The Articles of Confederation
Towards the end of the Revolutionary War the Americans realized that they had
to create some kind of government. A government controls laws, taxes, the economy, the
military and many other things.
Many of the colonists feared a strong central government, because of the king.
The first government they made, based on the Articles of Confederation (1781), gave the
central government very little power, and each of the states much power.
Problems
Since each state could make up its own rules, the new country was really like 13
different little countries. Each state had its own laws and each state had their own
currency (money). This made it very hard to sell goods from state to state because each
state’s money was worth different amounts. For example, $1 in New York might be
worth $5 in South Carolina.
States began to compete with each other economically and began charging taxes
on each other’s goods. For example, if a farmer from North Carolina was selling corn to
someone in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania would make the seller from Virginia pay taxes so
that his corn was too expensive to sell in Pennsylvania, and the buyer in Pennsylvania
would have to buy his corn from someone in Pennsylvania at a higher price.
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TOO WEAK!!
STATES HAD TOO MUCH POWER!!
The U.S. Constitution
In 1787 the people of the new nation, the United States of America realized that
they needed to change the Articles of Confederation, or else the different states would
destroy each other. Eventually, they would not just change the Articles of Confederation,
they would totally get rid of them and create the US Constitution.
The US Constitution is what our central, or federal government is based on. It
created the 3 different branches of government:
The Legislative- Pass the laws
The Executive- Enforces the laws
The Judicial- Makes sure the laws are Constitutional
The Legislative Branch
The writers of the US constitution tired to compromise to make sure that all states
had equal amounts of power. Their first big problem was between the Virginia Plan and
the New Jersey plan.
The Virginia Plan said that the legislative branch should give the most power to the
bigger states(Most populated).
The New Jersey Plan said that big and little states should have the same amount of
power.
What happened next was the GREAT COMPROMISE. It created a bicameral legislative
branch, which means a two house legislature. One house, the House of Representatives
gave the big states power. A large state got to put more representatives in., a smaller
state had to put in less.
The second house of legislature made all states equal. Each state put in 2 senators
a piece.
1.) Give two reasons for the Articles of Confederation failing.
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2.) What was the difference between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan?
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3.) Do you think that the Great Compromise is fair?
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Federalists vs. Antifederalists
The next problem with writing the Constitution dealt with people that wanted a
strong central government (Federalists) and those that did not (Antifederalists). The
people in the Antifederalist states said that they would not ratify (agree) to the
Constitution without a Bill of Rights to protect them from the government.
There was another compromise and the Federalists agreed to a Bill of Rights.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS ARE THE FIRST 10 AMMENDMENTS TO THE
CONSTITUTION. THEY GIVE LIMITS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND
THEY MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP THEIR
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.
Amendments

First Amendment – Freedom of religion, speech, press, and peaceful assembly as
well as the right to petition the government.
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Second Amendment – Right to own a gun in case America is attacked
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Third Amendment – Protection from the government letting soldiers live in your
house
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Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
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Fifth Amendment – Due process, you get a lawyer, you can’t be tried for the
same crime twice and you don’t have to tell on yourself.
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Sixth Amendment – Speedy trial by jury for crimes.
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Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury.
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Eighth Amendment – No excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment.
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Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically put in the Bill of Rights.
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Tenth Amendment – Any power not given to the federal government in the
Constitution goes to the states.
1.) Whose idea for government do you like better- the Federalists or Anti-Federalists?
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2.) Which right do you think is the most important, why?
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