United States Constitution

Pennsylvania, tasked with adopting a government for the United States of America. This eclectic group of men passionately debated for months over what should be included in the United States government. What these men emerged with was the most promising documentation of democracy and expansion of rights the world had ever seen. They emerged with the Constitution of the United States of America. What’s so fascinating about the men who wrote the Constitution was that they all came from various…

The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 nearly doubled the size of the United States and provided them with access to crucial geographic features. The young United States was going through difficult times trying to interpret and tweak their new constitution so they could expand the country. During this time, President Thomas Jefferson, described by Henry as “always stating his strong belief that the federal government’s powers should be interpreted strictly” (Browan 35). Jefferson believed there would…

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…

Confederation and Constitution Included below are similarities and differences of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States of America. The drafting of the Constitution will be discussed as well as, the problems encountered during the drafting. The Bill of Rights will be discussed as well as the problems encountered during their creation. The Articles of Confederation On March 1, 1781 the Articles of Confederation were ratified by all thirteen states. Although the…

Gay rights in the United States has most recently been a large and semi-controversial topic of discussion as it gains more and more awareness throughout our society. Gay rights haven’t always been such a prominent topic, and in fact, it wasn’t until 1924 when the first documented gay rights organization, the Society for Human Rights, was founded. This society worked hard to begin to introduce this idea of gay rights to America, although it was disbanded due to political pressure shortly after it…

The early days of the United States were detrimental as they determined what type of government the colonies were going to have. James Madison, the author of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers, is one of the most important political figures and Founding Fathers that persevered religious freedom and a balanced national and state government. Madison’s contributions to the establishment of the American republic extremely significant,; however they were less noticed and…

Justice. Rawls argues that a just political constitution is removed from the personal interest of individuals. Rawls says that the principles of a just political constitution should be made behind a veil of ignorance, whereby those who draft the constitution “… do not know [their] economic or political situation, or the level of civilization and culture [they] [have] been able to achieve” in their society. (Rawls, 1971) The contents of a political constitution made from behind this veil will in…

the United States had just declared their independence, it was clear that governmental structure needed to be established. In 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which all states would ratify by 1781. The Articles of Confederation would prove to be a weak constitution, giving too much power to the states and not having a strong enough central government. This realization led to several changes being made until a new framework was implemented. The Constitution…

permanent union as States. A year later in November 1777 the Congress issued what it is considered today to be the first constitution of the United States: “The Articles of Confederation”. This written document was setting up a loose confederation of states, citing that: “each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right” (Goldfield, 176-7). It took almost four years, until March 1781, for these Articles to be ratified by all 13 future States,…

The Influences in the ratification of the Constitution By the author of the third antifederalist paper it was written, “all human authority, however organized, must have confined limits, or insolence and oppression will prove the offspring of its grandeur, and the difficulty or rather impossibility of escape prevents resistance.” By the end of the Revolutionary War, the colonists began to realize that the government established under the Articles of Confederation was insufficient, America needed…