¶ … American Colonial experience and the Articles of the Confederation influence the content of our Constitution?
The American colonies existed as separate political entities. The only attempt to consolidate any of the colonies under one united government was that of the ill-fated "Dominion of New England," an attempt to reign in the independent colonies by a monarchy (that of James II) that was thought by many to want to 'catholicize' the Anglican church in the late 1680's. Administration had to be done at a local level because of the inferior condition of the roads. The advent of newspapers and printing presses in the mid-1700's was really the first non-commercial link between colonies; often colonies had been openly hostile to one another. For instance, dissenters that disapproved of the government of Massachusetts founded Conneticut, New Haven, and Rhode Island. The consolidation or division of colonies, when it occurred, happened by skillful diplomacy in London as was the case when Massachusetts absorbed Plymouth Colony and Connecticut absorbed New Haven. Wars with Indian tribes and the French also brought colonies together. These created popular writers and diplomats that self-identified as being 'American;' Ben Franlin was a writer and a diplomat. Finally disputes over taxation and the popularity of literature such as Common Sense and Poor Richard's Almanac. The crisis that demanded the replacement of the loosely confederated United States in the 1780's was Shay's Rebellion. The budget of the young Republic was created at the unanimous discretion of the state assemblies and had no taxing authority....
When rebellions such as the Shays
rebellion got out of hand, or when states such as Virginia and Maryland had contesting maritime rights or when the
administration of the western territories was in dispute, a stronger authority was needed.
2.- Identify 6 ways (3 of those
founding fathers who DID
TRUST democracy, and 3 of those founding fathers who DID TRUST democarcy) in which they built their views into the constitution.
The founding fathers were at ends with each other when debating the necessity of a
constitution and its
nature. Many did not trust the idea of democracy, and wished to restrain the
power of the central government because they feared that it would increase taxation, especially taxation on imported goods. Because mercantile interests were heavily represented, the threat of protectionists voting for higher tariffs was understandable; the Articles were safe in that they had no power of taxation. Additionally, some feared that the interests of small states would be overlooked in the interest of the numerical majority, giving Virginia and New York an enormous amount of power. Thirdly, southern plantation owners felt rightly threatened that a central republican government might one day ban slavery in the south, as egalitarian fervor in the north had lead many of the states…
