Federalist Debate_Student Docs (1).pdf

Name __________________________ The Federalist Debate If at First You Don’t Succeed... Today’s United States government is actually a second attempt at nation building after the Revolutionary War. The first was organized und...

Name __________________________ The Federalist Debate If at First You Don’t Succeed... Today’s United States government is actually a second attempt at nation building after the Revolutionary War. The first was organized under an agreement among the states. To DO List: It was called the Articles of Confederation. It created a structure with a very weak central government and left most Figure out how of the power to the states. Delegates from each state would to make a country! participate in the Congress of the Confederation—the only branch of the central government. There was no way to enforce the laws this Congress wrote. And they did not have the power to tax. No taxes meant no money to pay for things like a military for defense. Depending on the kindness and generosity of each independent state government didn’t result in much cooperation, and the young nation found itself floundering. Try, Try again In 1787, the second round of nation building began in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention. Rather than following the plan to fix the Articles of Confederation, they decided to start from scratch. Three branches were proposed rather than one, and the central government became a power in its own right. States still had powers, but not like before. Although representatives from 12 of the 13 states participated in the drafting of the Constitution, ratification (the act of signing a written agreement to make it official) was by no means guaranteed. The rules stated that conventions in each of at least 9 of the 13 states needed to approve of the Constitution before it could become law. Those state conventions were made of “the people” and the people had to be convinced. Articles of Confederation 4EVA Rallying Ratifier But the Constitution is NEW and IMPROVED Since we know how the story ends (spoiler alert: the Constitution was ratified in 1788), it’s easy to look past how much drama and If you