Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
America's Beginnings
America's story has been a fascinating one.
Seventeen-hundred and eighty-three years after the death of Christ, and five years after America officially declared independence from her rulers, America and Great Britain signed peace terms. Thus America began her life as a peaceful nation; a nation based on the principles that every man was free to govern his own life and had inalienable (which roughly means, undeniable, unchangeable, and irremovable) rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
At the time, the French Foreign minister said that that the British and the Americans would always have a special relationships with each other. He was right.
The terms of confederation that the thirteen States had signed were not very strong. They did not allow for a Federal Tax, so Congress could not pay the soldiers it had hired to fight the British. Congress -- the legislative head of the new nation -- had to rely on the States voting individually to raise money for them.
With an unstable economy, worthless currency, and effectively no central government, America was set to fall apart. Some people realized this and encouraged the states to send delegates to Philadelphia to agree on newer, stronger articles of confederation.
Several delegates proposed various plans, but because of the widely varying interests of the states (some had much land, some had little, some had large populations, some had small, some had room to expand, some had none) nothing could be agreed upon. It was James Madison who finally constructed a Constitution that everyone could agree upon; after some compromise. The most notable compromise was an adjustment to the Senate (sometimes called the "Upper House") so that every state had two senators, rather than a number of senators based on its population like in the House of Representatives (sometimes called the "Lower House"). Madison's original objective had been for the number of votes a state had in the Upper and Lower Houses to be based purely upon its population. This way, government would be representative of the people's will, because every man had an equal share in electing his Representatives and Senators. With the compromise however, each state was allowed two Senators, which meant that the effect of a single voter upon that Senator varied from state to state based on its population.
Seventeen-hundred and eighty-three years after the death of Christ, and five years after America officially declared independence from her rulers, America and Great Britain signed peace terms. Thus America began her life as a peaceful nation; a nation based on the principles that every man was free to govern his own life and had inalienable (which roughly means, undeniable, unchangeable, and irremovable) rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
At the time, the French Foreign minister said that that the British and the Americans would always have a special relationships with each other. He was right.
The terms of confederation that the thirteen States had signed were not very strong. They did not allow for a Federal Tax, so Congress could not pay the soldiers it had hired to fight the British. Congress -- the legislative head of the new nation -- had to rely on the States voting individually to raise money for them.
With an unstable economy, worthless currency, and effectively no central government, America was set to fall apart. Some people realized this and encouraged the states to send delegates to Philadelphia to agree on newer, stronger articles of confederation.
Several delegates proposed various plans, but because of the widely varying interests of the states (some had much land, some had little, some had large populations, some had small, some had room to expand, some had none) nothing could be agreed upon. It was James Madison who finally constructed a Constitution that everyone could agree upon; after some compromise. The most notable compromise was an adjustment to the Senate (sometimes called the "Upper House") so that every state had two senators, rather than a number of senators based on its population like in the House of Representatives (sometimes called the "Lower House"). Madison's original objective had been for the number of votes a state had in the Upper and Lower Houses to be based purely upon its population. This way, government would be representative of the people's will, because every man had an equal share in electing his Representatives and Senators. With the compromise however, each state was allowed two Senators, which meant that the effect of a single voter upon that Senator varied from state to state based on its population.
Welcome to Finding Freedom
Hello.
Welcome to my political blog. This is the place where I'm going to be sharing my thoughts on politics, world events, and related subject matter. Enjoy.
Welcome to my political blog. This is the place where I'm going to be sharing my thoughts on politics, world events, and related subject matter. Enjoy.
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