Liz Pol 166

Daniel Webster’s infamous speech on March 7 th , 1850 tackled an issue that was tearing the nation apart; slavery. American interest and perspectives at the time were vastly different depending on geography. The north was more industrialized, their economy was not as reliant on cheap or free labor like the South’s was. The truth is that the North’s rejection of slavery was a result of financial and political reasoning, not ethical concerns. This Northern fear of the South’s extensive population can be most appreciated by the implementation of the three-fifths compromise (1787). There is absolutely no implication to slavery’s immorality but there is instead an attack against its “fairness”. Because the North had no dependence on slavery it became easier for them to condemn the practice. Eventually the abolitionist movement did start, around the 1830’s and the humanitarian aspect increased within the movement. Working as a union was a fairly new concept, and making it wor...

Historian Alexander Keyssar wrote “ As a nation, we have come to embrace “one person, one vote” as a fundamental democratic principle, yet the allocation of electoral votes to the states violates that principle.” No other aspect of the constitution is as outdated as the system of the electoral college. The devastating effects of its prolonged implementation can be witnessed by the results of our most recent presidential election. The electoral college went against the vote of the majority and imposed its will upon our nation. The idea of the electoral college was incorporated into the constitution during the founding as a way to minimize the power imbalance between high-population and low-population states. There was also a mistrust in the judgement of our citizens that created a need for a back-up plan in case the election resulted in an unacceptable appointment. Part of this mistrust was due to the fact that communicating information across all states about the c...

Convincing people that change can be good is an extremely difficult task, especially following periods of turmoil such as the bloody break-away from Great Britain. Americans were wary, ready to attack any system of government that threatened their liberties. This distrust is what gave way to the loose agreement, the articles of confederation. At this point in our history, the nation functioned as 13 states whose power was derived from themselves instead of from a centralized government. It wasn’t until after the constitution was ratified that these states began to function as a union, getting the states to vote was another battle in itself. Seeing the need to convince the people about the benefits of working in unity, Hamilton, Madison and Jay created the documents known as the federalist papers. Their arguments centered around demonstrating the need for a unified government capable of defending its citizens (from both internal and international threa...