The Constitution of the United States is the foundation of our American Government. It lays out the system of Government and the rights of the American people. The Constitution has three parts. The Preamble tells the purpose of the document and Government. The Articles set up how the Government is organized and how the Constitution can be changed. The Amendments are changes to the Constitution. The first ten Amendments are called the Bill of Rights. Show
In the early 1600s, the British king set up colonies in America along the Atlantic coast. People came to the colonies for many reasons; some wanted to make money, and others came to find religious freedom. By the 1700s there were 13 British colonies. But the colonists were unhappy about paying taxes without having any say in the laws that governed them. This would eventually lead to war between the Americans and the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Before the American Revolutionary War, each state had its own constitution. After the war ended, the states joined together to set up a Federal Government under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles turned out to be a weak system of government and this needed to be changed. The Writing of the Constitution of the United States of AmericaRepresentatives from the states met at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. They debated about what should be included in the Constitution. Large states felt that they should have more representation in Congress, while small states wanted equal representation. The leaders created a bicameral legislative branch, which gave equal representation to each state in the Senate and representation based on population in the House of Representatives. The Constitution also created an executive branch and a judicial branch to set up a system of checks and balances. All three branches would have power so no one branch could become more powerful than another. The Constitution was presented to the American public on September 17, 1787. The Constitution is known as a living document because it can be changed, or amended. Since its ratification, or formal approval, it has only been changed 27 times. Although it has been amended over the years, the Constitution's basic form still exists today. U.S. Constitution facts and figures:
To learn more, see the Constitution of the United States site at the National Archives. It was on this day in 1777 that the Articles of Confederation, the first American constitution, was sent to the 13 states for consideration. It didn’t last a decade, for some obvious reasons. The Articles formed a war-time confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government. The document made official some of the procedures used by the Congress to conduct business, but many of the delegates realized the Articles had limitations. Here is a quick list of the problems that occurred, and how these issues led to our current Constitution. 1. The states didn’t act immediately. It took until February 1779 for 12 states to approve the document. Maryland held out until March 1781, after it settled a land argument with Virginia. 2. The central government was designed to be very, very weak. The Articles established “the United States of America” as a perpetual union formed to defend the states as a group, but it provided few central powers beyond that. But it didn’t have an executive official or judicial branch. 3. The Articles Congress only had one chamber and each state had one vote. This reinforced the power of the states to operate independently from the central government, even when that wasn’t in the nation’s best interests. 4. Congress needed 9 of 13 states to pass any laws. Requiring this high supermajority made it very difficult to pass any legislation that would affect all 13 states. 5. The document was practically impossible to amend. The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783. 6. The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations. The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency. 7. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies. Technically, that role fell to the central government, but the Confederation government didn’t have the physical ability to enforce that power, since it lacked domestic and international powers and standing. 8. States had their own money systems. There wasn’t a common currency in the Confederation era. The central government and the states each had separate money, which made trade between the states, and other countries, extremely difficult. 9. The Confederation government couldn’t help settle Revolutionary War-era debts. The central government and the states owed huge debts to European countries and investors. Without the power to tax, and with no power to make trade between the states and other countries viable, the United States was in an economic mess by 1787. 10. Shays’ rebellion – the final straw. A tax protest by western Massachusetts farmers in 1786 and 1787 showed the central government couldn’t put down an internal rebellion. It had to rely on a state militia sponsored by private Boston business people. With no money, the central government couldn't act to protect the "perpetual union." These events alarmed Founders like George Washington, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to the point where delegates from five states met at Annapolis, Maryland in September 1786 to discuss changing the Articles of Confederation. The group included Madison, Hamilton and John Dickinson, and it recommended that a meeting of all 13 states be held the following May in Philadelphia. The Confederation Congress agreed and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 effectively ended the era of the Articles of Confederation. What was the document before the Declaration of Independence?The Virginia Declaration of Rights strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in writing the first part of the Declaration of Independence. It later provided the foundation for the Bill of Rights.
What document was originally the basis for the US government before being replaced by the Constitution after the founders felt there were too many problems?The Articles of Confederation established the first governmental structure unifying the thirteen states that had fought in the American Revolution. They went into effect on March 1, 1781 and lasted until March 4, 1789 when they were replaced by the US Constitution.
What did the Founding Fathers write before the Constitution?Concern about the Articles of Confederation
America's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but it had no enforcement powers, couldn't regulate commerce, or print money.
What document had to be added to the US Constitution before it was ratified?Ultimately, during the ratification debate in Virginia, Madison conceded that a bill of rights was needed, and the Federalists assured the public that the first step of the new government would be to adopt a bill of rights. It took 10 months for the first nine states to approve the Constitution.
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