The Declaration of Independence was a document declaring the American colonies were free and independent of Britain. The document listed the grievances the colonies had with Britain and in order not to make the same mistake, the Constitution of the Unites States was created.
A few of the grievances stated in the Declaration was the colonies were taxed without representation, the king exercised absolute power, suspended trial by jury, quartered the soldiers in the citizens home, and made war against the colonies. All of the grievances had substance; the colonies were being punished for being too independent of Britain. The British citizens were represented in Parliament but not the American citizens. The liberties were taken away from the colonist in order to keep them in line. The colonists were made to supply the soldiers with lodging even if that meant in their homes. The King made war on the colonist that was in direct violation of the English Bill of Rights; this was a threat to their freedom (Schultz, 2011)
The Constitution gave Congress the power to tax the American citizens, and the citizens are represented by elected representatives. So there would not be obsolete power the Constitution divided the power into three branches of government, the executive, judicial and legislative. The Constitution and the Bill of Right, which is an amendment to the Constitution, guarantee the right to a fair trial by one’s peers. The third amendment protects the citizens from housing soldiers in their homes without their consent. Only Congress has the power to declare war on other countries, not one person. (Schultz, 2011)
The Bills of Rights was the first ten amendments to be added to the Constitution in order to ensure the Anti-Federalist the government would not be too strong. The Bill of Rights specifically spells out certain rights that were not clear in the Constitution; freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, freedom of the press, freedom to be a speedy and fair trial by an impartial jury, and the right to bear arms are just a few (Schultz, 2011).
The Articles of Confederation was the first attempt at a government but was not without flaws. The Articles main issues were the inability to raise funds, authority over internal trade and unanimous approval from all states (Schultz, 2011). The Articles did request money from the States, but they were ignored, they were able to make treaties but had no way to enforce them or pay the national debt, meaning no country wanted to trade with the United States. The Constitution gave specific power to Congress in order to regulate trade and collect taxes for much needed revenue. As in the Article, the Constitution no longer had to have a unanimous vote. In order for an amendment to become part of the Constitution, it needs to be ratified by three-fourth of the states (Schultz, 2011).
The next problem was to determine how