Concurrent Powers

In the early years, after winning independence from Great Britain, the American colonies set up their government in accordance with their first constitution, the Articles of Confederation. This means that the majority of the power laid in the hands of the states and Congress, “the only institution of national authority” (Brinkley 151) at that time, had very little power. This distribution of authority was the manifestation of the American’s fear of a strong, central government. However, as time passed, more and more people came to agree that the national government was too weak and needed to be strengthened.

The Constitution introduced a new National government and divided the powers between the Federal government and the States called Federalism. Federalism is the function of national government today, the shared powers between state and federal government. Federalism is the shared powers between our State and Federal Government, a good thing about this shared power is that they don’t t have absolute power they can never do anything outrageous. According to the text, (Goals of the Constitution, 222) shared power between state and federal is Concurrent powers. Concurrent Powers can collect taxes or people income.

The new Federalism was a system of government which divided power between the federal government and various state governments (answer.com, Pg.2). The Constitution gave certain powers to the federal government, other powers to the state governments and yet other powers to both (xxx, xxxx). In other words, the federal and state governments cooperated with each other, but the federal government was always first in maintaining a strong and balanced America. Federalism promoted big government with paper money, national banks, managed taxes, and the power to make treaties, declare war or raise and support armies (Textbook pg.

When the United States first gained their independence from Britain they needed to create a strong government for their colonies. The United States created their first government called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles came with many problems like no power to tax, no power to enforce the law, or regulate commerce. 10 years after having a weak government, they believed that a new type of government need to be created in order to become a strong government. They came up with the Constitution.

The Constitution grants the legislative branch a vast expanse of authority over national policy, foreign and domestic. Expressed powers gives The Congress powers tax, and spend money for defense and general welfare of the U.S., borrow money, regulate commerce with other nations as well as within the sates, and grants the power to coin

When the colonists were still with Great Britain, King George III misused his power. As a result, colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, to the king, to state their separation from Great Britain, to form a new country, the United States of America. After creating a new country, Americans wrote the Articles of Confederation in the year 1777, which they purposely weakened central government, so the abuse of power, wouldn’t exist. This meant the states had all the power. Although this structure of government seemed great, the creators of the Articles quickly realized that with no central government, states weren’t united because they were busy on increasing the growth of only their state.

Noah Stevens Professor James Maggio POS 1041 30 September 2016 Over three-hundred years ago The United States had to quickly make a constitution, and decided upon the Articles of Confederation. The United States started out like an experiment for the World. This experiment was what our Government will become, there was not a defined path on what our future will behold. The path to present day for The United States was a rough one, but the experiment turned out to be a success in the end.

Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.

The Articles of Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.

The reserved powers of the States is noted in the 10th amendment. The purpose of reserved powers is to make sure the federal government doesn’t become too strong or authoritative. Examples of reserved powers include: setting speed limits in areas, building highways, marriage laws, divorce laws, conducting elections, and setting up local governments. In sum, there are numerous differences between enumerated, implied, and reserved powers.

The Constitution and the Articles of Confederation Immediately following the American Revolution, the founding fathers came up with a form of a constitution to run the country. It was called “The Articles of Confederation” and it was inefficient at governing the people due to the weak central government and its inability to impose taxes or raise any form of revenue for the country. It did however, create a Judicial Supreme Court that could oversee states court cases and make a final decision in the most unbiased manner. And yet, it did not unify the states like the Constitution did when it passed.

The federalists understood where they were lacking and needed to change things up. The Constitutional Convention established a new government which divided the powers executive and legislature. “In contrast to the Articles of Confederation, the new national legislature would be the supreme law of the land and would be binding on the states.” (Keene, Cornell & O’Donnell, 2013, p.144). Under the Constitution, the people would be a whole nation with power divided to the states and the central government.

DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal

The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.

The first article of the Constitution says "ALL legislative powers...shall be vested in a Congress." The second article then reads "the executive power...in a President." The third article gives the "judicial power of the United States in one Supreme Court" and "in such inferior Courts as the Congress...may establish."