Building a New Nation
\\Megan Casey
MW 1030-1150
Biehler
Writing assignment 2
Building a New Nation Once the war was over and America became its own country they had to then come up with a government system. The state leaders had already come up with state constitutions that their state followed and when the states were putting together a national constitution they used most of what the states had already established to come up with the bill of rights. When the people gave powers to the governors they were very fearful of giving them too much power because of the experiences they had with the royal governors. In turn they gave most of the powers to the legislatures leaving the governors with little power of the state. Then, the articles of confederations were established giving most of the power to the state government and not the national government. In order to manage the new territory that they wanted to move on they came up with the land ordnance of North West territory 1784. This ordinance was set to survey the land and sell it to individuals; it also created where towns would be placed. The plans to govern the territory were set by the North West ordinance of 1787. This ordinance set up the laws for the new towns and gave them 3 federal judges and 1 territorial governor. It also said that once a town reached 5,000 people they could send a delegate to congress and when an area had 60,000 people they would become their own state. When deciding how to build a government Montesquieu and Hume had ideas on how they thought the government should work. Montesquieu believed that a republic cannot exist well in large territories, you get to far removed and the political leaders end up getting to do whatever they want. Hume believed that a republic cannot exist in a small territory because the people will get caught up in the little problems and will lose sight of the big picture. He said that as long as we elect good leaders for the best outcome, it can work in a large society.
MW 1030-1150
Biehler
Writing assignment 2
Building a New Nation Once the war was over and America became its own country they had to then come up with a government system. The state leaders had already come up with state constitutions that their state followed and when the states were putting together a national constitution they used most of what the states had already established to come up with the bill of rights. When the people gave powers to the governors they were very fearful of giving them too much power because of the experiences they had with the royal governors. In turn they gave most of the powers to the legislatures leaving the governors with little power of the state. Then, the articles of confederations were established giving most of the power to the state government and not the national government. In order to manage the new territory that they wanted to move on they came up with the land ordnance of North West territory 1784. This ordinance was set to survey the land and sell it to individuals; it also created where towns would be placed. The plans to govern the territory were set by the North West ordinance of 1787. This ordinance set up the laws for the new towns and gave them 3 federal judges and 1 territorial governor. It also said that once a town reached 5,000 people they could send a delegate to congress and when an area had 60,000 people they would become their own state. When deciding how to build a government Montesquieu and Hume had ideas on how they thought the government should work. Montesquieu believed that a republic cannot exist well in large territories, you get to far removed and the political leaders end up getting to do whatever they want. Hume believed that a republic cannot exist in a small territory because the people will get caught up in the little problems and will lose sight of the big picture. He said that as long as we elect good leaders for the best outcome, it can work in a large society.