention that called for representation of each state in Congress in proportion to that state’s share of the U.S. population. • It is obvious to...
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...United States about whether the new Constitution was an improvement or a disaster that will soon ruin the nation. Federalists were actually people who basically agreed with the Constitution and a strong government. The Federalists were basically way much wealthier and more educated Americans than the anti-federalist well most of them like John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. Anti-Federalists were actually people who agreed with a weaker government, but liked a stronger state legislature. Yet not all of them liked the Articles of Confederation, but none of them wanted the new Constitution to be ratified so in a way they wanted to make their own document basically. Poor classes in the West also supported the patriots like Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry in which they were actually very good at influencing people, like they were very charismatic.Anti-Federalists feared that a stronger national government would one day destroy the liberties Americans had won in the Revolution. They also worried that the new Constitution didn’t list any specific rights for the people in which that was maybe one of the main reasons why they went against the federalist. Many of the smaller states quickly approved the Constitution because it gave them more way power in the new legislative branch than they had under the Articles of Confederation in which was a great thing for many of the smaller states. Ratifying conventions didn’t end so peacefully...
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...Amendments to the Constitution Since the Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 there have only been twenty seven amendments ratified. The process to ratifying an amendment is not an easy one, so the need to adopt these changes has to be great to pass through this process. Each of the amendments that have been passed have effected this society greatly, some of the most fundamental changes to the society have come through the ratification of the thirteenth through fifteenth amendments. The process of passing an amendment to the Constitution is a lengthy and complex process. The first step is to have a proposal written for the future amendment. There are two ways this proposal can begin, the first way is for two-thirds of both houses of Congress to vote to amend the constitution. The other way a proposal can move forward is that two-thirds of the state legislatures can formally ask Congress to call a constitutional convention to propose an amendment. After the proposal has been accepted, the process of ratification begins. The process to ratify an amendment is not any easier. Three fourths of the state legislatures must approve the amendment or each states ratification conventions must accept the amendment. There is one stipulation on this process, the Supreme Court has ruled that the ratification process must be completed within a reasonable time after the proposal. Although there has not been any official time frame, the longest amendment process was seven years...
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...Elvina Scott, Desmond Thomas University of Phoenix U.S. Constitution HIS/301 Dr. John Theis November 10, 2011 Bill of Rights and Amendments Paper The founding fathers of our country had it right when they put in place an irrefutable plan of action and order. Although many things have changed since the inception of the original documents, the process and ways of which something must be done and adopted remains viable to us today. This example is not only found in the legislative democracy but also in the educational, religious, and social genres of the world. The constitution shares with all who take the time to peruse, the reasoning behind it, the amendments that are attached, and the rights of each person living the American Dream. After Congress proposes an amendment, the Archivist of the United States, who heads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is charged with responsibility for administering the ratification process under the provisions of 1 U.S.C. 106b (Archives.Gov.) If two-third of the number of votes of both the Senate and the House of Representative are in favor an amendment can be proposed by the Congress. Otherwise, two-thirds of the legislatures of the fifty states can call for a constitutional agreement for the purposes of proposing amendments to the Constitution. After an amendment to the Constitution has been proposed, it must be ratified to become legal and requires two procedures. First, an amendment can be ratified if three-fourths...
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...rights.” The reason for such debate lies in defining what exactly those rights should be, and who should be entitled to them. In the 1859, John Stuart Mill, an English philosopher, proposed that there are three basic human rights: the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly, and the freedom to act as long as those actions do not harm others. While this concept sounds simplistic now, this was a controversial...
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...Confederation and Constitution United States History Professor: 9/30/12 The Articles of Confederation were a great start to shaping and unifying our country, but it was just that, a “start”. It needed to take the country as a whole into consideration in order for it to hold this unity in place. The Articles of Confederation led to the Constitution of the United States. Although similar in some aspects, very different in others. The articles had many weaknesses that were changed in the Constitution. There were many compromises made between the states in order to effectively draft the Constitution. Roger Sherman’s Plan kept the Constitutional Convention together which was later known as the Great Compromise. The fight for the Constitution had just begun and the ratification processes needed to take place. Even with some states being in favor of the Constitution it would take time to get the nine states needed to complete this process. The states in favor would called themselves The Federalist and those opposed were called the Anti-Federalist. The Federalist set out to change the mind of the remaining states with a series of letters that were written to newspapers. The Articles of Confederation were used as a base for the Constitution. The ideas from the Articles of Confederation were used in the writing of the Constitution. Both the Articles and the Constitution established “federal” systems of multiple sovereigns whose continued existence was constitutionally...
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......The reason and spirit of a law are to be understood only by an inquiry into the circumstances of its enactment. The underlying purposes of the Constitution, therefore, are to be revealed only by a study of the conditions and events which led to formation and adoption. At the outset it must be remembered that there were two great parties at the time of the adoption of the Constitution -- one laying emphasis on strength and efficiency in government and the other on its popular aspects. Quite naturally the men who led in stirring up the revolt against Great Britain and in keeping the fighting temper of the Revolutionaries at the proper heat were the boldest and most radical thinkers -- men like Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. They were not, generally speaking, men of large property interests or of much practical business experience. In a time of disorder, they could consistently lay more stress upon personal liberty than upon social control; and they pushed to the extreme limits those doctrines of individual rights which had been evolved in England during the struggles of the small landed proprietors and commercial classes against royal prerogative, and which corresponded to the economic conditions prevailing in America at the close of the eighteenth century. They associated strong government with monarchy, and came to believe that the best political system was one which governed least. A majority of the radicals viewed all government, especially...
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...US constitution, Fulfillment or Betrayal of the ideal of the American Revolution The American Revolution is often portrayed as something that it is not. For example it did little to almost nothing when it came to social matters, like the topic of slavery or women’s rights. What the colonist wanted in the beginning of this revolution was simple, they asked for the restoration of English liberty, equal representation, and equal English values that English men had in Great Britain. The idea of breaking away from the crown started to emerge in the 1770’s. After the French and Indian war, Great Britain started to tax the colonist heavily, and in 1772 Samuel Adams wrote The Rights of the Colonist which move the colonist towards a more Lockean way...
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...The delegates present wanted to reform the Articles of Confederation due to the weak central government that existed under it. Once coming together they wanted to create radical change, the Articles of Confederation turned into the Constitution where all the the changes they needed and wanted to make reside. One of the big topics discussed at the convention was the issue of slavery, and whether it should stay or go. The delegates and many of the nation’s founders wanted slavery to be abolished. They wanted to do so by “slow, sure, and imperceptible degrees (Koch 139),” so that the southern economies that were based mainly on slave labor did not have economic ruin. The south wanted slavery to continue, because everything the slaves did they counted on for money. Many people worried that if slavery were to be banned that the south would to try to secede away from the union. Mr. L. Martin of Maryland proposed “to allow a prohibition or tax on the importation of slaves (Madison...
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...In any democratic society, equality is the basic foundation. The right to vote is one of the basic functions in society that give an equal voice among everyone. Before 1911, California lagged behind in recognizing women’s demands for an active role in public life. The movement for the right to vote for women started in Seneca, New York, which is known as the Women’s Suffrage movement. This movement was a fight for equality, which could be seen as the birth of feminism. Although there were many women who led the fight for equal voice, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were the two primary figures of the movement. Due to California’s political climate, the movement brought great disappointment and victory for women’s rights. Disappointment turned into resolve and set forth the movement in California. Women created coalitions and started to spread their word from southern to northern California for their voice to be heard by others. The movement in California was comprised of white middle class women, but they didn’t support Asians because they feared white backlash. Soon, the eyes of the nation opened in 1911 when male voters approved women’s right vote making California the largest state to approve of women’s suffrage. Women’s suffrage in California reached started out on a high note. In 1893, early success came when the women’s suffrage bill won approval in the state legislature but it was vetoed by the governor claiming it was unconstitutional. The suffragists later...
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...America Transformed HIS 110 June 13, 2011 Abstract Some individuals have a curious thought of how Americans built their society. In this reading the reader will understand a historic timeline from 1780-1850. Learning the important information during certain years and how they overcome each event. The Agricultural Revolution of Europe started in the 1700’s; it was widely spread throughout Europe and America by the 1800’s. The results of the revolution, was the farming processes became more efficient, and productive due to several inventions, and discoveries. The Agricultural processes became faster, and less manpower is required in the field, as a result the population from the countryside had no means of supporting themselves. They were forced to move into the urban cities in search of factory jobs. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the 1700s. The term Industrial Revolution refers both to the changes that occurred and to the period itself. During the 1700s and early 1800s, great changes took place in the lives and labor of people in several parts of the world. These changes resulted from the development of industrialization and it started spreading to other parts of Europe and to North America in the early 1800s. By the mid-1800s, industrialization had become widespread in Western Europe and the northeastern United States. America Transformed In 1781 Peace Commission occurred and what it meant was Congress appoints a Peace Commission comprised...
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...Chapter 1, Section 1 Notes * Government is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies. * Public policies are all of those things a government decides to do that ranges from taxation, defense, education, crime, health care, transportation, environment, civil rights, and working conditions. * Legislative power is the power to make law and to frame public policies. * Executive power is the power to execute, enforce, and administer law. * Judicial power is the power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within the society. * Dictatorship is a form of government in which the leader has absolute power and authority. * Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme authority rests with people. * States can be defined as a body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically, and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority. * States must have 4 things that are population, territory, sovereignty, and government. * There are 4 major political ideas. * The force theory is that many scholars believed that the state was born of force. * The evolution theory claims that the state developed naturally out of the early family. * The divine right theory states that it was widely accepted in much of the Western world from the fifteenth through the eighteenth century...
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