Essay About Confederation Congress And New National Government

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The making of the constitution in the 13 American colonies had declared themselves independent from Great Britain in 1776, made for themselves a new national government in 1781, and signed a peace treaty with Great Britain in 1783. Now that America was its own nation, its government, the Confederation Congress, inherited the good and the bad of an independent nation. First of all, the Revolutionary War had left many of the colonies very much in debt. Money had been borrowed to pay for troops and weapons. When states tried to pay back these debts, they used Continentals (paper money printed by the Confederation Congress during the Revolutionary War), but not too many people wanted these Continentals anymore. People trusted gold and silver because they had value in other countries. Also, since each state was printing its own money, disputes arose over whether Pennsylvania bills were equal to North Carolina bills. The articles of confederation preserved the power, independence, and sovereignty of the states and ensured that the central government would not encroach on the liberty of the people. The central government was also unable to defend American interests in foreign affairs. The government was also unable to prevent the outbreak of commercial warfare between the states. Historians now generally agreed that the failings of the articles of confederation led most of the leading citizens of the confederation to believe that a new constition was desperately needed. The founders were believers in the theory of government known as republicanism. The framers were seeking a form of government that would not only be based on the consent of the governed but that would also make tyranny. The colonies decided to call a “Grand Convention” to discuss the need to reform the national government. Delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies (all except Rhode Island) arrived in Philadelphia in May, 1787. The Constitutional Convention, as it became known later, began on May 25 and lasted for four months. also proposed that the one house of the Confederation Congress be replaced with two houses of a new Congress. These two houses would be an upper and a lower house. The voters of each state would elect the members to the lower house. The members of the upper house would be chosen by state assemblies. Further, the numbers of representatives allowed to each state in both houses would be based on the population in that state. Larger states would get more representatives