The constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The constitution - Essay Example fectual in running a national government, so a combination of factors further pointed to the need of a stronger government than the articles of confederation provided. Congress could not provide protection for local industries because it did not have the powers, and so America’s manufacturing had failed to grow. Settlers in the west demanded a more aggressive policy on land cessions and wanted more to be done to protect them from Indian attacks2. Merchants wanted a government that could get them advantageous trade agreements abroad. While changing the Articles was not viewed as urgent among the southern and Mid-Atlantic States, their leaders too appreciated that free navigation of the Mississippi River and a solution of the dispute with Spain needed a response from a stronger government. Before the new constitution, only white males who owned property were allowed to vote. The new constitution, however, would allow all citizens to vote. It was also going to abolish slavery, meaning the propertied white would have to find an alternative source of labor3. The preamble of the federal constitution has the words ‘we the people’. These words can be interpreted to be meaning all the citizens of America. This is not true though, what it actually meant is that it excluded slaves, poor white males, women and Native Americans. These groups of people were not allowed to vote, for example. It denied congress the power to abolish the slave trade before 1808. It also required that fugitive slaves should be returned to their masters. The unrepresented groups in the American constitution include the Hawaiians, the Indians and many other ethnic minorities living widely as small minorities. A constitutional republic meant that whereas other people enjoyed the privileges brought about by the new constitution, the unrepresented did not since they were not properly recognized by the constitution. For example, the unrepresented people lost the right of suffrage. Though they