YORK CAPITAL OF THE NATION SEPTEMBER 30 1777 TO JUNE 27 1778 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION FROM WERE ADOPTED HERE NOVEMBER 15 1777 WITH THE NAME A אופן AM יוט אבויז STA כובויך UN פנדון 1 PLACED BY THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCLETY OF THE COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA A historical marker in York Pennsylvania commemorates the location where the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777 powerful national government was not popular The people had just fought a war against this type of government A group known as the Continental Congress led the states after independence It used a document
called the Articles of Confederation to govern There were problems though The Articles created a weak national government The states held most of the power By 1787 it appeared the new nation might crumble The country needed a more powerful national government James Madison James Madison was a political thinker from Virginia He helped organize the Constitutional Convention He also helped write the Constitution’s first draft Many of the ideas in the document came from him This includes a Congress made up of two chambers Madison took detailed notes at the Convention He used them in writing the Constitution Madison is nicknamed the Father of the Constitution The Constitutional Convention Delegates from the states gathered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in the summer of 1787 Their goal was to create a plan for a new government The meeting was called the Constitutional Convention Delegates argued over how the government should work 7
The introduction or preamble to the US Constitution begins with the phrase We the People 8
The delegates had to decide how to choose leaders They also had to decide what powers to give leaders The Plan for a New Government The delegates spent months debating the plan They made changes and additions The final document began to take shape The work was done by September 1787 The result was the US Constitution By 1790 all 13 states had approved it The Constitution spells out how the United States is to be run The national government is split into three branches The legislative branch makes the nation’s laws The executive branch makes sure laws are obeyed The judicial branch interprets the laws The leaders in the three branches work together Rules in the Constitution prevent any one branch from being too powerful It is possible to change the Constitution A change is called an amendment By 2016 there were only 27 amendments The first ten are called the 9
