Constitutional Convention Dbq

As generations grew up in America, nationalism within the colonies grew towards their new country. These settlers slowly lost their patriotic tie to Great Britain and it’s ruler, King George III. So when the French and Indian War ended in America, and the indebted England needed some compensation from American settlers in the form of taxes, the colonists questioned the authority of England and their ability to rule them. British imperial policies such as the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Townshend Tea Tax caused uproar within the colonies against British rule without

Taxes, such as the Stamp Act, increased prices of everyday goods, such as cards, newspapers, and Dice.(Doc 3) The reason why the taxes were coming so often was because the French and Indian War just happened. ”King George is a Tyrant. He breaks the laws. He is an enemy to his own people.” (Doc 1) These words were famous words from Patrick Henry on how he thought of the taxes were unfair. During this time, the Americans didn’t have representation for taxes. During this time, The British Empire was basically saying to the colonists “Since the French and Indian War was on the soil of Americans, all colonists must pay for the damage.” “I know not of what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death,” was another quote from Patrick Henry.(OI) So, even though the colonists were already mad for unjustly taxation, took action into their own hands. Also, the colonists were unhappy because they had no representation. James Otis started up the quote “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” which meant that it wasn’t fair for the British to tax the american colonists without american

The British had established a numerous amount of taxes, Townshend Acts, on the American colonies including taxes on tea, glass, paper, paint, and lead. The colonies did not like these laws (Brooks). This shows that the laws were not a big hit, they made the citizens upset. The laws or acts were not popular to the people, especially in Boston. This resulted to send more british troops to Boston in 1268, to help promote the new taxes (Brooks). This proves that the citizens did not like these laws they wanted to change them so the colonist roited. Boston citizens responded to the act by protesting british imports and vowed to find ways to increase manufacturing to make them less dependent on British goods (Brooks). This explains that the citizens did not like these laws so they started protesting. The laws were not very popular, it led to the colonists

The decision of British ruler to tax the colonists was not a decision that the settlers approved and they demonstrate it in many occasions. Starting in 1764 with the sugar act, where products like coffee, tea, sugar wine were taxed, all through the stamp act and many others the British reign reaches its culmination with the tea act which was a last attempt by the parliament to assert its supremacy over the colonists. The tea act was an attempt by the English parliament to save the India Company from bankruptcy. They gave them the right to sell tea directly to the Americans and they reduced some duties. A move that the parliament thought to be winning and flawless was in fact one of the triggering reasons of the revolution. In fact, as the tax

Huge debts were owed to Great Britain for supplying the colonists with military support and supplies. To pay the dues, there was the establishment of the Stamp Act, the taxation on domestic goods and services. A tax on domestic merchandise brought even more anger to the colonists. The Sugar Act, the Townshed Duties and the Tea Act were also all introduced with the same fundamentals: applying tax on goods whether it be directly or indirectly, domestic or international. “British commercial regulations imposed a paltry economic burden on Americans, who enjoyed a rapid economic growth and a standard of living higher than their European counterparts” (McGaughy). Each act resulted in irritated colonists. Some even retaliated by tarring and feathering certain English tax enforcers living in the colonies.

They thought that there was not good enough reason for the new taxes. England on the other hand stated that they taxed the colonist more because they were nearly bankrupt after the French and Indian War. That felt someone had to help compensate and since the American colonies benefited more. They need to bear most of the cost for England’s’ protection and administration. (Pg.536). Between 1763 and 1774, the government passed a new series of laws; placing the colonies under strict restrictions and making them pay higher taxes.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was held to address problems in governing the United States which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation since it’s independence from Britain. Fifty-five delegates from the states attended the convention to address these issues. The delegates consisted of federalists who wanted a strong central government to maintain order and were mainly wealthier merchants and plantation owners and anti-federalists who were farmers, tradesmen and local politicians who feared losing their power and believed more power should be given to the states. The Constitutional Convention dealt with the issue of the debate between federalists and anti-federalists. The debates, arguments and compromises

During my first two days of my placement I got to observe a class role play of the constitutional convention. This allowed the students to think from the perspective of the individuals from the time period and thus led to students better understanding the constitutional convention. It was a real eye opener for me to see how my cooperating teacher created a lesson where students get to place themselves in the time period and serve an active role. The teacher observed and assisted the students, but the lesson was very student centered. Students were placed in groups, each group represented a different group such as farmers, white workers, enslaved African Americans, white women, and Native Americans. Each group had a figure that represented their

There were several acts that were passed without the consideration of the colonists that would force them to pay a ridiculous amount of taxes to the British mainland. One of these acts was named the Stamp Act, which was enacted in 1765, forced the colonists to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper that they used. This would include legal documents, license, commercial contracts and newspapers in the tax. This tax mostly effected the wealthier and influential of the colonists and would force them to unite in opposition. There were several other acts that would be passed that would force the colonists to pay undue taxes to the British, such as the Quartering Act and the Tea

And in order to collect the taxes, the Bratians raisen the Sugar Act and Stamp Act to put more restrictions on colonial trade and forced colonists to buy special stamped paper. That makes conlonist getting angry and to against the "Taxation without representation", the only thing they want to do is to elect their own colonial legislatures. Also the Proclamation of 1763, bans them from crossing and going to the settlement of the west. So the colonial rebellion is reasonable, they just deserved to have much more control over their own government. For the resistance, colonies coordinate to boycott the British goods. And the matter was worsened when the British government enforced the Townshend Acts through force, it imposed taxes on imported goods from Britain, which really hurt many colonial merchants. And colonies respond that with more boycott. Although the Tea Party removed taxes on tea sold by British, but American tea still taxed. So on the December 16th, 1776 the Boston Tea Party dump 90,000 pounds of tea into the ocean to resist. But after that, British soldiers flooded into Boston, and colonists had to feed and lodge them. The Continental Congress was formed to reason the King George, in the attempt to keep the peace between Britaish and colonies, but he refused the negotiation, and sent troops to

With that being said America felt that they cleared all their obligations when their colonial taxes were paid and they did not want to accept the fact that they were still being forced to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament wherein they were not embodied. Furthermore, the point of no return would have been the Boston Tea Party when this was a time when the state of affairs between the British and colonists became an outright uproar of irreconcilable chaos and disorder. Initially the Tea Party served as a means for a bail out for the East India Tea Company and British gains off tea products. Meanwhile, Americans were livid with the laws of the British and sought their rebellion. In which Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty embarked on British ships and took matters into their own hand by the discarding of massive amounts of tea goods. This act forced

     There was another by-product of the war for Britain; her national debt more than doubled during the course of the conflict. At a time when Britain was starting to bend beneath the weight of the debt, it was only a matter of time before parliament looked to the colonies to help shoulder some of the price incurred in their defense. The Sugar and Stamp Acts were the first of many measures to tax the colonists. The Townshend Duties and the Tea Act would follow. While these measures outraged the colonists because of their monetary implications, it was the constitutional implications brought on by the Acts that were most offensive to the colonists. Until after the Seven Years War, the colonists had been left to essentially tax themselves. Now the colonists had a rallying cry, as they deplored the idea of no taxation without representation. In 1765 the Stamp Act Congress was held, and in a bid of utter defiance the representatives agreed that the colonial legislative assemblies alone had the right to tax the colonies. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but only after agreeing to pass the Declaratory Act, which informed the colonies that Britain did in fact have the right to legislate for the

The lower class, also known as the “working class”, were those individuals whom partook on the strenuous and dangerous jobs. These individuals were expected to work each and every day for multiple hours as a time and without a break. Although they worked extremely hard, the lower class was not paid well for their effort. Instead, they received the very minimum wage that one could, and were expected to live off of this (Allingham, 2002). Because the people of this class did not have as much money, their material items such as; housing, clothing, and food were very minimum. Even with the small amount of income that they received, the “lower section of the society was also burdened with numerous taxes that made their life miserable.” (Bishal, 2008) Lastly, the working classes remained shut out from the political process, making these individuals in reality separated from the rest of society (Allingham, 2002).

Danny Chasteen and Susan Rick thought that they had finally gotten their big break when they won $250,000 from the Illinois lottery. But, because the Illinois budget had not passed, they received nothing but a cold promise. No, the lottery situation is not the most pressing problem facing our government, it is merely a trivial outgrowth of a bigger problem: political gridlock in the state legislature. A large majority of the citizens of Illinois are exasperated with the government, and they have the right to be, but a Constitutional Convention is not going to fix any of our problems. Every state has its own dilemmas, and these issues can be solved through the everyday political process. A Constitutional Convention is simply not necessary, when the Constitution itself is not what is holding back the Illinois State government.

Funding the war was extremely expensive and it lead to a large amount of national debt, more than 122 million pounds. Since the war was fought on American soil, Britain felt it was only right that the colonists help to pay for the war that was fought to protect them. Parliament started imposing new taxes on the colonists such as the Sugar Act and the Currency Act. The Sugar Act increased taxes on molasses and the Currency Act prohibited the printing of money. One particular act, the Stamp Act especially enraged the colonists. It required them to pay a tax on every piece of paper they used for anything, newspapers, playing cards etc. The colonists thought the taxation unfair especially since they had no elected representative in the British Parliament in London. The British government was making new laws and adding taxes and the colonists had no say. This lead to the popular slogan of that time,“No taxation without representation”.