The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation because it held tru to the ideas of federalism--that the main power of the nation should come from a strong central government, not the individual states.
Secularism? I think. Just answered similar question
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The single most important influence that shaped the founding of the United States comes from John Locke, a 17th century Englishman who redefined the nature of government. ... The duty of that government is to protect the natural rights of the people, which Locke believed to include life, liberty, and property.
Answer:
In hindsight, <u>from the Gilded Age </u><u>monopolists </u><u>perspective they would say that they have pushed too far with manipulation of prices and thus brought negative reaction and counter measures from the general public.</u> In particular, farmers in the Western country demanded that the government set maximum prices on railroads because monopolist had uncontrolled pricing power. Through the Granger movement they achieved passing of some of the ‘Granger Laws’ and set pricing limit on some services.
This concerned other industries as well. For example, the famous <u>Robber baron</u> Vanderbilt was competing with steamboat monopoly that controlled transportation between New York City and Albany. Using populist rhetoric and peoples line to bring down monopolies, he was trying to pave the way for his own business. Meanwhile, <u>the monopolistic Hudson River Steamboat Association end up paying him a great amount of money so that he would stop doing it</u>.