We began our beginning with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It was a declaration of separation from the denial of rights to ones individual liberty. It was a declaration of ideals and a dream for the future. But there was a long way to go between the dream and reality.
We won our fight for independence in 1783, against what we considered the tyrannical rule of England and King George III, and began the business of establishing a nation of laws and one worthy of the cause we fought for.
Our first attempt at this nation’s governance was the “Articles of Confederation”, which was proposed by Congress on November 15, 1777 and ratified on March 1, 1781. The problem with the Articles of Confederation was that in no way did it form a united nation. Article I named this country the “United States of America” and then forgot the united part. The States were reluctant to give up their own individual sovereignty and with this in mind they developed a strong State’s rights governing system with almost no central government power.
