Thirteen Colonies That Drafted and Announced the Essay

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thirteen colonies that drafted and announced the Declaration of Independence stating their intention to separate from England shortly thereafter wrote the first governing document, the Articles of Confederation. The Articles set forth and defined the relationship between the various colonies and how the relationship between such colonies would serve to form one entity. The Articles served to provide the colonies with a form of unification while the Revolution was being fought but as the nation attempted to recover from the War and build a new nation the Articles proved too weak to be effective. The Articles failed to grant Congress the power to raise funds, regulate trade, or conduct foreign policy without the voluntary agreement of the states. There were attempts to alter the Articles in order to increase the powers of the Congress but these efforts failed and a Constitutional Convention was convened to attempt to revise the Articles but what emerged instead was a new Constitution which allowed for the formation of a stronger national government.

The main difference between the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution was the fact that the Constitution actually provided the legal framework for a new national government while the Articles was designed more like a treaty setting forth a relationship between thirteen separate colonies. Under the Articles there was no President and each state had individual sovereignty. The new Constitution addressed this deficiency by creating a three level government with separate Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches. The new Constitution granted the central government the power to make treaties, establish tariffs, impose embargoes, and negotiate trade agreements.

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It also granted Congress the power to tax and obtain additional land for the new nation.

While the Articles equalized the power between the states by granting each state, regardless of physical size or population, the same voting rights the Constitution took a totally different approach. The larger states such as New York and Virginia were dissatisfied with the Articles and the fact that there was equality between the states. The larger states felt that voting should be based on a proportional basis while the smaller states supported the one-state, one-vote approach. Two different plans, the Virginia plan and the New Jersye Plan, were offered for the Constitutional Convention to consider. After considerable debate the Virginia Plan was accepted as the basis for further discussion but, after further discussion, only the three branch portion of the Virginia Plan was adopted and the representation issue was resolved based on a compromise offered by delegates from Connecticut. Under the plan offered by Connecticut, representation would be determined by allowing for the lower house, the House of Representatives, to be elected by the general population and representation to be based on population, and the upper house, the Senate, would be comprised of two representatives from each state regardless of population. Representation based on population would be based on the results of a national census taken every ten years. Appropriately, the agreement that was forged and saved the Convention from breaking up became known as the Connecticut Compromise.

There was also a debate….....

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