Essential+Question+-5+jr

How does the constitution allow for an enduring political debate? Use support from activity completed in class

The American Constitution was created to give order and national law to our newly created nation. Right from the beginning some states had to comprimise and this caused a lot of political debate about what was right and wrong for the nation. Many arguements back then were about the distribution of power and how closely we should follow the constitution, these same arguments are going on today.

Directly after the constitution was passed, two political groups emerged known as the federalists and the antifederalists. The federalists were in favor of the consistancy of the constitution and the antifederalists wanted a lot of change. The antifederalists felt like the constitution lacked indivual rights for citizens and that a bill of rights needed to be created. They also felt that the constitution posed a major threat regarding a central power. This centralized power wouldnt work as well as local and state governments. Topics like these between the two groups lead our nation to a lot more arguements and debates about the foundation of our government.

One of the most notable debates in our country's history was the one between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. These two men were both members of the George Washington's unique presidential cabinet that consisted of both federalist and antifederalist members. The major question of this time was what we were going to do with our indivudual state debt after the war. Hamilton proposed that we merge all our state debts into one national debt. To pay off this bedt a national bank (The First Bank of America) would be created. Private investors from england would invest in the bank and the bank would charge interest and tax the citizens. Eventually this would lead to our nation making profit. Thomas Jefferson and the antifederalists were extremely opposed to this idea and said it would give our country more problems and give our government too much power. In the end Jefferson backed down because Virginia was offered to be the capital. Hamilton's loose interpretation of the constitution and Jefferson's strict one allow many different viewpoints of our constitution.

From all these debates many other debates have been sparked in our nation. Today the two parties are the democrats and the republicans and they still have the same arguements as we did back then. History is repeating itself again and the question of how to fix our economy and get out of debt is on the table as we speak. All of this was sparked from the backbone of our nation, the american constitution.