1. Originally was a unicameral congress while under the Articles of Confederation.
2. This congress had very little power and could not do much at all to the nation, this caused a very poor economy and national security.
3. The constitution was then drawn up to provide a better a government and fix the issues with Articles of Confederation
4. Articles of Confederation formed as our first government after declaring independence from Britain.
5. Our separation from Britain began shortly after the French-Indian war when the empire started treating the colonies unfairly, especially with taxation.
6. The constitutional convention was done to get that constitution passed by running it by the people of the states.
7. Plans had to be compromised in order to get all states to accept the constitution such as the great compromise which unites the New Jersey plan and the Virginia Plan.
8. The feds did not want to pass it because it took power away from the states but the anti-feds did because it did not negatively affect them, only positively.
9. Constitution formed three branches of national government to distribute the power and control it through a checks and balances system
10. The three branches are the legislative, executive and judicial.
11. Judicial branch being the portion that interprets the meaning of the laws and the constitution. This checks other branches by declaring their actions unconstitutional if need be. The judges in the supreme court are also chosen by the executive branch.
12. Executive branch then enforced the laws. This includes the president and most of the common people of the US, especially bureaucrats.
13. The legislative branch makes the laws. This branch contains a bicameral congress. One part is the House of Representatives and the other is the Senate.
14. The House of Representatives contains people from each state to represent that state. The number of representatives per state is chosen by population.
15. The Senate contains two people from each state to also represent and speak on behalf of their state.
16. The constitution also grants all people of America political equality through Principles of Democracy.
17. The seven articles stated where the power lies in the country and the Bill of Rights states the rights of the people.
