How Did There After The Revolutionary War Have Too Much Power To A New Government

Following the Revolutionary War, America celebrated its newfound independence while quickly moving onto the immediate issues of what form their new government would take. Firstly, having just been at war, the colonies found themselves in immense debt, something that posed a threat to the infrastructure of the nation before it had even had a chance to develop. Secondly, having just escaped the monarchy of the British in which the King held all the power, leaving the colonists all the way overseas completely devoid of any real representation, the people of the colonies were extremely wary of granting too much power to a new government, rather wanting to maintain dominion over their respective colonies. Third, there was the issue of slavery, which
Founding father James Madison speaks of the inevitability of factions, his name for these small republics. In regards to Madison’s observations, Joseph Ellis concludes that “the overwhelming evidence, as Madison read it, revealed a discernible pattern of gross irresponsibility, a cacophony of shrill voices, a veritable kaleidoscope of local interests with no collective cohesion whatsoever” (23). The very freedoms that come with allowing each state to govern themselves would lead to too many competing voices, creating internal turmoil that the newly founded country could not afford on a global front. Madison argues that by creating a central government, “you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other” (Document
Furthermore, if any personal motivations are put into play by these individuals, the others will keep them in check, preventing the domination of one singular faction. In order for a central government to be created, there had to be agreements reached between the two greatest factions in the colonies at the time, the north and the south, in the forming of the Constitution of the new republic, particularly on the greatest subject of tension: whether or not slavery was constitutional. The continuation of the practice of slavery after the passing of the Constitution demonstrates a compromise between the northern and southern states. Although the Constitution is careful to not explicitly discuss slavery, two of its clauses prove to support its practice. Through the Fugitive Slave Clause, “the condition of bondage remained attached to a person even if he or she escaped to a state where slavery had been abolished”