The Constitution of the United States of America is the document that our country's government has been based

upon for over two hundred years. It has only undergone twenty-seven amendments to it in all of its life. Prior to the Constitution's ratification there was the Declaration of Independence and then the Articles of Confederation were the first sold government document our newly formed country had. In going from declaring our independence through the Declaration of Independence and our current Constitution there were several steps that developed our American government into what it is today. The Declaration of Independence was a document that declared our independence from England. In the document it states the natural rights of man and states that the people of a country need to raise up against the government when it is taking away from their natural rights. The idea that people have unalienable rights that is started here in the Declaration of Independence clearly finds its way into our Constitution. In the Declaration of Independence it also goes into grievances of the king, and the ideas of wanting to get away from such a government and its potential grievances is clearly demonstrated in the way our government is set up in the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence got us away from the English government and it also had an influence on the Constitution, however it did not propose a new form of government for the new country of ours. The first official governing document for the United States was the Articles of Confederation. The main strength of the Articles is that they gave us enough of a government to get our country through most of the seventeen eighties. They contained many things that caused them to be gotten rid of. The biggest weakness was that they did

not provide for a strong central government. The power was with the states and there was no way for the government to pose taxes, and there fore could not raise funds to conduct the necessary actions of the government. There was also no judicial system and as a result of that there was very little ability of the government to enforce laws. Another weakness was that it was a unicameral government and had no checks and balances. Each state had one vote in congress despite its population. There were not many things from the Articles of Confederation that were directly carried into the Constitution, however it did have a great influence on the Constitution, by being an experiment for our government and through it the framers of the Constitution were able to develop ways to get around the problems of the articles. The first solutions to the problems seen in the Articles of Confederation are shown in the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan set up our government with a three branch system and a bicameral legislative branch that are continued in the Constitution. The people elect the first house and then the second house is appointed by the first. The lack of a national central government in the articles is addressed by a national legislation that is more powerful than the state legislation. In contrast to the Virginia Plan was the New Jersey Plan. It maintained that each state got one vote in congress in order to protect states rights. It much more closely followed the Articles of Confederation for it was considered amendment to the Articles while the Virginia Plan more strongly pushed for a strong national government. The New Jersey Plan continued with a unicameral congress. Following the Virginia and New Jersey Plans was the Great Compromise. In this document many feature of our Constitution are beginning to be developed. The Electoral

College is formed to give states more representation in the national government. A fouryear presidential term is begun. The Supreme Court is created in order to better enforce laws within the country. There were two houses of Congress created as well. The House in which a states population determines representation and the Senate in which representation is equal. The early founders of the United States realized that it was necessary to craft a completely new governing document that took the best from all of the previous attempts and amendments in order to best govern the new country. The federalists were the ones who were strongly in support of a Constitution that provided for a strong national government. The federalists wrote eighty-five essays to convince the states to ratify the constitution. The Constitution started by restating the ideas presented in the Declaration of Independence stating that humans have natural rights that are for all. That is followed by seven articles. The first sets up the legislative branch of the government and states its regulations and rights. Then the second article gives the executive branch the rights and regulation that come with it. The Judicial Branch is addressed in the third article in which the purpose of the branch is defined. The fourth article goes into the states relations with the government and with each other. The fifth makes provisions for amending the constitution. The sixth is the supremacy clause in which it states that the constitution is the supreme law of the land. And the seventh states that nine out of the thirteen states must ratify the constitution for it to be in effect. From the Declaration of Independence to the experiment of the Articles of Confederation to the amendments made to it and the plans and compromises that followed it, there is a clear path that they paved that led to the Current Constitution of the

United States of America. There were many failures of the early ideas for our government yet there were several strong ideas that found their way into our current governmental system of America.