Essay Sample on The Articles of Confederation

The constitution is the most historical document that holds the most basic principles and rules of a nation, state, or social organization that define the government's powers and responsibilities, as well as guaranteeing certain rights to the people who live there. From our class discussion, Professor Errico mentioned that the USA has the longest surviving constitution in the world. It was written in 1787, which was ratified in 1788 and it is still running.

The Articles of confederation was the first government after independence was declared this document was the first document to be written therefore, this document has no right to tax, regulate business or enforce enforcement This event is a decree and a resolution. Congress was powerless to run the country. This document was written in such a way that it left the government weak as possible. Consequently, laws could not be enforced, there was no Judicial branch or national courts so, so it is impossible to make a decision.  Which led this document to fail because it was impossible to run a successful new nation when laws and decisions could not be enforced. They proceeded to draft a new constitution that ended the Articles of Confederation, which then led to a new government that saved the country. This document is now called the U.S constitution.

They tried to find a compromise between the larger and smaller states so that it would benefit every state regardless of their size. Every state wanted an equal opportunity to make decisions regardless of their population size or how big or small the state was. Edmund Randolph was a popular governor, and a delegate from Virginia at the Constitutional Convention, which had a very strong proposal, the Virginia Plan, and this plan was important because his plan outlined a strong national government that consisted of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch was divided into two bodies these bodies were the Senate and the House of Representatives. The lower house would be elected by the population, and the upper house chosen by the lower house. The delegates that were in the smaller states felt threatened by this proportional representation plan. With the Virginia Plan in mind, the smaller states wanted to be equal to the bigger states. Hence, they proposed the New Jersey Plan this plan called for the smaller states to have equal representation in Congress.

Many statements in the Constitution supported the term slavery even though the word was not mentioned. As discussed in the history lesson and upon reading the chapter there were three ways that it was mentioned but in other words that referred to the term “Slaves” the first since the three-fifths' Compromise. This compromise allowed the states to count three-fifths of the total number of their slave population. Three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. The second way is to compromise on the return of the fugitive. This incident is the second time that the word slave is not mentioned as a compromise but this compromise required that the fugitives also known as slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state they had to be returned. This compromise also made the federal government responsible for finding and returning the fugitives that escaped or that is trying to escape. The third and final compromise that did not use the word slave was the elimination of the international slave trade. This compromise did not allow for any new slaves to be brought into the US. This eventuality did not affect the in-country slave trade.

With all this in mind, other political discussions were taking place, and then it led to the Constitutional Convention, which was discussed among the founding fathers.

Many people played a role in the constitutional convention but the four main people that were mentioned in our class discussion were Benjamin Franklin lived much longer than most of the other delegates. He was 81 years old and he had a very difficult time getting around. He was known as a very intelligent person. He works behind the scenes and is loved by everyone. He was the only abolitionist. James Madison he as well as the other delegates were responsible for the new drafting of the Constitution. He was also a Virginia delegate to the constitutional convention. From my knowledge, what I had learned in school, and what we had discussed in class. George Washington was the first president. It was his role as the president of the convention that made him the first USA president. Hence, it was he that signed the document first then, it was followed by the other thirty-seven delegates. George Washington played a very important role in the Revolutionary war. George Mason was just as important as the others. He was one of the men that did not sign the constitution he believed that this document gave too much power to the central government.

Even though the constitution has been written over 200 years ago. The reason it has lasted this long is that each generation can modify and make changes to the constitution as the generation changes. If the original document still stood, then we would not be supporting this document.