Cited: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/vme/vo/3.html http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-second-continental-congress.htm
Cited: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/vme/vo/3.html http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-second-continental-congress.htm
The thirteen American colonies required a functioning government after the Revolutionary War. The Founding Fathers’ John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington wrote up the first attempt at a government called The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation gave majority power to the states, this weakened the newly created government system. The Articles of Confederation replaced the U.S. Constitution because there needed to be a checks and balance system between the U.S. Government and its states by ensuring neither party had majority power.…
The United States' form of government from 1781-1789, was based on the Articles Of Confederation. The document itself did provide the early establishment with a form of national government, a legislative branch, and expansion of land to the west, but still had more weaknesses than it did strengths. The articles were weak and would not be able to provide the growing nation with an effective government. One of the main reasons being (for the weaknesses), was the States' fear of a strong executive branch, in other words, the monarchial government they fought to be free from during the Revolution. The articles failed to efficiently regulate trade, levy taxes, and predominantly enforce the laws written. As time progressed, rather than revising the articles, a better Constitution was needed to replace this ineffective government.…
The national government would consist of a single house of Congress, where each state would have one vote. Congress had the power to set up a postal department, to estimate the costs of the government and request donations from the states, to raise armed forces, and to control the development of the western territories. With the consent of nine of the thirteen states, Congress could also coin, borrow, or appropriate money as well as declare war and enter into treaties and alliances with foreign nations.…
The hope behind this plan was to create a central government that could collect taxes, regulate foreign and interstate trade, and also be able to replace state laws with federal laws. This proposal would create central government with a powerful bicameral congress. It would consist of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Their members would be chosen by their state legislatures. The Congress would be controlled by the three largest population states, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The national legislature seats would be filled based on the state’s population size. This branch would also have the power to appoint executive and judiciary branches that could veto state laws.…
Simultaneously, Congress didn't have the ability to make and regulate laws regarding the behavior of the citizens. Congress didn't even have the right to tax people. Reflecting, Congress was not able to pay off their debt from the Revolutionary War. In addition, if a state legislature broke a law or regulation, or even disobeyed the requests made by the national government, the government or Congress could not do anything. They had no power over the state legislatures and the citizens, which led to many serious issues and problems in the U.S government.…
The governing body that eventually created the Articles of Confederation was based on this tradition of defensive unions, but was formed in a time of peace—not actually preparing for war. However, the Second Continental Congress, originally formed for the purpose of mutual defense of the thirteen colonies, suddenly found itself in 1776 waging a full-scale war and governing a nation.…
Continental Congress: The First Continental Congress was made up of delegates from the colonies and met during 1774. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress began meeting right after the Revolutionary War. It declared that America was independent from Britain and in 1781, ratified the first national constitution, the Articles of Confederation. Constitutional Convention: The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia. The task before the Constitutional Convention was to decide how America was to be governed.…
The United States of America took the first step towards a democratic country by declaring independence from Great Britain. Since it's separation, the Second Continental Congress, a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies, established a document known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles set a precedent for the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land that stands even today.…
The United States (U.S.) Constitution is the source of all government powers and provides limitations on the government that protect the natural rights of U.S. citizens. Prior to its creation, the 13 original states comprising the U.S., were united under the Articles of Confederation. These articles entrusted a Confederate Congress with the authority to wage war, mediate disputes between states as well as set weights and measures. However, the Confederate Congress was completely funded by individual states, did not have the authority to raise funds itself and all decisions required a unanimous vote of approval from all states. It was far from a perfect government. These limitations along with the historical tendencies high ranking officials have toward greed and abuse of power rendered this Congress ineffective, spawning a collective desire for reform. (Whitehouse.gov, 2017) In 1787 delegates from 12 of the 13 states convened in Philadelphia to draft a new Constitution. Their goals were to design a government that could provide fair treatment to its citizens, keep peace amongst the individual states as well as with outside nations, defend our country from enemies, and to set a standard for living comfortably, well, and free. To achieve this, the government was split into three separate branches and power divided amongst them.…
The United States of America went through a time where people changed the way they lived and so the government was forced to rearrange their laws. After their independence from Britain, childish America desperately needed a form of government and guidelines on how to rule separate states. The difficult task on trying to bring them together as one was the federal government. As a quick solution to their progress, our founding fathers united to what is known as the Second Continental Congress developed. This congress was presented by John Hancock who replaced the Peyton Randolph. It was time for Colonies to seek for peace. All the nations got news that all the colonial leaders meet more often. In this time John Adams established a plan in which…
As a new nation, America needed a national government if they wanted to stay united. In result, on March 2, 1781, a plan by Ben Franklin called the Articles of Confederation was ratified to act as framework for America’s central government.…
Thus came many debates and questions about the central government. In Document C, Thomas Paine explains that man cannot live without a government. We are always in need of some security, even if we hate the government we still follow the laws since they protect us. Since the separation from Parliament they could finally self-govern themselves as Americans which the Continental congress decided it’d be a good idea to set up a national government. From there the Articles of Confederation were created which established the roles of the national government. The Articles of Confederation limited the rights of states to form their own policies which the states ignored since Congress did not have much authority over the states. Adding on to the fuel, the Treaty of Paris stated that even if the colonies are separated from Great Britain they…
According to David Mayhew, author of Congress: The Electoral Connection, Congress has many different functions that it performs including: “ . . .legislating, overseeing the executive, expressing public opinion, and servicing constituents” (Mayhew 2004, 8). While all these are important to the role Congress plays, the most important ability is the authority to create laws. Congress derives its power to perform its functions and to create laws, from Article I of the Constitution. Although Article I may be oft overlooked, the authority given to Congress from it is critically important to understanding legislative politics. Without structures and rules, Congress would be unable to make laws, would have little authority and could not function properly as a check to the other branches of government.…
In order for the United States to become a successful nation after the revolutionary war the Congress had to devise a system of government that would be just and effective. First, the articles of confederation were drawn up, but they failed massively. The major reason for failure was the excessive amount of power the states had over the federal government, creating a weak central government, and obviously, the states couldn’t function as a stable group. Unlike our current government, the articles relied on solely the congress with the executive and judicial offices nonexistent. With no executive office to enforce the laws, and no judicial wing to interpret them, most of the laws congress passed were ignored, or modified by the individual states,…
The Federal System began when the Framers wrote the Constitution. The Constitution set up the basic outline of the federal system. This system divided the powers between the national government and the state governments. Also, it bound the individual states together under one national government. There were two very important court cases in early federalism. One was McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819. This case upheld the powers of the federal government. It also denied the states the right to tax the bank. This allowed later cases to uphold the expansive powers of the federal government. The other case was Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824, this ruling upheld broad congressional power over interstate commerce.…