PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: The Articles of Confederation were a major failure as a constitution. AUDIENCE: The intended audience of Federalist No.16 was those in New York. REASON: The reason for this document was to address the failures of the Articles of confederation and its inability to govern the country. THE MAIN IDEA: The Articles of Confederation would only bring destruction to the new country. SIGNIFICANCE: Brought up a point that a strong central government was needed for the country to survive .
Supporters of the constitution countered these arguments by adding some safeguards in some cases and also by thoroughly explaining the limited powers that the leader and government would have and the necessity for a strong central government. The constitution called for one executive leader, the President, who many thought would resemble a dictator, and America would be just like it was during colonial times. The framers of the Constitution knew that there needed to be a centralized government with a single executive leader to lead the country. However, some people like Patrick Henry, feared that a president would lead to “absolute despotism” and that there were actually more checks and balances in the British system of kings and lords (Doc. A).
He stood for a strong federal government because he strongly struggled with giving states too much power, thinking they would start a rebellion in which could not be controlled. However, he knew the people had to given some say in things, and therefore had to consider the role of the government. He wanted the government to have
Haylie Stickel Civics Frickman Should the constitution be ratified or should it be tossed? The Articles of Confederation established America’s first national government but it was a weak one because it was a free government. This became apparent after Shay’s Rebellion; the government couldn’t regulate the economy or apply a foreign policy. We needed to change the Articles of Confederation thus a meeting was called to the Annapolis Convention. There were plenty of arguments over what to add or take out so some delegates came up with the idea to abandon the Articles of Confederation and establish a new constitution.
The Articles of Confederation was American colonies first attempt to become unified under a single governmental entity. Designed to be weak, the Articles banded the 13 colonies in an attempt deal with problems such as foreign policy. At the time of the Articles of Confederation, the colonies were much divided and there were constantly opposing views on every action taken. The Articles of Confederation, on the positive note, was able to unify the American colonies in their fight against Britain and solve the land issues of Western lands. In a way we could see the Articles of Confederation as a stepping stone to something greater, the United States Constitution.
Conservative, these men were not. Defenders of reason, liberty, freedom of person, and conscience, they led the fight also against monarchy and oligarchy (Jefferson Libertarian). These men and many more are the reason that the United States of America is what it is. The revolution may have been bold and risky but these men created one of the first republics of the world. The American Revolution was an event of far-reaching importance.
Federalists, on the other hand, believed in broadly adhering to constitution, characterizing them as broad constructionists. This allowed the Federalists to make decisions that were not clearly supported by the constitution, ultimately giving the government more power than the constitution. While the Federalists and Republicans were thought as very diverse parties, their beliefs ended up crossing during the presidencies of Jefferson and Madison. Therefore, from 1801 to 1817 while the Federalists were considered to be broad constructionists and Republicans strict constructionists, they both went astray from their beliefs so each party could do what was best for themselves and, most importantly, the country. From 1801 to 1809, during the presidency of Jefferson, it was the first time that the Republicans and Federalists didn't abide by the ordinary ideals each group previously followed.
Confederation and Constitution period ( 1783-1789) Introduction After American Revolution the states were in the situation where they couldn’t pay off the war debts, or negotiate and regulate commerce with foreign nations. In fact the relationship between the states were shaken as they had to compete for trade opportunities which was taken advantage of by Britain- still the world’s strongest trading nation. State governments tended to be dominated by their legislatures and thus provided little effective check on violent and dominant factions. The need for a strong national government became obvious. Once the British system of government was rejected, the states, operating under the “Articles of Confederation,” saw
The Constitution The Constitution was created for the people of America to establish a formal written document for how the new country should be governed. It was created to bring together a new nation that was divided by states of different land sizes and population. Delegates from each of the original thirteen states were assembled for the objective of revising the Articles of Confederation. The convention was attended by fifty-five out of the seventy-four delegates that were selected. There is a need to improve the Article of Confederation because there were flaws in the national system.
Branches of Government Jefferson said it best, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government” (The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., 1996-2012, para. 1). After the ultimate control while under rule of the crown, the founding fathers sought to create not only a government that provided for rights and liberties of the people, but also to ensure that government interaction and authority was spread amongst various branches. This distribution of power would provide checks and balances to guarantee reduced influence, while allowing each section to operate independently. However, agreement of each party would be problematic to achieve when needing to enact new laws and regulations.