Isabella Carter
The United States Constitution, the supreme law of the United States, superseded the Articles of Confederation, the first US Constitution, on March 4, 1789. The Articles of Confederation, which formed the basis for many state constitutions, gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but it had no power to enforce them, regulate commerce, or print money. The Mayflower Compact, which established a civil relationship among the Pilgrims, is also considered a forerunner to the written constitution in America. The US Constitution was influenced by the English Bill of Rights, Magna Carta, and the writings of Enlightenment rationalists and English common law.
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What You'll Learn
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower set sail from England in July 1620, intending to reach the Colony of Virginia. However, storms forced the ship to anchor at Cape Cod, and the passengers decided to remain there. This created a problem with the patent they had obtained, which was only valid for Virginia, and so the Compact was created to establish a new form of government. The Compact was signed by 41 of the ship's 101 passengers, and it has been described as "the first real constitution of modern times". It was democratic, acknowledging liberty under law and order, and giving each person the right to participate in the government while promising to be obedient to the laws.
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land and defines the framework of the federal government. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. The Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the Articles, but ultimately a new constitution was written and signed by 38 delegates. The Constitution was inspired by various sources, including the English Bill of Rights (1689) and the political philosophies of the Scottish Enlightenment.
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The English Bill of Rights
One of the key provisions of the English Bill of Rights was the requirement for the Crown to seek the consent of the people as represented in Parliament. This established the concept of parliamentary sovereignty and significantly curtailed the powers of the monarch. The bill also listed several grievances against the former Catholic ruler, James II, including the prohibition on Protestants possessing arms.
Overall, the English Bill of Rights was a significant step towards modern human rights texts and played a crucial role in shaping the written constitution in America. It reflected the political and philosophical ideas of the time and ensured that the government respected and protected the rights of its citizens.
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The Scottish Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was not confined to a single school of philosophical thought or a single intellectual movement, but it was a movement of ideas and the disputation of those ideas. The thinkers and scientists of the Scottish Enlightenment came from all over Scotland, with Edinburgh and Glasgow becoming hotbeds for the development and proliferation of these ideas. By the mid-1800s, Glasgow was referred to as the 'Second City' of the British Empire. The University of Edinburgh's Medical School was also one of the leading centres of science in Europe, with notable figures such as the anatomist Alexander Monro and the chemist Joseph Black.
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The Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress, composed of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in response to the Intolerable Acts, a series of measures imposed by the British government after the colonies resisted new taxes. The Congress first convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, with delegates from each of the 13 colonies except Georgia. The delegates included future presidents John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington of Virginia, and future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and diplomat John Jay of New York. The Congress was structured with an emphasis on the equality of participants and to promote free debate. During the six weeks that the First Congress met, it mainly tried to repair the relationship between Britain and the colonies while asserting the rights of colonists. It also proclaimed and passed the Continental Association, a unified trade embargo against Britain, and successfully built consensus for the establishment of a second congress.
The Second Continental Congress convened in 1775, soon after hostilities broke out in Massachusetts. It served as the provisional government of the U.S. during most of the Revolutionary War. The Second Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, established the Continental Army, and elected George Washington as commander of the new army. It also took the momentous step of declaring America's independence from Britain.
In 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the nation's first Frame of Government, came into force, and the body became what was later called the Congress of the Confederation. This unicameral governing body would convene in eight sessions before adjourning in 1789 when the 1st United States Congress under the new Constitution of the United States took over the role as the nation's legislative branch of government. The Continental Congress ratified the first national constitution, the Articles of Confederation, under which the country would be governed until 1789, when it was superseded by the U.S. Constitution.
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The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution was authored by the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in May 1787. It was signed by 38 delegates, with an additional signature by George Reed on behalf of the absent John Dickinson of Delaware, bringing the total to 39. The delegates were tasked with revising the existing government, but they ended up creating an entirely new form of government.
The Constitution consists of seven articles, with the first three embodying the doctrine of the separation of powers. The federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article I); the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers (Article II); and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts (Article III). The remaining articles (IV, V, and VI) embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states' relationship with the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment.
The ideas and philosophies of European Enlightenment thinkers, such as Montesquieu, John Locke, Edward Coke, and William Blackstone, heavily influenced the Constitution. The English Bill of Rights (1689) also inspired the American Bill of Rights, with both documents sharing provisions such as the right to jury trials, the right to keep and bear arms, the prohibition of excessive bail, and the forbiddance of "cruel and unusual punishments".
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Frequently asked questions
The Mayflower Compact is called the forerunner of the written Constitution in America.
The Mayflower Compact established a civil relationship among the Pilgrims, whereas the charters emphasised the relationship between the king and the colonies.
The Articles of Confederation formed the basis for many state constitutions.
