Controversies of the Constitution

Controversies of the Constitution As of today, the United States Constitution is the oldest active constitution in the world. While the consensus is that The United States is a great county, life wasn’t always so easy for the American government. Hank Greenburg, John Roche, and Charles Beard all have given riveting papers detailing the thought process, motives, and compromises (or lack thereof) that were behind the drafting of the Constitution. There is, however, much debate about how and why the Constitution was actually formed, and who it was essentially made to protect. These three scholars provided their insight and opinions on the proceedings. In chapter 2, Greenburg writes about the factors that led to the drafting of the Constitution, including the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first government. Under the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s government was almost completely useless, due to the fact that the United States was more of a very loose confederation of states than anything. Given the fact that the states, in essence, governed themselves, the government under the Articles was powerless. This was headlined by what became known as Shay’s Rebellion, when a coalition of farmers who refused to pay their taxes began rioting and had a lengthy battle with the government of Massachusetts. The government, powerless to do anything, could only sit by and watch helplessly, as the state’s militia, wih no small amount of trouble, dispatched the protestors. This caused many forward thinking politicians to rally for change, paving the way for the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The founders were, as Greenburg states, “believers in the theory of government known as republicanism” [Greenburg, 33]. They wanted to create a government that could be ruled by the people, with respect to the majority and the minority of the nation’s citizens. One thing the revolutionaries did not foresee, however, was the amount of support for the