...COMPROMISES OF OUR CONSTITUTION America was built on compromises. What you lose in compromise, you gain by collaboration. A compromise means an agreement reached by opposing claims. (1) There were several compromises that were made to help form the Constitution of the United States. There were three main conflicts the new nation had to be resolve. The main ones were: The Great Compromise, The 3/5ths Compromise and also The Slave Trade Compromise. Even though there were conflicts over a strong central government, and states’ rights, the members in the Philadelphia Convention overcame their differences to form a democratic government that is for the people, and meets the needs of our nation. (2) The original document established for the United States to govern the people was adopted in 1777. It was called, the Articles of Confederation. It was outdated and it needed to be tweaked. Congress had very limited power to regulate national affairs, no authority to tax, or to regulate commerce. As a result of a weak central government, in 1787, the United States went bankrupt. With credit and debt problems, the states convinced the delegates to meet. So, they met in May, at the Convention, in Philadelphia. Rather than fix a broken system, the Virginia plan modeled a whole new government system, it had Federal and National Features. States would have power but submit to a national supreme authority. (3) The Great Compromise was very important. The Virginia plan had the structure...
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...DBQ: How did the Constitution Guard against Tyranny? Did you know that the constitution was actually kinda written on accident? Originally 55 wealthy, white, males came together in Philadelphia in 1787 to fix and make corrections to the Articles of Confederation. They specifically needed to fix no chief executive, no court system, stronger government, and many more things. This meeting was later called the Constitutional Convention. With trying to fix all these problems, they all agreed on one thing, no tyranny. Tyranny is a cruel and oppressive government or rule. An example of this would be king George. He was not giving the colonists their unalienable rights. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in many ways. These include federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and The Great Compromise. The Constitution guarded against tyranny through federalism. Federalism is the federal principle or system of government. James Madison wrote about federalism. He wrote about it because he wanted to get people to ratify the constitution. Doc A is an excerpt from Madison’s Federalist Paper 51. Federalism guarded against tyranny because as Madison put it “Liberty requires that the three great departments should be separate and distinct” (Madison, Federalist Paper #47). The evidence says it all. We MUST have the three departments...
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...Declaration of Independence: The United States Constitution was established to help set-up the first form of government, in the year 1787, and the Bill of Rights was later added in the year 1791. The Constitution was established for the common good of all people. The Constitution and Amendments were written to fix the problems stated in the Declaration of Independence which was written in the year 1776. The United States Constitution reflects and supports the idea of the Declaration of Independence. Many different problems from the Declaration of Independence needed to be fixed through the Constitution.”He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good”. (Declaration of Independence) The King of Great Britain refused to set laws for the common good of all people. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government. So according to the first amendment, the people’s common good is protected by Congress. There were several economic problems said in the Declaration of Independence, for example:” the imposing of taxes on us without our consent.” (Declaration of Independence) Colonists were extremely angered by the fact that Great Britain felt as if they had the right to impose taxes on the Colonists without any consent of the action. They managed to fix this...
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...The most important event in the creation of the United States government was the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, also known as the Constitutional Convention. At this event, delegates from every state except Georgia gathered in Philadelphia to discuss the topic of what should replace the Articles of Confederation. Of the plans suggested by delegates, the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan were the most appealing to those at the convention. The Virginia Plan recommended proportional representation while the New Jersey Plan wanted equal representation. The United States government would be shaped in a completely different way today if the Framers had not put forth each of the two plans which formed the Great Compromise. The Virginia Plan was put forth by James Madison, who had been working on it for a while. He proposed that for the national government to be strong it should have more power than the states. Madison had the idea that Congress should...
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...the power residing with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The present United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation on March 4, 1789 (Researchers, 2013). Some weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation that ultimately resulted in failure were the fact that each state only had one vote in Congress, regardless of size, Congress did not have the power to tax, Congress did not have the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, there was no executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress, there was no nation court system, Amendments to the Articles of Confederation required a unanimous vote, and laws required a 9/13 majority to pass in Congress. Under the Articles of Confederation, states often argued amongst themselves. They also refused to financially support the national government, who was also powerless to enforce any acts it did pass. Some states began making agreements with foreign governments. Most states had their own military and printed their own money. The conclusive result was that there was no stable economy (Kelly). The new plan for the nation was called the Federal Constitution. It had been drafted by a group of national leaders in Philadelphia in 1787, who then presented it to the general public for consideration. The Constitution amounted to a...
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...Should There be Another Constitutional Convention? The Articles of Confederation was he first federal “constitution” to be upheld in the thirteen colonies. Unfortunately, under the Articles, Congress was given no power over the states so that the country could grow into an actual functioning society, though there were certain things that they did have control over, such as create war and peace time, conduct foreign affairs and etc. But under the Articles, “But Congress could not collect taxes and enforce laws directly; it had to rely on the states to provide money and enforce its laws. . .”(Dye 61). Essentially, the states did what they felt was right beneath their own respective state level government. “No respect is paid to the federal authority. Not a single state complies with the requisitions[submitted by Congress]” (Nardo 18). The Founding Fathers were disturbed by the utter discord the nation seemed to be in. Deciding that enough was enough in May of 1797, twelve of the thirteen colonies delegates, 55 delegates, gathered together in the State House of Philadelphia to, originally, fix and tweak the bugs out of the Articles of Confederation. But instead of fixing the Articles, James Madison decided that it would be better to scrap the whole document and create a whole new federal constitution. James Madison was intent on drafting a new constitution that would create a stronger, central government: The Virginia Plan. “. . . he by no means wanted that government to be so...
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...garuntee certain rights for the citizens. It was etablished for the common good in all people. The Constition was signed on September 17,1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, presided over by George Washington. The document had a lot of work and editing to be done to it before it could effective. The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution had a lot of simularities. One would be that they were both laws of the United States. The differences were what each document presented and all the flaws that needed to be fixed or removed from the document. The Constitution had to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the complaints that were in the Declaration of Independence, then it had to make a decision on the Great Compromise.The Articles of Confederation was ratified in 1781 and in 1789 it was replaced be the Constitution of the United States. One of the main reasons it was replaced because of such strong need for a federal government. At the 1787 convention delegates pushed for a federal government with three branches which included executive, legislative, and judicial. Along with the branches they wanted to make sure to have system checks so no branch gained more power then the others.The Articles of Confederation were considered to be weak. Some of the reasons included that it allowed only one vote per state, didnt give Congress any power. Congress didnt have the power to tax nor did they have the power to control foriegn...
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...Historical Essay #1: Confederation and Constitution Anthony Snow DeVry University 08/01/2015 HISTORICAL ESSAY #1: CONFEDERATION AND CONSTITUTION As with anything in this world there are always strengths and weaknesses when people are comparing two different items, as no one item can be a perfect solution; there are always compromises. The same happens when we are comparing the Articles of Confederation and the New Constitution of 1787. Both of theses two solutions each have their own strengths and weaknesses. First we have the Articles of Confederation that when written gave each state a lot of individual powers, and because of this was one of the main reasons for the New Constitution, and I want to show how these two solutions are different, and how the New Constitution uses some of the same concepts that make up the Articles of Constitution. I would first like to take a look at the Articles of Confederation, and explore some of the strengths and weaknesses that came as a result of adopting it. The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777. One of the main weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation was that although it was able to produce a confederation of sovereign states, it was also responsible for weakening the central government, as the Articles of Confederation gave almost all of the power to the individual state governments. With the individual state gaining more power, the national government found it extremely difficult...
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...The U.S. Constitution: The First of Its Kind I still remember being in an eighth grade U.S. History class back in my junior high years. One distinct memory of that course, perhaps the most memorable of all the projects we had, came in the first month of the school year, in the curriculum’s first unit: the founding of the United States as its own nation. As the textbook timeline approached 1787 we prepared ourselves for a daunting task: memorize and recite the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution. We as students would wait anxiously as, one by one, each of our peers would step up to the front of the classroom and begin to recite from memory. Few people could recite the Preamble smoothly, but for those who stumbled, we all seemed to remember perfectly the first and last chunks: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” and “…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” To us back in eighth grade, that missing middle section was just a group of words to be more-or-less forgotten the next day. To our forefathers, however, that middle section was vital in creating the basis for the supreme law of the United States. Much like my peers and I in the eighth grade, our forefathers who assembled 226 years ago were faced with a daunting task for the state that they were in. At this point in our history, America was a newborn in the world, only eleven years of age. Now left without the common cause that the Revolutionary War...
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...American colonies declared independence from England in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, but what kind of government to create was the problem. So in 1777 the continental congress set up the Articles of Confederation.The colonies were in the state of a dilemma to choose between a strong centralized government like the Britain or weak central government with the power held by the individual state. The Articles of Confederation created problems in many states as they were different in terms of location, commerce and money. Basically, the new government created many problems and it affected our state, Delaware. At the end of the revolution in 1783, the states focused on creating a strong government as the Articles of confederation system of government lacked to supply individual needs...
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...address and at the same time the Constitution was able to identify and address weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. There are many reasons as to why the Constitution evolved but it served well for the United States. The Great Compromise was a formal agreement for both large and small states to have two representatives in the upper house for each state. The Connecticut Compromise or as it is most likely known as The Great Compromise, was written in 1787 during the Constitutional Convention by Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman. The Constitutional Convention set up it to where each state would be able to have their own congressional representation and legislative structure. The Great Compromise also required that each state be represented by two representatives within the upper house and that representation in the lower house be equal between all states. This congressional congress session went on for seven long weeks and was almost ruined or destroyed by the issue of representation. The states still argues that they were providing more of a contribution to the financial and defensive resources and so therefore they attested they deserved more representation in the Senate. By July 16, 1787 the congressional convention members accepted The Great Compromise by a mere one vote. “As the celebrants duly noted, without that vote, there would likely have been no Constitution.” (The United States Senate, n.d.). After Thomas Jefferson helped to write the Declaration of...
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...With the growth of the African slave trade, slavery in America became associated with race, and with the fall of the Native American populations, it was Africans who were largely enslaved. This paper will attempt to answer how slavery developed as a national issue during the revolution and constitutional convention. Specifically, how the Constitution dealt with the question of Slavery and if it was an effective solution. In order, to uphold to The Declaration of Independence’s and after America won its independence from Great Britain in 1783 it became obvious that the United States needed a stronger unified government in order to establish itself as a Country. So in 1786, Alexander Hamilton, called for a constitutional convention to discuss...
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...HISTORICAL ESSAY #1 Confederation and Constitution The Articles of Confederation was agreed to by Congress on November 15, 1777 and was ratified and in force on March 1, 1781. By the year 1787, this new government had fallen short of the expectations of the people it was intended to govern. The weaknesses in The Articles of Confederation were numerous and had, in the thinking of many prominent men of that time, failed and would lead to a state of anarchy. There was such a sense of urgency to amend it that there seemed to be an atmosphere of panic among many of our Founding Fathers. John Dickenson and fellow members of the 2nd Continental Congress, weary of monarchy rule, had created the Articles of Confederation as a listing of twelve specific Powers given Congress by which to govern. Legislation required nine votes to pass. Each state had only one vote and this was problematic to the larger states, as their problems, more often than not, were based on a larger population and it was not unusual that the smaller states didn’t understand or want to pay for the solutions. Some lesser acts did not require nine votes to pass, but simply a majority of those present. Acts of Significant Consequence did require nine votes. The trouble with all of this was that even if nine votes could be achieved, there was no enforcement of law to be implemented by Congress. Congress could make law but not enforce it. It could charge states for their share of national...
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...west of the Mississippi (these rivers joined in the southeastern corner of the territory). According to the terms of the Ordinance of 1787, which prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, the Missouri Territory was designated a free territory, but many of the settlers had brought their slaves with them when they settled the area and were determined to enter the Union as a slave state. With the growing abolitionist sentiment in the North and the South pressing to legalize slavery, permitting Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state would tilt the power of the Senate in favor of the South and make the realization of legalizing slavery more attainable. Since 1809, the issue of slavery had been relatively quiet, but Missouri’s request to enter the Union as a slave state just at the nation was beginning to expand westward, thrust the question of slavery back into the spotlight of national politics. A set of compromises, known as the Missouri Compromise of 1820, allowed Congress to avoid a resolution on the issue of slavery. The Missouri question was the first slavery related political crisis of the 1800’s. It was an attempt to allow slavery in a state considered a free territory. Just after the American Revolution, Congress divided the land ceded by Great Britain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, into free and slave regions. The Ordinance of 1787 permitted the...
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...would stand for the test of time. However, the author, Joseph Ellis, tries to give the reader a better understanding of the founders, that they are more than just men. They are more than white people that believed in white superiority. Instead, they are men that understood the problems that the country was facing after independence from the United Kingdom by a war. They fought each other tooth and nail over things that they believed needed to be done for the country or else this new republic will fall, like the Roman Republic. Nevertheless, they met each other to form political compromises that would build the strength and position of the new republic. Theses Compromises help settle many disputes that had threated to divide the new nation in half. Even though, it deals with issues that at the time should not be spoken, like slavery. They understood that the world was watching them and was waiting for what...
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