WILL TRUONG

PERIOD 1
CONSTITUTION/FEDERAL PERIOD FRQ

After fighting a bloody revolutionary war, the people wanted a government that they could trust. People wanted to set

new boundaries for the new nation that could maintain law and order within the country. In 1777, a confederate style government

was established, but with a weak central branch causing various issues. While the Articles of Confederation had minority power

of the government, it had no real form of government until the Constitution was written in 1789.

The main problem with the Articles of Confederation was that it could not tax and regulate commerce. Congress was

unable to enforce any stable tax to neither the states nor the people. Congress was not permitted to raise an army; instead, each

state had its own militia that could be called upon by Congress when needed. But this created tremendous difficulties as it was

impossible for the country to have a central army, centrally trained and operated. The Articles of Confederation had no executive

and judiciary branch of government. There were also different currencies; postal systems, banking systems etc. and that would

not have been sustainable. The Articles was emphasized on states’ rights, where only one of each state only had one vote. With

such flaws in The Articles of Confederation, it would eventually fall apart as there is no sufficiently strong government to bring

the states together.

The adoption of the Constitution by the United States in 1789 ushered in a new phase of history. The Constitution

proposed a more Federalist structure, where it held things at the federal and apportioned out other things to the states. The

Constitution was able to tax and regulate commerce. It had a two-house Congress with an executive and judiciary branch of

government. There are three equal branches with separation of powers to keep the national government from taking the people's

liberties, thus, creating a federalist style government to keep the balance between states and the federal government. The Bill of

Rights was added to the Constitution to protect the liberties of the individual from the power of the new federal government.

With the separation of powers and balance of powers, it established the simplest framework for the new government, a

framework that was suitable for the people.

Although issues were solved in the Constitution in 1789, it was a great radical departure from the Articles of

Confederation. The most important development was the establishment of laws, and the setting of policies that established the

United States as a viable nation. With separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism and republicanism, the Constitution

was more effectively able to maintain law order without taking the people's natural rights.