Chapter 6 question 1

1. The American's reasons and justification for indepence for britian are stated in the Declaration of Independence. Those reason are that all people have basic natural rights, the job of the government is to protects these rights, no central should have alot of power and it is the people's right to revolt if a central government becomes corrupt. Based on these ideas the americans started to reconsturct authority in the United states. A continental Congress developed during the American Revolution. The congress acted as the parliament for the United States. Delegates from each state came together and made decisions about a constitution. The congress created the Articles of Confederation. The Ariticle of Confederation had a very week central government which was the congress and most of the powers were given to the States. This perfectly embodies the ideas of the declaration of independence but was not the perfect to run a country. Under the Articles of Confederation Each stated had their own Constitution. Some had unicameral legislatures and others had a bicameral legislature. Each state went through a series of constitutions before they created a constitution that best defined what a republic was and that included popular sovernity with states. Nationally the Articles was not working out. Each state was acting as a seperate nation. It was impossible to make any national decisions and it became hard to run a country because congress did not have any money. The delegates met again at the Philadelphia Convention where they debated on how to balance national power with state power. They came up with the Constitution which has a bicameral legislature with equal representation in the Upper House and representation by population in the Lower house. The constitution balanced the power between the state and national government. The constitution secures the rights of th people and the authority of the central government.The constitution perfectly embodies the revolutionary ideas and the ideas of a republic.