ay inArticles VS Constitution
The United States has been being run under two constitutions since the existence of the United states. These two systems of government have helped to be the backbone to our society. The united states were first operated under the Articles of Confederation which was ratified by Maryland and brought into effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were a union between the newly declared thirteen states. Many of the delegates later realized that it was a poor form of government and called a convention that became known as Shay’s rebellion. At this convention the delegates decided that the United states needed a new form of government and once all of the delegates debated and came to a compromise the constitution was established. The Articles of Confederation lasted about 7 years until it was replaced by the constitution on June 21,1788. The constitution was ratified by New Hampshire and has been the constitution the United States has abided by since its first existence.
The Articles of Confederation was the first established constitution of the United States. The ratified copy of the Articles of Confederation began with a preamble, or an introduction (Sonneborn). The preamble stated that all states had to agree to everything that was written within the document (Sonneborn). It was followed my thirteen articles, theses sections explained the new government and how to would be set up and at the end of the constitution there was a place which all the congress sign their name (Sonneborn).
First and foremost, congress had to deal with numerous big questions while writing the Articles of Confederation. One major question was how strong should the national government be. Most of the states did not want to give up any of their power. The congress was unicameral, known as a single-chamber legislature meaning each state had the same amount of power no matter what their size or population (Moehn). Each year, a state legislature would appoint its state’s delegate’s to congress, the delegates could serve up to one year and the states could send anywhere from two to seven represenatives to congress each year but each state could only cast one vote (Sonneborn).
In addition, when there were documents that needed to be amended it would take approval from all thirteen stated for the document to be ratified. In passing a law for the law to pass it would take approval from 9 of the thirteen states (Sonneborn). The powers that the national government had includes, declaring war, signing peace treaties, the country’s army and navy, and run the national post office (Sonneborn). In a few ways the Confederation government was a success, the government’s ability to organize the states helped the U.S. Army to win the final stages of the Revolutionary War (Sonneborn). Despite these successes the Confederation also had many problems because the government did not hold much power because of this if a law and congress did not like it they wouldn’t follow it because they knew the government couldn’t make them.
Another fault that the Confederation had was that the states often refused to give the government money and this caused a huge problem for the U.S. government. The government was deeply in debt because, they had to borrow money in order to fight and win the Revolutionary War (Sonneborn). The government also had troubles controlling trade between the states and with other countries this caused a problem for everyday people. With unregulated trade, prices for food and other goods began to rise causing jobs to become harder to find for the people (Sonneborn).
The faults of the Confederation lead up to Shay’s rebellion lead by Daniel Shay. The bad economic times left the people in danger of losing their houses because they couldn’t pay rent. The rebellion frightened many of the leaders in congress, the rebellion made the congress afraid that other angry Americans would soon join. Soon everyone agreed that the confederation was not working as well as they had hoped and decided that they needed something better. They wanted to rewrite the document to help created a stronger national government to help control the United States. The delegates wanted an entirely new plan for the national government they decided that changing a few things in the Confederation wasn’t enough they wanted to get rid of the document all together. The delegates at the Constitutional Convention set out to write a constitution for the United States the constitution is a set of rules for how a country is governed (Sonneborn).
On March 4th, 1789 the constitution became an official document signed by 39 of the original 55 delegates (Moehn). The Constitution specified that 9 of the 13 states must sign the constitution before the document could be ratified and could become in effect. The people who opposed of the Constitution, are known as anti-federalists. The anti-federalists launched a complain to defeat the ratification they believed that the government would become too powerful. They wanted the Constitution to have the bill of rights which guarantee citizens certain privileges that the national government would never be able to take away from the people.
In 1791 the first ten amendments also known as the Bill of Rights were added to the constitution these ten amendments help to define and protect the rights of the American people (Moehn). The term “constitution” means “the principles” institutions, laws, practices and traditions by which people carry on their political and governmental life (Moehn). Since 1789, the United States has progressed in way that would have seemed impossible at the time. There have been ideas that have come and gone, World Wars have been fought, equality is no longer a fight or even a dream, and the American flag is praised as the representation of our nations country.
Without the ability to have the constitution amended, America would be unable to keep up with societies constant changes. The founding fathers created the constitution to deal not only with the political problems they faced but with those of the future as well (Moehn). The constitution created a flexible government system that was subjected to amendment and change (Moehn). The constitution describes how the three branches of government developed and how a system of checks and balances were put into place to prevent the concentration of political power (Moehn).
In conclusion the United States has developed in many ways since the first constitution was written. The Articles of Confederation helped the U.S. develop a way to straizes with the military to help win the Revolutionary War. It helped the delegates to realize that the United States needed something better, more stable, and more effective. The development of the Constitution is a guidance for Americans it states laws, rules, and a direction for the United States. With the Bill of Rights written in Americans are allowed freedom of speech, the right to vote, and equality and these rights can never be taken away from the people.
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