After the American Revolutionary War, America created its first constitution called the Articles of Confederation. In the Articles of Confederation, it established a weak national government, a weak congress that didn’t have the power to tax or regulate foreign and interstate commerce, no national court system, and strong state government. The Articles of Confederation also didn’t have an executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress. The Articles of Confederation were formed this way because leaders of the United States feared a powerful central government due to the fact that they were under the British rule which they considered were a powerful tyrannical government that abused its power. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation was a complete failure. This was proven by Shay’s Rebellion which demonstrated that the national government was too weak that it didn’t have the power to put down the rebellion. As a result, Shay’s Rebellion was a major factor that led to the writing of the U.S. Constitution which was created in 1787 and ratified in 1788. The U.S. Constitution is an important aspect of the United States that impacted the country once it was commenced.
In the making of the U.S. Constitution, there were two groups of people that had different viewpoints towards the Constitution, the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist. The Federalists were in favor in ratifying the Constitution. The Anti-Federalist opposed the Constitution and favored the Articles of Confederation. The Anti-Federalist believed that the new system threatened liberties and failed to protect individual rights leading to the people being at risk of oppression. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held and fifty-five delegates were present to determine how best to adjust the existing document of the Articles of Confederation, however, it was too difficult to make adjustments on the first constitution because there were too many problems that had to be fixed. It was then decided last minute to create a whole new constitution for America. One debate that occurred between the two groups concerned the inclusion of the Bill of Rights. The Federalist felt that this addition was not necessary because they believed that the Constitution as it stood only limited the government not the people and that it would create a “parchment barrier” that limited the rights of the people instead of protecting them. The Anti-Federalist believed that since the Constitution gave the national government too much power, without the Bill of Rights, the people were at risk in being oppressed. However, the U.S. Constitution was ratified without the Bill of Rights in 1788. For the Constitution to be ratified, only nine out of the thirteen states had to ratify it in order for it to become a law. By June of 1788, the Constitution was able to become a law as New Hampshire gave it its final vote needed. Soon after, Virginia and New York gave in its vote that same year. There was no need...
