Framers Of The U.S. Constitution

Framers of the U.S. Constitution

On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed. The thirteen colonies were no longer under King George III rule. It was a new world that needed a new type of leadership. On July 12, 1776 the Second Congress proposed the Articles of Confederation. The articles were ratified by all thirteen states on March 1, 1781.

Under the Articles of Confederation each state had its own sovereignty. And the central government was to provide thing such as national security, treaties, courts, and currency. However the government could not tax. If the states didn't pay their bills to the government there was nothing the government could do about it. This is just one of many reasons why the Articles didn't work. In 1786 Virginia tried to get the Articles modified by holding a meeting known as the Annapolis Conference. This meeting failed because only five states sent delegates. A few months later another meeting was held in Philadelphia.

The meeting in Philadelphia was successful, it is known as the Constitutional Conventional. James Madison went to the meeting in Philadelphia it was his idea to create the United States in a republican model. The people would have the power in the form of representatives. Madison and his fellow Virginians came up with the details and a plan for the new government, it was known as the Virginia Plan. And Madison became known as the father of the constitution.

After Hamilton presented his plan to the convention, many other plans and compromises were written. The Great Compromise, Patterson and the New Jersey Plan, Hamilton and The British Plan, and the North-South Compromise.

The framers had four major goals for the constitution. They wanted to create a strong government that would be able to meet the need's of the nation. Yet they wanted to keep the existence of the separate states. They also didn't want to threaten liberty. And lastly they wanted to create a government that everyone could agree upon.

All of the framer of the U.S. Constitution had one thing in common, they all felt that the government didn't have enough power. At the same time they didn't want to give the government to much power. They all knew if there was power to be held someone was going to hold it and over use it The framers didn't want to create a system like Britain or England. To keep this from happening the framers created limits on the government through checks and balances (separated institutions sharing powers), grants and denials, Bill of Rights, federalism, judicial review, and elections.

Although all of the plans and compromises were written with different views they did share one common thought. That the government should be separated into different categories or departments. The government was divided into three branches the executive, legislative, and judicial. Even though the power was divided the framers were still uneasy that one would have or over use their power. To keep such a thing from happening the framers designed the system of checks and balances, it has also been known as the separated intuitions sharing power.

Each of the three branches overlaps each other in power. Each branch checks each others power. For example to have something passed, such as a bill, it has to be approved by the majority in each house. Their powers overlap in other ways too. Such as congress has power over presidency and vise versa. This means congress can impeach the president and remove him from office. Another system of checks is the president can veto acts of congress, but in return if congress finds this unfair they can choose to override this veto. Other checks are the congress over supreme court, supreme court over congress, president over supreme court, and supreme court over the president.

The framers were very concerned with protecting liberty, it was one of their major goals for the constitution. They came up with the grants and denials of power. These powers imply that "authority not granted to the government