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Article Of Confederation Failures

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After gaining independence the United States struggled to establish a stable government and a constitution. The United States relied on the Article of Confederation to constitute issues that the states faced. Even with, what was then considered a “constitution”, in place the United States still faced problems with their government bodies. The Article of Confederation failed to solve issues but did manage to cause major confusion and disagreements with the Congress. The founding fathers goal was to create a national government, but they also wanted to establish a weak one who job was to unify states and control war. The national government would control trade and mediate conflicts amongst the states. When writing the Article …show more content…

With Congress not having control, they could not make the states fulfil trade agreements that were set in place with other nations. Congress did not have the power to regulate trade amongst states. In some instances, citizens would import goods from other nations or countries but refused to pay these nations which resulted in other countries refusing to trade with the United States. Did Congress have any power over the states and their governments? Basically, no because state governments and citizens would ignore the laws and Congress had no way of enforcing the laws on people. With Congress having no power, businesses suffered all throughout the states, trading became extinct and many people lost their …show more content…

The Federalists believed that the nation could only survive if the central government had the power to tax, regulate trade, operate a militia and if necessary over rule state governments. The Anti-Federalists believed that tax would impose un-fairly if the central government regulates it. Anti- Federalists where afraid that factions would manipulate and ultimately control the government. Federalists argued that the United States would be too large and diverse for factions to dominate them. Anti- Federalists also feared that oppression would occur amongst those with and without power in the new constitution. The biggest debate among the Federalists and Anti-Federalists was a need for a Federal Bill of Rights. The Anti- Federalists argued that it was necessary, but the Federalists argued that it was unnecessary since those rights were already protected within the individual state governments. Both organizations settled their differences by creating a constitution with a Bill of Rights at the

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