George Washington stated that they should deal with “sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial [to Britain].” He may have stated this for he was the first to be the role model of the future presidents, therefore he would want to leave a legacy that will effectively put American in the positive direction. As a neutralist, George Washington advised Thomas Jefferson to not be involved in any affairs or involvement with other nations on March 13th, 1793 (Doc B). The first president would have written this to Jefferson because Washington strongly opposes any interactions with other nations. An additional document that may further help analyze the evolution of America and the foreign policy would be
By having one house, this will ensure equality within the states. It is better to be equal than have one side to carry all the weight. On the other hand, the Virginia Plan, as I said before, is only based on the population and includes a bicameral legislature. It would not be fair for both of the houses to have representatives based on the number of people. Why couldn’t they even let just one house to satisfy the smaller states?!
A “grand committee” was created with one delegate from each state and Benjamin Franklin was the chairman. The committee decided on an amalgamation of the Virginia and New Jersey plans. They propose The Great Compromise insisted that there would be two houses in the legislative branch of Congress and it would made for both small and large states would have favor in one house or the other. In one house, the House of Representatives, the larger populated states would favor because it was based off of population size. Whereas the Senate favored small states and every state would have equal representation that made states like Virginia and New Jersey equal in this
The U.S. Constitution states the promotion of the “general welfare”. Both governments are democracies and support a widespread of the population instead of a handful. They also both support “equal opportunity” of the public. Because of these many similar views, Greece’s government is very much alike the government of the U.S. Athens of Greece was part of the Delian League, a coalition of states, each one independent and sharing a common interest with the others (4). These states created a strong military force.
At the time, the states feared a strong central government, for this reason, the Continental Congress tried to give the states as much independence as possible. After the ratification of the Articles of Confederation the states pretty much governed themselves, they regulated their own interstate trade, they raised their own militia, and the Sovereignty resided in the
Although different in nature, congress and the President of the United States both hold positions of upmost power and unequivocally important decision-making for the American people. However, the argument always stands: who has more power? The power problem as it stands “...is the need to grant government enough power to effectively address the problems that people expect government to solve, while also limiting power so that it can be held accountable” (Katznelson, Kesselman, Draper, p.42). Far from perfect, the political system in place attempts to grant both Congress and The President exclusive and shared responsibilities to provide an equal spread of power. Upon founding of the United States government, not all three branches were to share the same amount of power.
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
Of all the Federalist Papers written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, perhaps the most famous and the one most quoted is Federalist No. 10, by Madison. Many people had argued against the new Constitution claiming that the US would be too large to govern as a democracy (republic) and had too many groups, or “factions,” as political parties (interest groups) were then called. While Madison acknowledged that there were many differing factions, he also indicated that a democratic form of government, using the ideal of majority rule, would tame the factions and cause them to work together as much as possible. He claimed that the republican form of government created by the new Constitution would allow all the factions the room and venues to express themselves and to influence the workings of government by getting their members elected and/or appointed to offices.
The 13 colonies followed the Articles of Confederation, but every state had its laws, so the government had not enough power to solve the problem between each states. The government had no taxation and the judiciary. In order to fix
Representatives from small states did not like this plan and came up with the New Jersey Plan, which states that all states should be equal regardless the population. They settled this by giving the US two lawmaking bodies. Alexander Hamilton whom is on the $10 bill favors a strong central government and suggest for a president. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution by the ant federalist. I learned that an Amendment is any change done to the Constitution.