Article Of Confederation Research Paper

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

The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the

The Federalists supported the ratification of the Constitution while the Anti Federalists were against it. This boiled down to simple beliefs held by both groups. Anti Federalists believed that the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and left state governments powerless. Anti Federalists were in favor of a weaker central governments and stronger local state governments. They believed that central government was too far removed from the people, and that the nation was too large, for it to serve them on a local state basis. This resulted in the fear that people’s voices would be taken away; this fear of oppression was only increased by the fact that the Constitution didn’t include a Bill of Rights. However, Federalists believed that a strong central government, accompanied by the Constitution, was needed after the Article of Confederation failed or the nation wouldn’t survive. In the eyes of the Federalists, a Bill of Rights was not needed because the Constitution did not put any limits on the rights of the citizens; however

After numerous harsh battles had been fought during the American Revolution, the Americans would at last claim their independence from the Great Britain. The United States would officially become its own nation once the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3rd of 1783. The leaders of this new American nation now had a new adventurous journey ahead, one that would have many troubles and issues along the way. In the act of establishing government in America, the new leaders would create the Articles of Confederation, which was the first constitution of the United States. This document would help to settle the conflicts taking place inside the new nation.

The Articles of Confederation is the first "constitution" for the United States. In lesson, it goes into more detail about how 13 thirteen single colonies became one to make decisions. The United States was the first nation in the history of the world to be created by colonial people fighting against their mother country for freedom. The United States government at the time was similar to England's. The people whom lived in America wanted a democratic republic, just without all the kings and queens. This type of government has never been seen before, thus America will be creating its own version and testing it out. The Articles that they had previously created had some issues. One issue is who owned the land in the west? Better yet, how were

The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.

The Constitution alone was not enough for the anti-federalists; they believed that there had to be a Bill of rights in order to protect citizens. The Bill would simply state the clear rules and regulations that allowed the citizens to know what the government is and is not allowed to do. The federalists argued that the constitution already established rights for the citizens and a Bill was not necessary, however the Anti federalists would only agree to ratify the Constitution if there was a bill of rights. Yates argues a major point in the Anti –Federalists papers against the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution, he states, “The Congress shall judge of what is necessary and proper in all these cases and in all other cases;-in short in all cases whatsoever. Where then is the restraint?” (Essay II) There had to be a law preventing the government from being unfair or abusing power to the citizens. The Bill of rights was then created as a result of lots of compromise. It then allowed the people to know there rights if they needed to protect themselves in any way. This bill gave the citizens back the power that the antifederalists thought the citizens would not have under a federal

The Articles of Confederation was drafted to create a sense of political unity to the newly formed nation of United States of America and combat the British rule. The Confederation was modeled to resembled a confederacy arrangement that serve to unify the thirteen states at the time(Feeley 98-100). However, the confederation was later replaced by a federal arrangement which granted the government with more centralized control. Statism is one of the factors that contributed towards the failure of confederalism in United States. The original confederation intends for each state to remain relatively sovereign. Yet, the thirteen states treated their roles in this relationship as an alliance of independent states instead of a unified nation(Feeley

The Articles of Confederation was a sort of rough draft for the Constitution of the United States. Written in 1781, it set the basis of our country’s government during the Revolutionary war and gave power to the states. The founding fathers of the Articles were fearful of losing the rights of the people as they had with Britain, and therefore did not grant the central government the power to tax. Nonetheless, the states were believed to hold too much sovereignty, for the Articles of Confederation was revised after a short period of only six years. This revision gave birth to the Constitution in 1887 and with it, a stronger central government. Even so, this change in power was not favorable for every citizen of the United States. A particular

The framers of the United States Constitution ultimately decided to give more power to the central government over the state governments. One thing that influenced this are the results of the Articles of Confederation. The strengths and the weaknesses of the Federal Government. Also the Strengths and weaknesses of the State Government. The Central Government was a needed part of America in order for us to be what we are today.

One of the great things we have in this nation is freedom of speech. During these times this was a huge right among the colonists and the states. Many supporters and non-supporters would become very vocal during these times. Those most famous for pushing for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution were James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. They would produce and write articles that would become known as the Federalists Papers. “In total, the Federalist Papers consist of 85 essays outlining how this new government would operate and why this type of government was the best choice for the United States of America” (foundingfathers.info, 2010).

Their principal argument was that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government and took away too many powers of the states or lack of protection for individual liberties. Most of the state constitutions of the era had built on the Virginia model that included an explicit protection of individual rights that could not be intruded upon by the state (Ratifying the Constitution, 2016). Some of their other arguments in concern of the constitution included the Supremacy Clause, the powers of the President, the six-year terms of Senators, and about the many new powers granted to Congress. The antifederalist where not well organized but had many influential supporting leaders and many of their conventions where carried out on state levels. Some of these leaders include: George Mason, John Winthrop, and James Madison, who presented the Bill of Rights to congress (The Great

The very first original constitution of the United States was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation had weaknesses and so the states decided to meet in secret and come up with a new constitution, the U.S Constitution. The Constitution of the United States has seven basic principles: federalism, checks & balances, republicanism, separation of powers, popular sovereignty, limited government, and individual rights. Each and very principle has its own importance and process, but checks and balances will be more thoroughly discussed.

The Articles of Confederation significantly challenged the western expansion, foreign relations, and debt, as well as failed some needs of the new country (Schultz, 2009). Many Americans continued to pursue land in the west relentlessly. They slowly began populating areas that had charters in the west; thus, resulting in a jealousy and seemingly creating a competition for states with no claims to the western land. The Articles prevented the federal government from forcing states to cede their land to them, despite the potential benefits it may have provided for the new nation. Moreover, Congress established the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which formed territorial governments in the Great Lakes region and laid out a plan for future western development. The Ordinance created laws recognizing then a territory could elect a legislature and have representation in Congress, as well as when it could become an official state with

One reason why states rights are emphasized in the Articles of Confederation is America’s weariness of strong, oppressive figures governing over smaller groups. This was in reference to the American oppression by the British and the ensuing American Revolution. America was fearful that if there were to be one commanding power of the nation that the result would be a repetition of history. Whig ideology was the basic foundation of the Articles of Confederation, which explains why there is a strong distrust of executive authority, resulting in the federation having minimal power over states. There was a deep desire of strict separation of powers, resulting in a schism between the states and federal government understanding and cooperating with each other. There was no executive branch to delegate over the Union, which allowed an abundance of freedom for the states. The Constitution of 1787 solved this issue by establishing a separation of power into 3 branches (legislative, judicial, executive) with a bicameral representation (House of Representatives and the Senate). The new government also has a system of checks and balances where no one branch of government can have any more power than another; each branch is checking to ensure balance over all 3. Previous to the Constitution, it was very difficult for all the states to come to a unanimous 9/13 decision when trying to