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Constitutional Achievement: America
Generally, the land has not been overused. We
discovered and developed our natural resources. We
offered rewards to workers for ingenuity and
determination. We insisted upon personal economic
freedom.
As the American Colonists would not put up with the
interference of the British Government in trade and
commerce, so the colonies created a government of
their own which would not be given the power to
interfere too much in the lives of the people. Here was
to be a country where every man and woman should be
free to pursue his full measure of happiness and
prosperity and where the government should exist only
to serve the people.
It
was the idea of personal freedom and protection
of private property that then made our industrial
revolution possible. And so, what is our freedom
worth? Our freedom is our most priceless possession.
It
was not won from King George III for good.
It
has to
be earned over and over again every day of our lives.
We must work for it all the time.
Let's put things in their historical perspective as we
continue our civics lesson. Between the time of the
Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the United
States Constitution in 1787, the separate states
operated under the Articles of Confederation, drawn up
in 1781.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the United
States government had two fatal weaknesses: it had no
power to raise money and no power to prevent trade
wars among the states. Trade wars were causing states
to retaliate by imposing internal tariffs, import duties,
regulations of commerce, and other obstructions which
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