From Articles of Confederation to a New Constitution Essay

Before the United States Constitution that we know to this day was in effect the new nation was in turmoil in trying to establish a way to go about their new form of government. The original governing document for the United States was titled the Articles of Confederation. Although the Articles served as the first guideline of rules of operations for the United States confederation, it quickly became apparent that there were too many conflicts concerning the Articles. Disagreements arose, and ratifications proposed as an attempt to make everyone happy with the document, but a unanimous vote was necessary to make alterations. There was too much conflict to agree to any change.
In September of 1786 state representatives met at the Constitutional Convention led by Alexander Hamilton. The representatives were only authorized to amend the Articles of Confederation, but instead they set about writing a new constitution which gave much more power to the central government, and proposed a separation of powers leaving no member holding too much authority.
This new Constitution seemed to bring the states closer to reaching consensus, but there were still disputes. Federalists, supporters of the Constitution, believed that a strong national government was the key to the survival of the colonies, while the Antifederalists, those who opposed the Constitution, thought that a powerful national government could become a tyrant and overshadow state rights, and individual liberties.
In an attempt to keep the Constitution, and appease the Antifederalists the Bill of Rights was written. This Bill addressed the fears of the Antifederalists and assured certain rights to the people that could not be impinged upon. This addition gained more support with the Antifederalists.
With this new Constitution and the Bill of Rights Federalists and Antifederalists came to an agreement on how to go about the governing bodies of the United States. In this way the dilemmas faced during the...