Anti Confederation Case Study

What were the central problems of the Articles of Confederation? How did the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention address them? Finally, how did the delegates resolve the three contentious political issues: the representation of large and small states, slavery, and state sovereignty?

Last year, our new government was formed. We agreed to what the Articles had said. It seems that now we are having issues with what we had once agreed with. In this newsletter, I will only address four of the most problematic things in the Articles of Confederation. However there are many more that will not be brought to light today.

While the Articles of Confederation unified the American colonies for the first time, the individual states had a hard time allowing a central government to solely control their territory. Due to fear of an all powerful monarchy like the one they had experienced in England the colonies were wary of allowing a central government certain powers. These certain powers included control of commerce, ability to tax, and even the ability to act directly upon individual citizens of a state. While the Articles provided a loose confederation to unify the new country, they were only a temporary solution due to their obvious weaknesses in several areas. The Articles of Confederation were essentially

In the year of 1867 the nation we know as Canada came into being. The Confederation in this year only came about after things had been overcome. Many political and economic pressures were exerted on the colonies and a federal union of the colonies seemed to be the most practical method of dealing with these pressures and conflicts. While Confederation was a solution to many of the problems, it was not a popular one for all the colonies involved. In the Maritime colonies views differed widely on the topic. Some were doubtful, some were pleased, others were annoyed and many were hopeful for a prosperous future.1

During the eight years under the Articles of Confederation, the national debt continued to grow. The country came up with solutions, but the states ignored them. A correspondent in the Independent Chronicle in 1787 plead, “How long are we to continue on our present in-glorious acquiescence in the shameful resistance that some of the states persist in, against federal and national measures?” (Humphrey 2003, 113). Printer Nathaniel Willis called the young country a “union in crisis” (Humprey 2003, 106). Lack of revenue and no way of forcing states to contribute was one of the major and most noted flaws in the Articles of Confederation (Henretta et al. 2010).

This document was written in the 18th century specifically during the Federalist Era. It was written 18 years after America won independence from England on July 4, 1776. This lead to the creation of the “Articles of Confederation” which were made primarily for the people because they feared central government having all power. Then at The Annapolis Convention (1786) is where the groundworks of “The U.S. Constitution” were discussed to replace the “Articles of Confederation”.

Speaking against the ratification of the Constitution, Patrick Henry says, "If a wrong step be now made, the republics may be lost forever. If this new government will not come up to the expectation of the people...their liberty will be lost and tyranny must and will rise..." The leaders of the country created the U.S. Constitution due to an immense dissatisfaction with the system of government stated in the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation support a government in which there is only one branch, but it's power would be limited in order to protect the people's liberty and rights. Although the Articles of Confederation establish a better system of government than when the states were under British rule, some weaknesses were found and amended in a new document called the United States

Firstly, unlike the Americans who greatly supported ‘The New Deal’, Canadians thought it was worthless and did not support Bennett. Bennett included in his New Deal, a more progressive taxation system, a maximum work week, a minimum wage, stronger regulations and working conditions, unemployment insurance, health and accident insurance, a revised old-age pension, agricultural support programs, and a grain board to regulate wheat prices (Fielding 134-135). Many Canadians failed to believe him, so ‘The New Deal’ wasn’t an option. People thought that Bennett could not have made this ‘Deal’ possible even if he tried to do so.  Secondly, The New Deal caused Bennett’s downfall from being the leader of Canada. He was widely ridiculed and taken as a joke. Back in the day, people even started calling a horse drawn car a “Bennett Buggy” because they had no money to buy gasoline and they blamed Sir. Bennett for not taking serious action. In the same way, there were many other terms used with his name such as “a Bennett barnyard” which was an abandoned farm, “a Bennett blanket” which was a newspaper, “a Bennett coffee” which was roasted wheat and lastly “Eggs Benedict” which were roast chestnuts (Fielding 127). A new election was to take place within the next few months. His opponent was Sir. Mackenzie King, whom have taken up on the people saying as “King or chaos”.1 Lastly, the New Deal was taken to the Supreme Court by Mackenzie King, after he was elected as the new Prime Minister in 1935. The Supreme court had simply rejected Bennett’s old legislate explaining that it went beyond the powers of the federal government. As a result, the legislate was thrown out. In deep sadness, Sir. Bennett had abandoned Canada and left to live the rest of his life in Britain.2 As has been noted, Bennett had failed to bring

First and foremost, the idea of having a railway built throughout Canada was already in existence long before 1881. However, it was not until Confederation was passed on July 1, 1867 when “[The railway’s] realization was found to be a political necessity” (Leary, 5). In other words, Confederation did not just mark the date in history where the federal Dominion of Canada was born, but, it had also opened the doors necessary to make the project a reality. Clearly, there was much more to Confederation than met the eye, and “as part of the deal, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were promised a railway to link them with the two Central Canadian provinces – Quebec and Ontario” (Canadian Pacific). By 1871, Manitoba and British Columbia had also joined the Confederation. At this point,

The most important aspect of this proposal deals with the aftermath of the Canadian insurrections. This will be of extreme to significance to the reader as the aftermath of the rebellion would change the destiny of Canada. After learning of the uprisings in the Canadian colonies the British parliament sent a commission to study the causes. Lord Durham was named governor on May of 1839 and was in placed in charge of establishing an inquiry into the rebellions. From this inquiry came a list of recommendations submitted to the parliament in London (Outlett, 275). Two recommendations in this report became extremely significant to Canadian history.

The United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation because the document lacks the complete effectiveness to govern a body of people. The initial Constitution (articles of confederation) asked a lot from its colonies that wasn’t reciprocated. The articles were all over the place in-structure, causing many discrepancies. Within less than a decade its weakness in the ability to govern a body of people and required complete restructure, if the people were to move forward. At a time when the new states were operating on their own no longer under British rule.

I will no longer bear these strong sentiments against Confederation, as I have no further means of opposition. I have spoken to John A Macdonald and I will join his federal cabinet on the offer of 'better terms'- I will play a prominent role in expanding and unifying this nation. I will help to guide the Dominion of Canada to the status of a nation which Mother Britain will be proud of. I will support, forever, the freedom of press and the right to responsible government. This is the year 1869, 2 years after Confederation and I am now a 'Father of Confederation.' Though I will always support the Anti-Confederation Party and wish it had prevailed; I will know put my energy into the safety of the Dominion of Canada and more importantly, Nova

In this lesson, the united States learn how to work as an intendent nations. In 1777, the Continental congress has made the Articles of Confederation, it was the first constitution for the United States. The Articles of Confederation was like a friendship bond between the 13 states. The 13 states bond wasn’t as strong as you thought. The continental congress meet every year to use the Articles as the key to keep the peace between the 13 states. The people in the United States wanted a democratic republic, but they didn’t want a king or queen. They wanted their government to be single and a unified democracy. I didn’t know the Greek had a government similar to us. The Greek had a city state democracies and the ancient Roman republic. The first

This was of a British North America that stretched from Atlantic to Pacific, from the U.S. boarder to the Arctic hinterland. Britain not only rules the Colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Vancouver Island, and British Columbia, but it also asserted it's authority over all of the lands in the interior that were administered by the Hudson Bay Company. An evolutionary process which could bring all of these lands together under one Federal Government would create a country larger than the United States and with the best chances to stand up to U.S., Spanish and Russian encroachment upon British North America.

The Articles of Confederation, a written agreement that ensured each state’s sovereignty, freedom and independence, led America to victory over the British centralized government. During the late eighteenth century, the empowered government terrified the Americans, hence the thirteen colonies decided to spread governance powers equally to all functional states. The states had absolute dominance over the Congress due to the Articles of Confederation. While the localized power of states seemed to be promising, the system posed great threat to the major components of a democratic government, which are coercion, revenue, and legitimacy (Lecture 1 - The Roots of Government). The system of localized power did not ensure legitimacy, which referred to people’s recognition of national government. Congress’s lack of power to control each state’s actions caused great chaos. Eventually, national government’s lack of power and inability to unify the states exposed multiple flaws in the Articles of Confederation; consequently, a new supreme law, the Constitution was established by the founding fathers. The new supreme law successfully altered the imbalanced system into a novel democratic government.