The Revolutionary War lasted more than six years, with fighting in every colony. Even before the Declaration of Independence, there were military operations that had an important influence on the outcome of the war. The peace settlement acknowledged the independence, freedom, and sovereignty of the 13 states, to which it granted the much coveted territory west to the Mississippi, and set the northern boundary of the nation nearly as it runs now.
In 1781 the Articles of Confederation were created, each of the states drew up their own constitutions but were loosely linked together of the Articles of Confederation. The only way they were linked was through the new name given them ‘United States of America’ as the thirteen states were now united as the name suggests. The second way that they wee linked was geographically and that was about it. There was nothing in place that brought them together as they all had separate constitutions and laws therefore as far as foreign countries were concerned they were all separate countries. This made it very hard to set up foreign treaties and trading partners, as different taxes applied in the states.
The system they had in place was too loose as they tried to move away how George 3rd had rule where he had too much power. This was a fusion of power he had as he controlled everything – the legislature, the executive and the judiciary were all controlled by one person. George 3rd had gained too much power and it was said by the people that too much power gained by a single person is a negative thing. This is because it will corrupt people by the needs of there ego and own wants as they are in position to do so.
The ideal solution they wanted was something in the middle the actual answer they came up with was federalism. This is a system of government where power is divided between national and regional government. The states are dealing with maters f state importance such as setting their own speeding limits while the national government monitors matters on national concern such as foreign treaties.
The reason why the old government had been overthrown was because way the people of the states has been treated by the king. The king had fusion of power and the founding fathers counteracted this by separating the powers out. They organized the powers of command to be horizontal so this lead to lots of checks and balances. An example of one of these checks is that the US president cannot appoint judges; he can only put forward recommendations and t is then up to the senate to approve or decline them. The founding fathers were concerned not only with creating an American national government structure that would satisfy the states and the people, but also with avoiding the dangers of an over-powerful government. They felt that the experience of absolute power monarchies in Europe showed that the centralized control inevitably meant a concentration f power and the creation of tyranny, as what happened in the form of George 3rd.
The distribution of power between the federal and the state governments would prevent excessive centralization but how would an autocracy be avoided within the national government itself? They were determined to prevent any one individual or group securing control over all the powers of government – making laws, executing them and settling disputes or adjudicating the law. They separated these powers so a concentration of power could be avoided. The separation of powers system means therefore that no one can be a member of more then one branch of the federal government at any one time. In contrast the British parliamentary system requires that the executive must be members of the legislature. This provides limitations and constraints on government rather looking on the positive use to be made of such authority.
The founding fathers also wanted to protect the civil liberties of the people of the states. This again ties in with the protection of tyranny as George 3rd had taken away the civil rights of these people. They firstly demolished the divine right of rule for the kings, as this allowed kings to justify why they deprived others of civil liberties.
The constitution was not good enough when it was first put together and the founding fathers noticed this. The missing information was a section that activity protected civil rights of the people – in all the constitution was designed to help govern the country but there needed to be something there to protect the people. The first 10 amendments were created are called the bill of rights referring to the rights of people. This is collective term used to describe them. All these amendments were done in 1791 in one go. The bill of rights protects individuals from unjust acts of government and its in vague wording has to be interrupted by the Supreme Court and was a impartial and independent branch of government acting as a check and balance on congress and the president.
There are several examples that relate to the bill of right sand how they cannot be taken away from the people.
‘The right of the people to bare arms shall not be infringed’ - this means that the people have the right to own weapons. Although there are many gun crimes in the USA and many involving young children there is no way that they can be banned. There have been laws trying to restrict the ownership of weapons through the Brady Bill that Clinton thought up. This was to tighten up and regulate eh purchase of weapons like no convicted criminals can own a weapon and there is a four week waiting list for necessary checks can be made before the gun is sold. As it is written in the constitution and the US constitution is entrenched it would be very hard for the outlawing of weapons. There are strong pressure groups that campaign for the right of people to bar arms such as the national rifle association. In Britain there was the banning of handguns in a very short space of time after a incident in which a school was attacked by a gunman and several children were killed. The government was put under pressure the law was changed, this would not happen in the states.
Amendment five of the constitution reads ‘No person shall be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled… to be a whiteness against themselves. This means that people cannot be tried for the same crime twice in the states and also cannot incriminate themselves by giving evidence n a court of law. In 1994 OJ Simpson never took of stand in his trial for the killing of his wife and her lover. He did not say a word it was up to the police to prove he did the crime and not for him to help. If this happened in the UK the judge would see the defendants silence as a showing of guilt. In America it is not.
The constitution is the fundamental theory of American politics and the founding fathers have created to such a affect that it cannot be altered very easily, it cannot be alternated easily – it is very difficult to make changes. The wording is not specific as it is open for future generations as changes occur and the Supreme Court is to decide what it thinks the constitution is trying to say. There have been thousands of enquires to change the constitution in one for or another out of these only about a hundred have reached the voting stage and only twenty seven passed in 200 years. But it is important the Bill of Rights the first ten amendments were made in one go. There is a large majority in the senate and congress needed to make changes it is very hard to get a majority in congress then even harder to do so in the senate. The reason behind this is because congress members are only elected for two years and senate for six year terms. As congress members want to be reelected they are likely to think short term to what the people want to the senate longer term as they have a longer term in office. This is another check and balance that has been created.
The end result is that the have created a constitution that will last forever and it is what the wanted it to be a good political system in their eyes that cannot be tampered with because of its rigid ness. They have made it so not a sole person can take command but power is spread out and it is the people whom are the most important and they have many rights that unalienable.
