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Ariana Kim

Mrs. Bloxsom

AP US Govt and Politics/ Period 5

September 25, 2012

Essay #1

For the Union, For the People: United We Will Stand

In order to form the perfect Union, our founding fathers drafted the Constitution. In

order to protect the people of United States of America and their property, liberties and

happiness, our first leaders had the foresight to design a national government that is able to

regulate the country, but not control it. But the start of our countrys government was

tumultuous, because the first official draft of the US government system had gone awry. So

our drafters got together to form what we US citizens take for granted: the US Constitution.

Or the paper thing we go to learn in government or civics class. What the founding fathers

first disagreed upon (and our entire nation) for quite some time was whether or more power

should be given to the states or the central government. Everyone had their own opinions and

justifications about whether USA should be Federal based or Anti-Federal based. History had

something to say too (he bluntly said no form of government can ever be perfect, but

everyone can try, and . Federalism).Ill listen to Historys quiet voice. Ill learn from

History. Ill make sure that History wont have to repeat himself.

The issue of state power and national power stemmed from back when our citizens

were being oppressed as the English Crowns colonists. It was during the time when the

English government taxed the colonists for the French and Indian war that costed the English

much more than they had expected and nowhere to compensate for the expensive war, but not

only did they tax the colonists but problems during the war such as quartering the soldiers in

the colonists homes without permission and the English taking command over the commerce

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of the colonists economy started the discontent from the colonists and their rationale that

their natural rights, the rights that all men are privy to, have been violated. In a sequence of

events led to the ultimate rebellion of the colonists, the American Revolution, and started the

fear of any central power or power that could violate any white mens rights. Even before

Civil War the fear of a strong federal government was present, plotting central government

against local power.

During the time when our founding fathers were drafting the law of our land,

arguments were heated; debates were being held on whether our land should give more power

to states or to the nation, but after the Shays Rebellion and the obvious failure of the framers

of the Articles of Confederation, a small group of our countrys leaders gathered and agreed

that another law of the nation must be drafted, else our nation fail to survive and crumble, as

the English thought and hoped both our nation and our law would. Our founding fathers

congregated and made the Articles of Confederation and their goal was to make a

government that would protect the individuals rights, their property and advocated for

equality. Majority of the members wanted states to have more power, to prevent the

possibility of centralized power and become oppressed by the government once more. But the

weakness and instability of the Articles of Confederation were amplified and unavoidable

issues with the first draft came up with the Shays Rebellion. In the Shays Rebellion, Daniel

Shay led the ex-soldiers, who fought in the American Revolution, into a rebellion against the

government because while the soldiers were gone, there was no one to manage their homes,

jobs and property and when the war was over, the soldiers never got paid and so they couldnt

pay their taxes, therefore their lands were foreclosed. This injustice of being foreclosed

because the soldiers werent paid was great, and so the ex-soldiers rebelled against the state

governments. The states in response called the national government, but since the national

government was not allowed funds and militia, there was no way that the national

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governments could help the states. This situation displayed the shortcomings of the Articles

of Confederation to our framers and to the people of our nation. Sometime after the rebellion,

a few of our countrys leaders decided that even without the consent of the majority of the

officials and framers, that our nation needed a stronger federal government and it needed to

fill in the gaps of the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation. Debate after debate, each

part of the law was scrutinized, amendments were added and finally our leaders produced the

U. S. Constitution. The U. S. Constitution with federalism guaranteed that the law would

protect the people as much as they could. But as a result, state governments powers were

limited and much of their powers were reduced. But with the Tenth Amendment any power

not given to the federal government explicitly in the U. S. Constitution, is given to states, and

the framers, in hope to give some powers to the states, installed that amendment with the Bill

of Rights. But still, there was tension between those who wanted more state government

power or national government power.

After years of splitting of the U. S. due to the desire of either more state power or

national power, our nation finally paid the most tragic price: brother killed brother, friend

against friend. U. S. faced Civil War. The tensions were higher with both civilians and

officials also the stakes were higher. People were fighting amongst themselves and

Congressmen broke out into fights during conferences. But none did so simply because of

stubborn opinions, but rather, people from each side believed that either state government

power or federal power would be able to protect their rights, way of life and the nation. After

the grueling war within our nation, state power advocates had lost the war not because of

military superiority than that of the advocates of the federal government but simply because

the federalists had more resources, and they could outlast the states. This could also be an

analogy of the U.S. government as well. States by themselves can only last so long, while

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national government can be dominant and regulate the nation as well as aid states, which will

have their own powers as well.

Any nation cannot last long or withstand the conflicts of time and modernization and

continuous onset of problems with only groups of local governments. Local governments and

people need overarching government that can regulate and aid local governments, set overall

standards, and advocate for both state rights and peoples rights. Without central government

there is no foundation to which local governments can fall back to, and help get themselves

up again. Through federal governments, countries like U. S. A. can continue to be one of the

best free, peoples rights advocating place for all people who are privy to rights. With the

national government, we can form near perfect Union. With the central government, we the

people are protected: our liberty, prosperity and property and pursuit of happiness. With the

federal government, we are as free as we are today.