AP Government Assignment?

Question

Ok, i m officially desperate; I have an AP Gov assignment due in 2 wks and i have to write a 2 pg paper on why the Constitution should be ratified and another one on why it shouldnt be ratified. Can anyone help me? I'm not saying give me the answer, I just need good background info on the American Revolution and the government at that time (i havent taken AP US History yet)

Answer 1

I actually just did a paper on this before the summer, I'm not sure if you can get your hands on it but in the magazine Free Life the Journal of the Libertarian Alliance Vol 5 No 4 Article 3 of 6 there is an article by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel about The Constitution as Counter-Revolution-A Tribute to Anti Federalists. It has some great pros and cons to the constitution. It includes info about the war, the articles of the confederation, trade, war debt, etc. all issues that helped shape the constitution

Answer 2

OK. Check Wikipedia on the Constitutional Convention. James Madison was a main drafter.

Also, there were the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist papers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=american+history+-+ratification+of+constitution&fr=FP-tab-web-t500&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8

http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html

http://www.usconstitution.net/

I have not checked any of these in detail, but they could help.

Best of luck! I took AP History too! Probably before you were born . . .

PS I'm sooo bored at work, let me try to start you off. the US was originally organized under the Articles of Confederation - thirteen different states. The arrangement was found to be too weak a government, so the Constitution was drafted to be stronger. (The Constitution is our basic governing document - it's like a contract that sets up and describes the powers and responsibilities of the Legislature (Congress), the Executive (President) and the judiciary (Supreme Court and federal courts)). The issues debated included the amount of power to be exercised by the federal government and the power to be left to the states. Some feared that the federal government would be too powerful, at the expense of the states. That debate continues at times even today!

Answer 3

I'm with the first answerer. Research the arguments of the federalists (pro-ratification) and the anti-federalists (anti-ratification) at the time.

Pages and pages have been written about the advantages and disadvantages of the bicameral legislature (both as a way to break up the legislative power and on small state v. big state representation), the appropriate role of the judiciary, the powers of the president (btw, this might be a good place to look if you want to compare differences between Art. of Confed. and the Constitution), etc.

If you want two over-riding themes, try: 1) how much power should the federal government have versus the power of the states, and 2) how well were the small states able to resist domination by the big states.

If you have 2 weeks, you should be fine.

Answer 4

yes, i do. People didn't want too much power given to the central government. The states would lose a lot of power. It still allowed slavery and counted a slave as 3/5 of a person, and because of this the South would be drastically over represented.

The government under the Articles of Confederation was formed so loosly because the people were so scared of having another Britain so each state had tons of power while the central govt. had almost none. Each state made its own currency and some would not accept other currency. So this caused for the constitution.

You can find much more by going to google and researching it

Answer 5

Essentially you are dealing with the argument of 1 tyrant 3000 miles away and 3000 tyrants 1 mile away. Our country at that time was split into three separate divisions. The loyalist who believed that Great Britain was our sovereign and had right to rule over us. The Patriots who thought we should be separate and free. And those who were indifferent, those who neither supported or opposed either.
As far as the constitution goes. I suggest you keep it simple.

Ratify the constitution to empower the Federal Government, therefore giving our country a united front against all who would oppose us. Read some of the philosophies of James Madison. He constructed the Virginia Plan, was the 7th President of the United States and our Shortest President.

Your opposition should be based on the States rights issues and their right to govern themselves without having to always look to a capital thousands of miles away, like a Dictator. Read the philosophies of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, was our first great Architect, and Founded the University of Virginia.

Answer 6

You need to do your own research. I find the wikipedia always has a lot of information on historical items. You will be able to find American Revolution articles as well as Constitution articles, most likely linked.

Answer 7

National archives has some info. Plus it will let you print out a copy if you are interested in reading the actual document you are writing about.

http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html

Answer 8

start hitting the online university libraries