Us History

Short Paper: The U.S. Constitution

Marissa N. Webb, 4364393

American Military University

Professor Kristin Sawaki

History 101

23 February 2014

The U.S. Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America was created September 17th, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It originally consisted of seven articles but has since been amended twenty-seven times. The Constitution is very important because it was the basis that created the United States government. It outlines the rights of all U.S. citizens. The U.S. Constitution protects its’ citizens from not only each other, but their government as well. It effects every citizen in the United States every single day of their lives by allowing them to exercise their rights.

The United States of America’s first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the states operated like individual countries. The national government consisted of just one legislature, the Congress of the Confederation; there was no president or judicial branch. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war and regulate currency; though, Congress had no real authority to implement their requests for money or troops. A plan for a stronger federal government with three different branches (federal, executive, and judicial) was devised at the 1787 Convention. A system of checks and balances was also put into place to ensure that no one branch had more power over another.

The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25th, 1987 to September 17th, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Initially, the Constitutional Convention was put together to revise the Articles of Confederation but many of the attendees, to include James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, insisted on creating a whole new government instead of attempting to fix the current. There were 55 delegates involved, however, the states had originally appointed 70 to attend. The...