iRubric: Constitutional Essay Rubric

-Essay lacks title, name, and period<BR>
-Essay is inadequate or excessive in length<BR>
_ Essay id illegible

-Paper follows designated guidelines<BR>
-Paper is the appropriate length <BR>
-Format is good

-Paper follows all designated guidelines<BR>
-Paper is the appropriate length <BR>
-Format enhances readability of essay

Q#1 The Articles created a weak national government with neither a President nor judicial branch, which required voluntary support from the states in order to pass legislation. At the same time, individual states had the ability to set their own trade, tax, and currency policies. The nation also suffered from debt and other social and diplomatic troubles.

Q #2 Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution because they felt it threatened the state governments by giving too much power to the national government. Congress was not large enough to properly represent the nation's voters, and the federal courts system undermined the authority of local court systems. Anti-federalist feared such a nation without a Bill of Rights.

Q #3 The Articles and the Constitution both established a republican form of government, but they took drastically approaches to accomplish this. The Articles allocated most government power to the state governments, set up a weaker national government that relied on voluntary support from the states. The Constitution, on the other hand, created a federal system of government in which power was shared between two coexisting levels of government.

Q #4 The Latin phrase "E pluribus unum" directly translates into "Out of many, one." Originally, it was used to describe the unity of the 13 states into a single nation. As the diversity of the US increased over time, the phrase came to describe the distinct union of a variety of people from diverse backgrounds and belief systems that constitutes the US.

Q #5 The Constitution borrowed the idea of separation of powers from state governments and the Enlightenment thinkers and used it to create a system of checks and balances. The system limited the power of individuals within the federal government by distributing power evenly among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. It gave each branch the ability to override decisions made by the other branches in order to prevent abuses of power.