The Internal Fight for an Effective Governmentt
The Internal Fight for an Effective Government
Candy Olson
LS 500: Legal Methods and Process
January 12, 2013
The Internal Fight for an Effective Government In the eighteenth century, three men found themselves searching for answers to reform the then, powerless Articles of Confederation, to include a more secure national government that would help stabilize the afforded freedoms and liberties the American citizens already had declared to them on July 04, 1776—Independence Day. The quest for these answers appeared in eighty-five anonymously, written essays that came to be known as the Federalist Papers, each one signed with the pseudonym “Publius” (Hamilton, 1787). This paper embarks on Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay’s journeys (the anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers) in juxtaposition of ratifying the Constitution amid answering the following questions: why did the Articles of Confederation fail; what was the purpose of the Federalist Papers; and who was the attended audience for the Federalist Papers? Furthermore, this paper answers the question of why the Federalist Papers had, ironically, minimal influence over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution among the People of New York—the attended audience. To begin, a brief history of the Articles of Confederation is manifested to bring intellectual insight into three of our founding fathers’ journeys to overcome the Antifederalist’s protestation to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Brief History of the Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation provided the first “U.S. Constitution” in 1777, by the First Continental Congress. This agreement was drafted during the Revolutionary War between thirteen states in America thereby granting sovereign power to each individual state (Articles of Confederation, n.d.). Instead of separation of powers between an executive, legislative, and judicial branch of government, this agreement offered a committee of
Candy Olson
LS 500: Legal Methods and Process
January 12, 2013
The Internal Fight for an Effective Government In the eighteenth century, three men found themselves searching for answers to reform the then, powerless Articles of Confederation, to include a more secure national government that would help stabilize the afforded freedoms and liberties the American citizens already had declared to them on July 04, 1776—Independence Day. The quest for these answers appeared in eighty-five anonymously, written essays that came to be known as the Federalist Papers, each one signed with the pseudonym “Publius” (Hamilton, 1787). This paper embarks on Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay’s journeys (the anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers) in juxtaposition of ratifying the Constitution amid answering the following questions: why did the Articles of Confederation fail; what was the purpose of the Federalist Papers; and who was the attended audience for the Federalist Papers? Furthermore, this paper answers the question of why the Federalist Papers had, ironically, minimal influence over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution among the People of New York—the attended audience. To begin, a brief history of the Articles of Confederation is manifested to bring intellectual insight into three of our founding fathers’ journeys to overcome the Antifederalist’s protestation to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Brief History of the Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation provided the first “U.S. Constitution” in 1777, by the First Continental Congress. This agreement was drafted during the Revolutionary War between thirteen states in America thereby granting sovereign power to each individual state (Articles of Confederation, n.d.). Instead of separation of powers between an executive, legislative, and judicial branch of government, this agreement offered a committee of
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