Zinn also uses an excerpt from historian Charles Beard to explain his reasoning. Beard basically said that the rich controls the government or the laws the government operates by. Zinn points out that the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights shows that quality of interest hides behind innocence. Meaning that Congress completely ignores the freedom of speech. Professor of history Gordon S. Wood views the struggle for a new constitution in 1787-1788 as a social conflict between upper-class Federalists who desired a stronger central government and the “humbler” Anti-Federalists who controlled the state assemblies.
The flag has been around 200 years. The American Flag is also a symbol of pride. “On June 14,1777 in order to establish an official flag for the new nation the continental congress passed the first flag act, “Resolved that the flag of the united states be made of thirteen stripes,
This is the point in history where Alexander Hamilton’s rather aggressive support of the Constitution he was supposedly not entirely approving of and had no part in the drafting of, should give one pause for thought. He and two others began a covert, underhanded, and brilliant hard sell through publicly released anonymous essays, influencing public opinion through the media. As stated by Whitten (2010): The Federalist Papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the proposed constitution. In total, the Federalist Papers consist of 85 essays outlining how this new government would operate and why this type of government was the best choice for the United States of America. All of the essays were signed "PUBLIUS" and the actual authors of some are under dispute, but the general consensus is that Alexander Hamilton wrote 52, James Madison wrote 28, and John Jay contributed the remaining five.
As such, the Constitution underlies both the positive and negative functions of the separation of powers. For without some idea of what the branches' duties are, it is impossible to know when and how to defend their rights and their independence. This argument is not disproved by subsequent developments in American politics, in particular the rise of political parties. It is true that the Constitution of 1787 had to be amended to accommodate the practice of presidential and vice presidential candidates running for office on the same party ticket. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, changed the method of voting in the Electoral College by requiring the electors to cast separate ballots for President and Vice President.
The Federalists were usually characterized as loose constructionists, which meant they focused more on the intent of the constitution and its framers, and believed that changes were necessary for the development of the nation. Although Republicans and Federalists were characterized as having these particular views towards the enactment of the Constitution, when Jefferson and Madison served as Presidents during the beginning of the 19th century from 1800 to 1817, it was proven that even though they seemed to believe in their own views, in reality when time came, they started changing their beliefs and becoming both strict and loose constructionists for the good of the nation, which was strongly advocated by Henry Clay and his American System. The same would occur for the Federalists, so generally, each side did not accurately characterize itself during the early 19th century and proved each side had its similar interest when interpreting the Constitution. Before Jefferson became President in 1800, The Federalists dominated national politics for the first decade of America’s governmental history because of George Washington and John Adams favoring Federalist views. It was not until the
The conflict began in 1783 when Burr moved to New York and rose to prominence as one of the best lawyers around. Competition with Hamilton, who was also a lawyer, quickly arose as they struggled for the city’s best legal cases and became fast rivals. Burr’s career as a politician began in 1784 when New York governor (and future vice president) George Clinton appointed him as attorney general of New York. Eventually, he was voted to serve as a senator, which is when he became a diehard Democratic-Republican, opposing the Federalist Party of which Hamilton was a proud member of. He went on to run for vice-presidency under
McDonough. Through his article he feels that central bank independence is so very important to a democracy. According to McDonough, the main opponents of the first central bank were the farmers or the agrarians (2). These people dominated the population and their spokesperson was Thomas Jefferson. These people challenged the federal bank’s constitutionality (2).
Taking place major political changes aimed at consolidating the powers of central government. The country was governed by the Articles of Confederation according to which Congress could not make laws or raise taxes. To this purpose, in May 1787, a convention met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. Eventually the delegates, headed by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, drafted a new Constitution which established a strong federal government, gave executive power to an elected president, and provided for a Supreme Court. Most important, it established the principle of checks and balances.It was also decided to hold the first presidential election, and on
Kelley Hogan History 201 US September 20, 2011 Importance of the new Constitution on Early America America, at the beginning, needed to establish a strong central government; therefore they wrote the first Constitution, called the Articles of Confederation. But as in many first tries it was unsuccessful in establishing a strong government, as division caused many faults in the political and social spectrum. Many faults and strengths of the Articles of Confederation played into the role of the new Constitution. The importance of this first Constitution in relating to the new Constitution is realizing the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the strengths of the New Constitution and the Federalists versus Anti-Federalists debate. The first factor to play into the new Constitution was the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
Supporters believed that under the Articles of Confederation the government did not hold enough power. The leading figure in this party was Alexander Hamilton who had served as Secretary of Treasury for George Washington’s first term as president. Hamilton proposed the state debts that had come from the revolutionary war, which had created a national debt for the U.S. Hamilton answered this with the idea of the first bank of the United States. The main goal of the idea Hamilton had proposed, of state debts was to avoid unnecessary and possible destructive competition between state and federal governments. Which also allowed the federal government the opportunity for revenue.