Constitutional Debates

The relationships between the federal government and states have been approached in the constitutional debates among the founding fathers and throughout American history. Interpreting these relationships in various constitutional debates, the decision of either the federal government or states of having power over has led to new policies, revisions to old policies or even repealed some policies as a whole. By understanding the relationships, both federal, states, and local governments can…
In America’s “first” constitution, the Articles of Confederations, served as the original framework for the U.S. government during the Revolutionary War. Under the Articles of Confederations, Congress was a single house containing two to seven members from …show more content…
From his philosophy, the purpose of creating a government is to protect individual liberties and property. He also believed in natural law, inalienable rights that every person is entitled to before governments existed, which includes life, liberty, and property. Along with these rights, all people should have these rights. On the contrary, many of the delegates including George Washington have slaves, who are deprived of many inalienable rights, and this created inconsistently between personal liberty and practice of slavery. Creating a government to protect individual liberties and property, the delegates believed that government was originally a social contract from the people. People would obey laws and pay taxes; in return, the government would protect them in return. Concerning with other world governments during this time period, most of the other government were ruled by monarchies. Our founding fathers opposed to the ideas of the monarchies and forged a republican government, having the people decide who is the best and the brightest amongst them to lead them. They also decided to balance the power of the government. As a result of breaking the government down in three branches Executive, Legislative, and Judicial plus bestowing each branch of government the ability to check the other two branches, it would generate stability between the government and the people. The last key idea that most …show more content…
At the very start of the convention, Governor Edmund Randolph or Virginia proposed the Virginia plan. It calls for the legislative to be divided in two houses; a lower house elected by state population and a higher house elected by the lower house. Along with the plan, a form of parliamentary government would be implied, which will grant congress broad powers over state legislatives, to elect presidents and federal judges, and have a “counsel of revisions” that can veto acts of congress.
Delegates from Delaware and New Jersey opposed the plan because it closed out on representation from smaller states due to the plan favoring states with higher populations. So, they proposed the New Jersey plan. Which similar to the Articles of Confederations, the legislative would have one house of equal representation with one member from each state. In addition of having powers over levy taxes and regulate interstate commerce and separate the executive and judicial branches, unlike in the Articles. Finally, it included a “National Supremacy Clause” illustrating that the constitution and federal laws would supersede state’s constitution and