On september 17, 1787 the U.S constitution was written, but was it original? No it wasn’t, it was actually highly based off other documents. Such as the Magna Carta, the Articles of confederation, and the Shays Rebellion. All of these documents affected the Constitution in their own way.
The Magna Carta was a document about limiting the King’s power and increasing individual rights. Much like the Magna Carta the Constitution focused on increasing individual rights. They even made an entire section of the Constitution meant for protecting these rights, called the Bill of Rights. This section has 10 amendments each protecting an its own Individual right. The Magna Carta influenced the Constitution because, it showed the Founding Fathers how a healthy country should be ran. This decision of putting in the Bill of Rights, made all the fighting Americans went through in the Revolutionary war worth it. One of the biggest reasons why this war took place is that Americans wanted a voice and more rights, and all this did was give them what they were asking for.
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Although at the time it seemed good, later on more and more problem kept uprising. These problems influenced how the Constitution was written by avoiding these problems. One of the biggest problems of the Articles of Confederation was a powerless National government. The Constitution resolved this issue by making 3 branches of government, the Legislative branch, Executive branch, and Legislative branch. This overall affected the way the Constitution was written because, it showed them how a working government couldn’t be ran. This made the U.S change up their way of thinking about the government, by providing more power to the National Government. This decision made hundreds of years ago is still the same type of government we run
The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the
The first way that the Constitution helped with the weaknesses of the United States were the different ways it made passing laws more fair. When amending a document the Articles of Confederation needed 13 out of 13 people to approve of the document. The Constitution provided a more reasonable way by having ⅔ of both houses and ¾ of the state legislature. This is a better method because not 100% of people are going to agree on everything. The same type of thing worked when passing laws. 9/13 people needed to approve in the Articles of Confederation while it’s now 50% +1 of both houses plus the signature of the President. This allows for things to be more fair and it makes sure everyone in power somewhat agrees on what is going on and not just a couple of people are deciding on what the citizens new laws will be.
The constitution was written during the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 and was ratified the same year. It was born out of a failing system of loose governments and became the longest lasting constitution in the world. A legal document written so loosely, it’s meaning is often debated. In How Not to Read the Constitution, Tribe and Dorf, talk about how to interpret the text in a changing world.
The Magna Carta has been a standout amongst the most productive and important documents in history. English Nobles created this paper. They made it to limited the power of the king, protect peoples rights, due process, to show the king has to follow all the same laws the people on his land follow too and many others. The Magna Carta influenced the executive historical process that led to the Rule of Constitutional law, the development of the Common Law, Charters of Freedom and Gettysburg Address. Notably, the U.S Constitution. The following quote from the U.S Constitution supports that is was influenced by the Magna Carta "no person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law." The Magna Carta's has become
Kristina Schweitzer Schweitzer 2 The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787, yet there was a struggle to ratify it that went on until 1790. This Constitution was created in order to replace the Articles of
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two very important guidelines of government that shaped the political minds of the Americans. Mainly because these guidelines limited, or expanded the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The Articles of Confederation were a series of laws that gave more power to the state government than the federal government. As a result, the federal government could not enforce laws or levy taxes. After Shay’s Rebellion, the Founding Fathers realized that a change was necessary. So the Constitution was created. The most important change of the Constitution was that the majority of power was then shifted into the hands of the federal or central government. This allowed the federal
In "Address to the People of the United States," Benjamin Rush states, "The confederation...[was] formed under very unfavorable circumstances. We had just emerged from a corrupted monarchy...most of us were ignorant of...republics..." During this time, the government had too much power and Congress did want to make the citizens feel oppressed. The Articles of Confederation gave the government the power to make decisions and pass laws. However, the states could reject the laws because the government had no way to enforce them. The delegates amended this conflict in the Constitution by creating federalism, therefore balancing the power between the states and the federal government. The single branch of government was divided into the executive, judicial, and legislative branches to ensure that the power would be distributed evenly and there would be no corruption.
The Constitution guarded against tyranny by giving the states individual freedom. To become a new nation the colonists needed some form of government, so they formed the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was the first plan of government for the United States beginning during the Revolutionary War, but it had many weaknesses and just wasn't working for the people. One weakness the Articles of Confederation had was that there was no court system. Another weakness was that the central government could not force a state to pay taxes.
Although weak and difficult, the central government could pass legislature in an organized manner, which was a massive starting point for the new nation. This starting point is what eventually led to the new Constitution, but at the time it did help with problems they faced. Another good reason for creating a weak central government and strong state governments was it caused the new nation to move away from the traditional British form of government, which helped unite the states even more. Overall, the Articles of Confederation helped the problems that first arose, such as the necessity for a central government, the necessity for a strong state run government, and a means to enact
The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. Although, it established a weak central government, it contributed to U.S principles because The Articles of Confederation were the basis of the first government of the United States of America. The Articles were essentially the “training wheels” of the government; it was a learning point to create something much greater which became the Constitution. The problems that this weak document created, combined with the Confederation government’s ineffectual response to Shays’ Rebellion, convinced national leaders that a more powerful central government was necessary.
“In November 1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the United States first written constitution.”(Ginsberg, et. al. 2014: 35). The Articles of Confederation played a big role in the drafting of the United States’ new constitution. The articles were our United States’ first written governing document. The Articles of Confederation solved some problems by creating at least a minimal amount of government at the time, but it also created some problem for our country because we did not have enough government. As time went on, the Founding Fathers found the issues with the Articles of Confederation, sought ways to solve those issues, and created the Constitution as a lasting governing document.
The creation of the US constitution was prompted my many different things going on. What established America’s national government and fundamental laws is the U.S constitution. It also guarantees basic rights for its citizens. The U.S constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pa. The first document before the U.S constitution was the Articles of Confederation, with that the government wasn’t very strong and the states didn’t act like they do today. In 1787, at the 1787 convention, delegates made a decision to make a stronger federal government that consisted of the executive, legislative, and the judicial branches. That wasn’t it either, it also had a system of checks and balances because they did not want one branch to be able to overpower another branch. The ten amendments of the Bill of Rights guarantees protections for people like religion and freedom of speech. In total, there are twenty-seven constitutional amendments.
Before the creation of the new constitution in 1787, the Articles of Confederation served the new nation. This document was not as comprehensive as the constitution as it was made hurriedly and did not resolve most of the early issues of the republic. Compared to the new constitution the Articles of Confederation gave congress a lot of power which left the national government weak on matters such as tax regulation, foreign policy, and the armed forces. The weakness of the government was seen to threaten the stability of the new nation, this situation together with some issues led to the Constitutional Convention. The Articles of Confederation was considered weak in some ways when compared to the constitution. These weaknesses include (Yazawa, 2016):
The Articles of Confederation were like a loose contract between the states. There was deepening debt, no power of the government to levy taxes to pay for the cost of the war, some states had a navy while others did not. Shay’s Rebellion, in which the government raised the taxes against farmers to help pay off war debts, caused the farmers to rebel. Hamilton and Madison decided that something needed to be done and so they called together representatives from each state to draw up a new version of the Articles. Instead of another Articles of Confederation being drawn up the United States Constitution was written. The new Constitution had a “weak” central government with strong state powers. It also ensured each state that they would be equally represented in the national government. In one house the representatives were based on the state’s population and in the other house each state gets two representatives. New ideas to the Constitution included: an executive branch
The Magna Carta is the most famous document in British history, being introduced and signed by King John in 1215. The Magna Carta opened the doors to democracy in England and America. The Magna Carta or the “Great Charter” has been hailed as the “sacred text” of liberty in the Western World. The Magna Carta set the foundation and basic ideas for modern democracy. It gave the people basic rights and abolished absolute monarchy for England. The Magna Carta provided and built the foundation for modern democracy with its premises the government guarantees basic rights for the people, established a basic rule of law and allowing a group to govern rather than an individual.