Views of Jonathan Bayard Smith for a Debate1760 I am Jonathan Bayard Smith I was born in Philadelphia in 1742. I graduated from the collage of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University) in 1760 I was an Ardent Revolutionary and a member of the continental Congress. I was also one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation. I firmly advocate the belief that we must invest greater power into the central government and therefore strengthen the federal government. However I also firmly disagree that we must ratify an entirely new constitution to achieve this goal.
The Establishment of a more significant and thus powerful central government is consequential for the prosperity of our young nation. The reasons behind this statement are that in order for America to maintain international credit it must appear fully united in the eyes of European Nations therefore allowing America to borrow both domestically and abroad which is necessary for the financial security of our nation. Also In order for America to be successful it must have the ability to freely extract resources from its citizens. This I believe is necessary in order for the stability of the Nation and also it is crucial that our military may be able to act in times of crisis which requires a strong centralized government which has the ability to extract the proper resources in order for the prosperity of our nation. Therefore the reasons for an investment of power into the central government is quite self evident. My reasons though for suggesting that there is no need to ratify a new constitution bases on the fact that we can work with the current articles of confederation to better amend them to fit our needs as a nation.
I am also opposed to the size of the House of representatives as I do not believe that the current 65 representatives is enough to effectively represent the people if am also against the 2 year term as state legislators currently have a 1 year term which allows for a fluid rotation in and out o office and thus better services the people™s needs. But overall I believe that the there is no real need for a change in constitution and that simply revising and working with the current articles of confederation is sufficient to better establish a more centralized and powerful federal government. We must abandon our sense of provincial states and must begin acclimate ourselves to our recent birth as a nation and to do this we must first and foremost begin to unite under one centralized government rather than the many localized ones we have now. Therefore I submit my argument that though a more centralized government is necessary it must not be done through an entirely new constitution.
I believe that when our great nation, then a collection of colonies, fought for independence just a few years ago we fought for the rights of our citizens and I believe that the current government expressly acknowledges this and although the Articles may be somewhat flawed the fact of the matter stays constant, that our needs may be accomplished without the ratification of a new constitution but simply through working with and revising the current Articles of Confederation.
