Problems With The Constitution Of 1787

After the Revolutionary War was won the Founding Fathers knew they had to create a document that would be able to govern the new country for many years to come. The first attempt at creating a constitution, the Articles of Confederation, proved insufficient due to the severe lack of power the national government held. To combat the nation’s problems, in the summer of 1787, the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia to discuss a new form of government. The new constitution contained compromise about slavery, representation in the houses and many other topics that would shape the nation, and completely differed from the previous document. It laid out a system of separation of powers and checks and balances, for the newly developing country to avoid …show more content…
The main problem with the country before the development of the Constitution was the constitution that was in place, also known as the Articles of Confederation. A problem that showed the weakness in the government was Shays’s Rebellion, it happened between the years of 1786 and 1787 and contained a group of Massachusetts farmers. These farmers did not agree with the implementation of state and local taxes so they started many riots and attacked government officials. The real problems was not the rebellions but the fact that the national government could not stop them because they were not given the power to raise and army by the Articles of Confederation (Purcell 1). Another problem with the Articles of Confederation was that the national government could not force citizens to pay taxes. This caused a problem because the U.S. could not pay back their debts to France, England and other U.S. citizens (Purcell 1). These issues led to the Philadelphia Convention, also known as the Constitutional Convention. The convention took place in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1787 and consisted of fifty-five delegates from twelve of the thirteen states (Purcell 3). At the convention two parties emerged with completely differing ideas for the nation’s new constitution, the Federalists and the AntiFederalists. The Federalists …show more content…
This means that the government would have three branches and every branch would have the right to limit the powers of the other branches (Newman 1). The Legislative branch creates the laws, it consists of the House of Representatives and The Senate, they have the right to declare war and raise an army, appoint political officers in the United States and make treaties (United States Constitution 3-6). The Executive branch executes the laws, the President is the only power in this branch, he or she has the power to create and collect taxes, establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court and “to make laws which shall be necessary and proper, (The United States Constitution 4-6). The Judicial branch interprets the laws, this branch contains the Supreme Court, they have the rights to any cases involving The Constitution, two or more states and a state and a citizen (The United States Constitution 7). The system of checks and balances prevents an abuse of power by any one branch. The Legislative branch’s powers include overriding a President’s veto and impeaching the President (Newman 2). The Executive branch’s checks and balances include vetoing Congressional legislation and appointing federal judges. Judicial checks and balances contain Judicial review and Chief Justice sits as President of the Senate during presidential impeachments (Newman 2).