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Declaration of Independence
When issuing the Declaration of Independence, the 13 colonies severed all political connections with Great Britain. The document was a seek for the independence from Great Britain. The main purpose of the government in the document was to Secure the people's rights, the government gets power from the citizens. Citizens had the rights to; Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of confederation is a written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain but it was weak. The Central Government was extremely limited. -
Constitutional Convention
People met up to address the problems of the weak central government under the Articles of Confederation. The people attending this convention shuttered the windows and swore secrecy, at this convention the Constitution was drafted, ratified the constitution, and created 3 equal branches of Government. -
Anti-Federalist
The anti federalists opposed the ratification of the constitution that was created in 1787. They thought the government would be too powerful and thus threaten the individual liberties, the previous "Articles of Confederation" gave the states more power. Founded by Patrick Henry in 1787. -
Federalist Papers
The federalist papers were a series of 85 essays begging the people of New York to ratify the constitution. These essay's were all written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. -
Federalist
The federalists were for a strong national government. They were opposed to the anti federalists and thought that the constitution written by the government was good. They argued for the counterbalancing of all 3 branches of government, they were able to argue that the separation of powers between the 3 would protect individual rights. -
Ratifying the Constitution
The constitution was signed in Sept. 17, 1787, but officially ratified in all states on May 29, 1790. The Constitution had to be officially ratified by 9 out 13 states in order to be fully in place. After being ratified in a few states, congress set dates for the first election and implementation of the Constitution.