Building the Consitution
Step One:
Step Two:
First and foremost was the separation of the colonies from Britain, and the first government set up by the founders of this nation. This original nation was a loosely bound collection of entirely separate states with different laws, currency and ideas about government. The central government was closer to a concept than a functioning system of government, it had no power to tax, no funds to create an army and no armed forces to protect the nation or handle conflicts within the States.
Once it became apparent that the Articles created a failing system, states sent 55 delegates to the the nation’s capitol and these men formed the Constitutional Convention. The original purpose of the Convention was to “revise” the Articles of Confederation, but in action, the delegates discarded the old Articles in favor of recreating the government from scratch.
Step Three:
The delegates did not all agree on how the new government should be set up and the group split into mainly two opposing sides. The first was the Federalists, who favored a larger, more powerful central government and argued that the reason the Articles failed was because it had created far too weak a central government. The other side represented the still quite present fears of monarchy and these men, the Anti-Federalists, believed that a small, weak federal government coupled with strong state governments.
Step Five:
Step Four:
The rival sides expressed their differing opinions through a collection of argumentative essays, named the Federalist Papers.
After several months of deliberation, the delegates agree on a stronger federal government, but to avoid allocating too much power to a single individual or group, the government was split three ways and power was dispersed between them and a system of checks and balances was put into place
Step Six:
On June 22 the Constitution was ratified by 9 states and declared the Supreme Law of the Land.