Reflecion paper 2

It is always good to go back and see what the founding fathers were thinking.  I learned a lot about the Revolutionary war,  the constitution, Federalist, anti-federalist, and Hamilton/Jefferson.  After the American Revolution the government was very different from what it is today; Thus, I found the American Revolution to be redefining, and reconstituting the nature of authority in the United States.
First, after the revolution the government was very different from what it is today.  The country was governed by the article of confederation; power was in the hands of congress.  During this time congress was really a single house, unlike now we have the House of Representatives and the Senate.  One of the most important issues during this period was the economy.  Since the federal government had very little power, each state was been run individually.  Many states had different currencies and different prices for goods.  In 1787 there was a review of the Article of Confederation.  Much of what was discussed was on representation for each state.  Before this meeting all the 13 states had one vote.  During the meeting larger states discussed that they wanted to have more representatives because they were larger and should count as more.  On the other hand the smaller states wanted to balance out the representatives because they believed it would not be fair that they had less representatives, simply because they were smaller.  The solution was to create the House of Representatives, which was based on the number of population of each state, and the Senate, which was two for each state no matter a state’s size. 
Second, another major issue discussed was, slavery.  Southern States  wanted to count slaves In order to be able to have more representatives, and northern states rejected that idea.  The solution was to count slaves as 3/5 of a person.  In 1787 James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay started writing and circulating anonymous articles.  The constitution was approved in 1788 and it became in effect in 1789.  At the begging it was very controversial the way the government was structured.  Government (power) was divided into three parts so no one branch would have total control (power).  The three parts of government were and are still; Legislative, Executive, and the Judicial Branch.  To Make laws more convincing science was used to persuade people in to obeying, but that didn’t stop the south from wanting to break away from the union which started the revolutionaary war.
Third, The Anti-Federalists opposed the new U.S. Constitution for numerous reasons. They distrusted large, powerful national governments and believed liberty could only be protected in small republics in which the rulers were closely checked by the public. They believed a large nation could best be governed by a confederation, with local governments having the most control.  They also favored the addition of a Bill of Rights to protect the citizens from the national government.
Fourth, Federalists favored a strong national government with supreme power over state governments. The rights of citizens would be protected from the government via legislation, the courts, and the Bill of Rights.