¶ … United States Constitution concentrates on. It will address how it treated the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the complaints in the Declaration of Independence.
How the Constitution Deals with Weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation
One key factor that has helped keep the constitution of the United States alive is the processes involved in its amendment. These processes require 2/3 majority votes from the two houses of Congress or by every state legislature. The Articles of Confederation could not be changed easily because a unanimous vote required from each of the states. As the number of the sates in the United States increased from 13 to 50, it would have been almost impossible to change the articles. No judicial system was provided for the United States by the Articles of Confederation.
In the same way, Congress lacked the legal power to enforce any laws (Morelock, n.d). Each of the created states had its own interpretation of its own laws and enforced them as it wished. This brought about significant discrepancies and conflicts between the U.S. states with varying policies. As no federal judiciary was in place, no entity had the powers to settle these conflicts that arose between different states. A collection of essays that encouraged the endorsement of the Constitution is known as the Federalist papers. In these papers, Alexander Hamilton appealed in No. 78-81 for a judicial arm where there is always a revered judiciary that has the final say to correct all the failings of the Articles of Confederation. A unicameral legislative system exists in the United States under the Articles of Confederation. This means that only one chamber or House of Congress existed. The unicameral legislative system offered no checks and balances with regards to Congress at the time states were unwilling to surrender power to a federal system of government for fear of abuse.
The checks and balances system was created in the Constitution to address these weaknesses.
How the Constitution Addressed the Complaints in the Declaration of Independence
As the debates on whether the Constitution should be adopted or not were on, those who opposed the Constitution argued that adopting it would encourage tyranny by the federal government. The British violation of the Civil Rights, which occurred before the Revolution and at the time of Revolution, was fresh on their minds.
They made a demand for a bill of rights that will state the immunities individual citizens would be entitled to. A number of state conferences in their official endorsement of the Constitution requested for such amendments; others approved the Constitution with the belief that proper amendments would be made.
In 1789, September 25 to be precise, the United States First Congress sent a proposal to all state legislatures for 12 amendments to the Constitution that met the opinions that advanced against the Bill of Rights most frequently.
The first two amendments proposed, which addressed the number of constituents for each of the Representatives as well the compensation of Congress, could not be ratified. However, articles 3-12, which were ratified by 3/4 of the legislatures make up the first 10 Constitutional amendments, called the Bill of Rights. This Bill of Rights looked into the complaints outlined in the Declaration of Independence (Bill of Rights, n.d).
Slavery and Representation
From when the American colonies started forming a Union, a number of questions came up concerning the relationship between the United States Constitution and the slavery institution. Looking closely at the deed documented in Philadelphia in 1787, the use of the words slave and slavery were exposed as ambiguity since they were never used in the United States Constitution (Boyd, 1995). There were debates by the farmers as to the extent slavery would be included, allowed, or forbidden in the Constitution. Eventually, they created a deed of compromise to represent the interest of the U.S. to the best of their knowledge and made a prediction about it being in the future. Explaining to the Framers an understanding of slavery, according to the Constitution, calls for a careful consideration of the three different clauses that deal with the subject. The very first indication of slavery as contained in the Constitution can be found in Article 1, section 2. This three-fifths clause explains the apportionment of taxation and representation. It reads thus:
"Direct taxes and representatives shall be apportioned among all the States, which may be made part of this Union, following their respective Numbers. This shall be ascertained by adding to the total number of free individuals, including all those bound to serve a single term of a number of years, and excluding the Indians that were not taxed, three-fifths of all the individuals."
Articles of Confederation and Constitution Constitution addressed a number of complaints listed in the Declaration of Independence against Great Britain's King. In addition, the Constitution cured a number of weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation by giving powers, rights and divisions to the federal government, as well as providing a different method of amending the Constitution. At times, the Constitution was developed through compromises such as the Great Compromise, which set
Articles of Confederation & Constitution The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution The United States government has operated under two constitutions since its inception. The Articles of Confederation was ratified by Maryland on March 1, 1781 and was in effect until it was replaced by the Constitution upon its ratification by New Hampshire on June 21, 1788. The two documents differed in many respects. The Articles of Confederation was unicameral. Each state
Articles of Confederation with the new Constitution of 1787. We will see what were the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles vis-a-vis the Constitution and give specific instances that demonstrate the weakness of the Articles, in particular its financial issues. Default and debt is an American tradition and it was initiated with gusto in the days following the Revolution when Dutch and French holders of American bonds found it impossible
This would prove to cause competition between the states for power, economic and environmental resources, and political positioning. The interstate commerce law and the associated legislation did not exist under the articles. The Articles of Confederation were far less robust in their structure, giving states the majority of the unchecked power, and not allowing the Federal government the ability to oversee and tax the population in order to develop
Articles of Confederation has gone down in history and always will be known for the absolute failure that it was. In 1777, there was a need to lay a foundation or formulate a balanced government in accordance with the ideals of the American Revolution. The Articles of Confederation reflected the fears of American after the Revolutionary War, and their desire to free themselves of tyrannical rule. In order to
United States Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Great Compromise The Articles of Confederation was the first document attempting to govern how the newly independent states were to act together in their union. However, the Articles of Confederation had significant flaws that rendered them an unrealistic tool for the government of the new states. While not all inclusive, the following are some of the weaknesses
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