Revolutionary Generation

4 Pages 942 Words

The argument that the founders of the Constitution represented radical revolutionaries who transformed American political culture from its British Colonial origins, is evident when comparing British Colonial government before the revolution, to today’s Constitution. The reason the American government was created was because American freedom could never be secure under the British crown, so the time had come to correct the “errors” in Britain’s constitution and to found new governments free of kings and hereditary rule, governments in which all officials owed their power to popular choice.
Firstly, immediately following the Declaration of Independence, the first governments formed were state governments. Connecticut and Rhode Island were the only states that kept the same framework, all the other states created brand new Constitutions. What emerged from the state constitutions is the foundation for the United States Government.
The Executive Branch changed tremendously, which had a lot to do with how the colonists perceived their colonial government. For the state governments, most of the Americans drafting the constitution were under the impression that the colonial government had too much power, so the state representatives took their power away and gave little power to the governor. The governor could no longer call the state legislature to meet and could no longer appoint officials. Pennsylvania even replaced the governor with a council of twelve that was popularly elected.
In the Legislative Branch, except for Pennsylvania and Georgia, all states had a Bicameral Legislature. Most representatives in the lower house were restricted to one term. Those elected to the upper house usually had longer terms. The first thing the representatives did was re apportion the states so that the Western lands would be under the colonial government and the power of the Government rested on the Eastern portions of the colonial seat. T...