Week 3 Day 1

The Revolution was successful. The minority won. America is independent. But now what? "Forming a Government" was today's main topic, which did its best to answer the question that faced America after 1776: now what? The Articles of Confederation were failing, as flaunted by Shays's Rebellion. First of all, competing ideology prevented a coherent verdict. Many players formed factions, two of the most populist and pertinent being the Federalists (headed by Alexander Hamilton) and the Anti-Federalists (because Americans name things creatively) (led by Thomas Jefferson). The founding fathers got together in 1787 for the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, and decided to scrap the AOC. After much squabbling and a number of compromises, the Constitution was finally ratified in 1788. These terms for a new government included the Great Compromise (a bicameral legislature, a combination of the Virginia and New Jersey Plans), the 3/5 Compromise (slaves counted as 3/5 of a person) and created three branches of government with a system of checks and balances.

Ok, a Constitution. Now what? People still had questions, which had to be answered, of course. They wondered where the sovereignty lay within a nation. The answer to that was with the people. And because all sovereignty flowed from the people, they gave their power to the states, which gave its power to the federal government, but both of these institutions only had power because the people had given it to them. Additionally, after the Constitution, a Bill of Rights was demanded by the Anti-Federalists, which was basically the first ten amendments outlining the certain rights of the people. Although people had a fear over a centralized government, and the government was unsure of how to rule a land so vast, the government held, as federalization was a necessary evil and the sheer size of America made tyranny less likely.

In the years after the Constitution was established, true political parties began to form. It started with the Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists, but later derived into the Federalists vs. Democrat-Republicans. In short, the Federalists were in support of the Constitution, wanted a strong central government, liked an urban and commercial economy, and wanted to be strongly involved in foreign affairs. The Democratic-Republicans wanted a weaker central government and more state sovereignty, like a rural and agrarian nation, and wanted less of a hand in foreign affairs.

Sorry this is so long,
Addie Feldman 9/2/14