THE GREATEST WHY...

FOUNDING FATHERS CONSTITUTION

• "The articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government"
• "Congress had no authority to enforce it's request to the states for money or troops"
• "Division among the states and even local rebellions threatened to destroy the fruit of the revolution"

WRITING THE PREAMBLE

• To guide the implementation of each specific part or any apparent conflict between the parts
• To represent a statement of principal, sharp contradiction to the compendium of "DO's" and "DONT's" wich compromise many others
• To outline the reasons why the U.S Constitution was written and the values it represents

CONGRESS DIVIDED INTO TWO BRANCHES

• "The larger states favored the Virginia plan under which population would determine the number of representatives a state could send to the legislator
• The smaller states favorite the New Jersey plan which proposed that all states would have an equal number of representatives
• As a compromise by the Connecticut delegates that settled the problem. their plan provided for equal representative in the senate, along with representative in proportion to population in the House of Representatives

WHY WE HAVE A PRESIDENT

• After a fizzled attempt to run the country through disparate committees in individual states did the creators of the U.S Constitution decided at a historic convention in 1787 that there needed to be a strong national government with a leader on top
• Things were not really efficient without an executive that has a certain amount of power
• When we broke away from England king James was so horrible to the colonists that we swore we would never have a king again so we came up with the president

ARTICLE 3

• They wanted to limit the power the federal courts would have
• To ward of betrayers and back stabbers
• Because the wanted/ needed a judicial system

WHY WE HAVE STATES

• So the people could live peacefully without the fear of tyranny or being oppressed like with Britain
• It's easier to govern a great body of land when individual parts can take care of themselves
• The articles of confederation created a week central government and people didn't trust central government.

NEW STATES FROM EXISTING STATES

• no State can be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress

WHY WAS THERE STILL SLAVERY?

• Southern colonies depended on slavery for the cash crops
• Newly drafted Articles of confederation didn't say anything about slavery until the 13th amendment
• It took time because people were greedy and weren't as acceptable of change

CHANGING OR AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

• They wanted it to adapt to the ever changing world
• It will get outdated in a few years
• Shays rebellion, slavery, change

MASON, GERRY,AND RANDOLPH

• Gerry refused because it didn't include a Bill of Rights
• Randolph believed it had insufficient checks and balances later revised his decision and worked for its ratification in the years following
• Mason refused to sign because the constitution at that point lacked a Bill of Rights

SECOND AMENDMENT

• People could protect themselves from a standing army find being equally well armed
• So states can form militias and armies
• There was no standing military for a long tume

FOURTH AMENDMENT

• "General warrants" and "writes of assistance"
• Violated English common law
• James Otis

SIXTH AMENDMENT

• There was no lawyers, just two ordinary men representing themselves
• The jury often consists of local citizens who knew the victim
• Strengthen the vigorous adversarial process of a trial

EIGTH AMENDMENT

• Congress used to practice French, Spanish, and German methods of torture
• No constitutional check on them
• Feared that this new power would allow congress to use cruel punishments as a tool for oppressing the people

NINTH AND TENTH AMENDMENT

• that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the general government, and were consequently insecure.
• a bill of rights might actually be construed to justify the government’s power to limit any liberties of the people that were not enumerated
• James Wilson, proposed that “there be prefixed”

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