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A Response Paper on the Constitution of the United States
After the American Revolution, efforts to build the new nation were commenced. However, issues concerning the most suitable scope of governance, the arrangement of state and national governments, the role of the citizenry in government and decision-making, and relations among the states, were viciously debated. The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation in 1777 that created a legislative weak national government and strong state governments. However, the weak federal government could not enforce laws or resolve intestate disputes due to its weakness (Corbett 198). In addition, the debt from the Revolution, the postwar depression, the lack of national tax and fiscal policies, further weakened the feeble national government. These challenges were re-evaluated in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The primary purpose of the Philadelphia Convention was to amend the Articles of Confederation to deal with the economic problems that plagued the thirteen states of the Confederation. However, during the Convention, the delegates decided to create a new structure for the national government. This structure became the United States Constitution.
From records kept by Virginia’s representative James Madison, The United States Constitution was created by fifty-five men in Philadelphia, in secret, due to the controversial nature of the subject (Corbett 201). The delegates mainly focused on the manner in which representatives to the new national government would be chosen and the appropriate representation for each state. James Madison, in the Virginia Plan, proposed for a strong national government made up of a legislative branch, an executive branch, and the judicial branch. The legislature would comprise two houses (bicameral legislature), the upper and lower house. People in the states would elect members of the lower chamber while the members of the upper house would sent by the States. Madison further proposed proportional representation, whereby, more populous states, like Virginia, would have higher representation in the upper house. The higher representation in the upper house would mean that populous states would have more political power to safeguard their interests. Therefore, Virginia could safeguard slavery among other interests (Corbett 203). Patterson from New Jersey countered this proposal as it disadvantaged smaller states and proposed that all states have equal votes in a one-house legislature. Patterson also stated that economic challenges could be addressed by vesting Congress the power to regulate commerce and to collect revenue from various taxes (U.S. Constitution). Roger Sherman from Connecticut proposed a compromise to break the impasse on representation in government. This compromise is referred to as the Great Compromise, where, the upper house (Senate), would have an equal representation of all the states by having two senators each, while the lower house would have proportional representation.
The Constitution was important because it dealt with the major economic and political problems of that era, that is, the inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation to distribute power between the national and state governments. The weak Confederation government was faced with underdeveloped fiscal policies in addition to the debts from the war, and this resulted in postwar depression which in turn caused unrests such as the Shays’ Rebellion (Corbett 201). The financial crisis of the government worried some Congress members who argued that the national government needed more power, especially financial power by taxation (Corbett 198). By revising the Confederation government in 1787, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention created at the a new framework, the U.S. Constitution which then addressed issues such as the representation of people and states in government and slavery and how slaves would be accounted for. Many members in the Constitutional Convention were however uncertain about democracy, as they believed it would undermine the republic by promoting anarchy. The Constitution therefore moderated democratic biases to prevent handing the people too much power. For instance, the president would be elected by electors appointed by States (the electors would be equal to the number of senators and representatives in the state) rather than the general public to avoid anarchy (U.S. Constitution). This mode of electing the president was however later amended in the 12th Amendment.
Despite the fact that the Constitution promised a solution to the economic and political stalemate in the nation, it was met with opposition from Anti-Federalists who reasonably argued that the Constitution consolidated all power in the federal government and hence robbed the states and citizens of their power of autonomy. The Constitution seemed to mirror the old centralized British system that they had fought against during the Revolution, where the rich aristocrats would run the government and represent their needs while neglecting those of the common man. The Anti-Federalists demanded for the protection of individual rights by incorporating a Bill of Rights into the Constitution and in 1789, Congress approved the Bill of Rights introduced by James Madison.
Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY Corbett, P. Scott. U.S. History. Houston: OpenStax College, 2017. Print.
