Competing Viewpoints Paper Guidelines (chicago format)

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Sumaya Yeasmin

HIST 32300

Professor John Blanton

Sep 17, 2019

Major Challenges in the Early Republic

In the early republic, the major problems that had concerns were revolving around the

domestic issues and policies. The early republic had not yet established their boundaries and set

their mandates to define power by jurisdiction, thereby they had issues on how to deal with

governance through the aspect of governing leadership and execution of the mandatory roles

required. In this case, this paper will discuss in detail the major challenges that most of the early

republics used to encounter especially the problems like, creating and maintaining national

security, defining the branches of the government, setting up the court systems, creating a stable

economic system and building a stable military (​Wilentz, & Earle 2008, p76).

To start with is the problem of creating and maintaining national security. Security was a

major concern for the nations during that time as nations had not established their boundaries

well and they were still stagnant and slowly developing. Nations were in fear of the security and

were on the stand to create their own shields and security platforms in order to secure their

boundaries. The process of convincing people to come together in solidarity in order to fight for

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their own and develop their own nation was tough and hard as most people were not certain of

the system and how it used to operate.

The issue of creating national security meant that people could stand in solidarity in order

to mark their territory and defend their boundaries. It was not clear by that time how

governments could run but the pioneers had their power in influencing their people and

politicking to have their sovereignty remain as their own tradition within their stipulated

boundaries that were set during their freedom fighting and independence. Civilization during

those time was minimal and the few people who had gone to class understood the process and

thus advocated for it until today many nations have stood strong to have their own national

security and peace (​Ferguson 2009, p 23).

The second major problem was defining the branches of the government. During that

time for the formation of the early republics, most people never understood well the aspect of

forming and the process of creating the government. Therefore, it was a major problem in

defining the renown three arms of government we know today, which is the judiciary, the

executive and the legislature. The three-arm of the government was not clear especially on how

they were to operate and their mandates in governance. The challenge led to the establishment of

the constitution and the early constitution that acted as the sole guidance on how to execute the

role and powers of government in various branches which were not clear to the early citizens and

founding fathers.

On the other hand, the aspect defining the branches of government, through rigorous fight

brought enlightenment and led to the fight for independence by the early republics. This

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challenge of understanding the branches of the government had made some political godfathers

lose their positions and focus on not understanding the system. During the confederation of the

first article, the congress in the United States was divided over the aspect of power and

governance that led to the rise of governments and their oppositions up to date, and that was the

origin. Governance, therefore, is a branch of leadership that is cascaded from the highest office

to the lowest office for the benefit of the common citizen and that nation in respect to branches

of the government in operation (​Merrill, & Paterson 2010 pp 34-37).

The third major challenge is the challenge of setting up the court system. The court

system is a branch of system that deals with the prosecution of the legal affairs to the persons

that are under the jurisdiction of a given government system. Early republics had a problem of

setting up the court systems and how the court system could work. During the pre-colonial and

colonial time, there was a lot of torture and mistreatment of the foreign citizens, especially in the

US, the slaves were mistreated and punished over their black colour. The rulings of the court's

systems by then were not effective and had no power since they were only known and meant for

the whites and the civilized.

Nations were in the crisis with other nations, that lead to the world war, cold wars and the

fight against superiority and superpower aspect of world governance. The court system was not

equipped with enough power to be heard in their national and international discourses as they are

feared today. Courts were just a representation of the government but were not as effective as

they are today. The first serious court sessions were the Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth Courts

(1789–1801) which dealt with serious top government issues in the United States of America.

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The fourth major problem is that of creating a stable economic system within a nation,

the early republics were not such well established with resources to create a stable economy.

They were fighting for the best interests of their subject matters and citizens. Primitivity was

much by that time and nations were not as active as they are today in resource sourcing and

creation. It was tough for governments to operate smoothly during those times but all in all they

managed to set a pace for their growth and operations. Many governments have learnt from other

government on how to manage their affairs and then set their economies into their steering nature

of advancing their own (​Tucker 2014 pp 21-22).​ ​ The economic sectors were a priority to many

of the nations that realized the benefits after the greater economic crisis of the black economy.

The challenge of creating a stable economy was a preliminary aspect of new boundaries

and new territories that were set by the four fathers who were at the forefront of managing

leadership affairs. After the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, most nations were officially

independent. Even though the people were free from British rule, the countries had three

problems that needed immediate attention. The countries had huge debts because of the war, the

lands to the West were vast, and needed to be overseen, and the government needed to figure out

trade systems after the protection of England was gone. The American people were uneasy

because they did not want a strong central government that would take away the rights they had

so desperately fought for. They wanted the liberties that had been promised to them in the

Declaration of Independence. The Constitution was created to produce a strong government that

came after the framing of the Articles of Confederation

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The fifth problem was that of building a strong military, the military is tasked to defend

the borders of each and every government. During the early republics, it was tough to maintain

the militaries due to scarce resources and a lot of confusion in running the government affairs, in

fact, most of the militia were not being paid and that was the major problem that the republicans

used to face. The presidents in the early years of American freedom had a huge task before them.

How to create a government that would satisfy the majority and how to accomplish the three

major problems facing the country at that time. Presidents Jefferson and Jackson were key

figures in creating the government and establishing our nation as it is known today (​Wilentz, &

Earle 2008, p128).

The issue of creating a government and having the military to guard it was too tough for

most of the nations to maintain as they had not developed enough resources that could help them

run the government affairs with ease, all that it could take was to develop the government, define

the arms and execute their roles to the common citizens as it was constituted in the nations

governing constitution. The first process of setting a new venture or system, there must be

technicalities and challenges and therefore we accept that the early republics had a challenge of

governance and many other challenges besides. The problems that were once encountered during

the initial stages of government development are felt today too, for those third world countries.

Challenges in the early republics, were the insights for the kind of leadership our nations

to be having today, the solution to the challenges were anchored on the ways of managing the

forming the government system, the procurement procedures for our well-being today, the hard

work in our economic sectors to industrialize, the process of urban development, agricultural

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development and trade. The challenges that were faced by the early republics have been solved

by the above solutions. For example, to expand on the aspect of industrialization, the process of

industrializing a nation will help to create more job opportunities for its members and citizens

thus improving on the gross domestic product (​Ferguson 2009, pp12-14).

In conclusion, problems are not problems once solved but they remain to be if not.

Therefore, this paper has discussed in details the major challenges that most of the early

republics used to encounter especially the problems like, creating and maintaining national

security, defining the branches of the government, setting up the court systems, creating a stable

economic system and building a stable military.

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References

Ferguson, Robert A. 2009. ​Reading the Early Republic​. Cambridge: Harvard University

Press.​ ​http://qut.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=3300694​.

Merrill, Dennis, and Thomas G. Paterson. 2010. ​Major problems in American foreign

relations: documents and essays​. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Tucker, Spencer. 2014. ​The Encyclopedia of the wars of the early American republic,

1783-1812: a political, social, and military history​. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7C9781598841572&v=2.1&u=kcls&it=etoc

&p=GVRL&sw=.

Wilentz, Sean, and Jonathan Halperin Earle. 2008. ​Major problems in the early republic,

1787-1848: documents and essays​.