Burbank Junior High School - Wizard Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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levy taxes, wage war and coin money. Above all it coulu enforce its own laws, have its own courts, and the states hau to accept the national law. The Constitution provided for a strong central government with a strong system of checks and balances. The Constitution was created to preserve liberty ana the ideals of men. Like the oak our Constitution has stood for nearly ono-hundred- fifty years through storms and hardship. It has seen three thousand at- tempts to amend it but only twenty-one have bo n successful. May the oak of our nation preserve liberty and the ideals of men in our country f orever . -- ' Iary Tieslau, H8 THE U; IT L STATES CONSTITUTION The American Constitution was not a new experiment in government. People in England had been fighting many centuries for Self-government, The fathers of our Constitution were from English families. The .articles of Confederation was our first Constitution. The Articles were unsatisfactory. Ther was no executive. Laws could be made but not enforced. There was a separate government in each of the thirteen states, but not one government for all. The Articles of Con- federation did not have any money , nor any way of raising money. A better central government was wanted by the people. First there was the debtors class. When debts Were not paid people were jailed. Paper money was issued which was not worth its face value. The business of the well-to-do people was bad. Business men wanted their industries, business, shipping and trade protected, so a better central gov-rnment was wanted. There were foreign dobts to pay so a better central govern- ment was needed. ' Washington was selected as leader when the Convention met at Philadelphia. It was held behind closed doors and kept a Secret. But one of the members, Madison, kept a record in code. ' Ve know what went on because his journal was published years later. There were several difficult problems the Convention h;:d to settle. The North was commercial. Their interests were different from the agri- cultural South. The states were working against each other in govern- ment. There was still the unsettled negro slave problem. The three parts of the Constitution were executive, legislative, and judicial. The laws were made by the legislative department. Con- gress was composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The president enforced the laws which Congress made. The Supreme Court de- cided upon the laws . Postal affairs, taxation, coinage, foreign relations, army, navy, and interstate commerce were certain rights of the nation. Both nation and states derived their rights from the people. Because of its control over the commerce, industries, and finance, the people have always tried to improve and strengthen our central government. The people of tho United States have been governed well ior 150 years by the Constitution of the United States of America. --Shinji Tsuchida, H8x