We needed a new Constitution badly for our foundling of a nation. The pressure of everything falling apart weighed heavily on the founders in that day, something had to be done to save America from disassembling after our triumphant separation from England. The Articles of Confederation simply weren’t working. Originally, the purpose of the Articles was to give as much power to the states as possible while still uniting them (text 48). The biggest problem was that thought the federal government could recommend and create policies, they could not enforce them, specifically if the states refused them. (text 48) Furthermore, the government was weak, with no real leadership and additionally, could not freely gather revenue from the states and suffered from this. (text 49) What finally pushed our country over the edge was Shays’ Rebellion, a protest of farmers led by Daniel Shays when they demanded change after being heavily taxed to recompense for the wartimes cost, but the government had no response, leading to an attack on state militia. (text 49) So thus, a Constitutional Convention was convened. Plenty disagreed, and these people were called the Anti-Federalists, and believed the document gave the government too …show more content…
(text 59) The arguments of the Federalists, however, refuted this. The Federalist Papers, letters sent back and forth between the Federalists, revealed the holes in the Anti-Federalists’ statements. Specifically, as James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, he explains why smaller “nations” don’t work compared to one large, united nation. (text 59) he brings up the problem of “factions” groups with a common interest, that hold their own interests above the interests of the nation. (text 59) So, they made these plans to compromise: Parts like this: in the Constitution reflect the compromise
The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that the united states ever put into force, and is the only one they ever wrote besides the constitution. The articles was created due to a need for the United States to unite during the american revolution, and was basically a loosely bound union of states, so it was obvious that this was essentially just to semi-unite the states in order to fight the british, and they would form a more stable form of government after the fact, which they did when they wrote the constitution. I will now list the provisions of the Articles of Confederation.
The topic of this paper is the Constitution. The paper will cover the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, which was addressed in the Constitution. The paper will cover the how the Constitution addressed the complaints in the Declaration of Independence. Another topic of the paper will be the Great Compromise and how the representation of states in Congress was determined. Finally, the paper will view the treatment of slaves for the purpose of representation and the effects thereof.
As our nation’s history has shown we have made mistakes in our past and been forced to learn from those mistakes. We have taken certain ideas and beaten them to death at times. The members of the constitutional convention of 1787 did the same thing as they were trying to decide what should be written in the constitution and how the government should be structured. Many plans were presented and rejected as the members argued until finally a great compromise was made and the structure our government for finally started to take shape.
The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. Although, it established a weak central government, it contributed to U.S principles because The Articles of Confederation were the basis of the first government of the United States of America. The Articles were essentially the “training wheels” of the government; it was a learning point to create something much greater which became the Constitution. The problems that this weak document created, combined with the Confederation government’s ineffectual response to Shays’ Rebellion, convinced national leaders that a more powerful central government was necessary.
"Throughout the years the constitution and the laws have made a tremendous impact in society. White men were privileged with all their rights since they were born. Women and men of color however were not, and they had to fight for their rights throughout the years. The Articles of confederation showed how the states had more power than the government did. In document two it states, “ urging to reject conservative attempts to repeal a law that set in motion an end to slavery.†(E,126) This shows how African American’s had to wait many years for laws to pass and give them freedom. They had the same rights as the White men after the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments were passed. Women had to wait longer and finally got their right to vote when
Finally, in 1787, many states gathered in Philadelphia to fix the Articles of Confederation. This meeting turned into the replacement of the Articles to the Constitution. Document 2 explains how the Constitution guarantees an independent and strong leader, a Supreme Court, a powerful congress, and valuable money which the Articles didn't have. Now, the Constitution only had to be ratified. This was a problem because anti-federalist, who didn't believe in the Constitution, wanted the Articles of Confederation to stay in place. This complication was fixed when the Bill of Rights was added into the Constitution as the first ten Amendments. As stated in Document 3, people, including federalists and antifederalists, felt more safe when the Bill of Rights were added and ratified into the Constitution because there was no way of bending or changing the Bill of Rights. A strong part of the Constitution was that it promised that it could never become a monarchy or government where one individual ruled everyone. This was possible by checks and
Hudgins After the United States won the Revolutionary War in 1783, the 13 states which were formerly the 13 colonies of Great Britain were now an independent nation. They faced a dilemma. The Articles of Confederation in many ways were not strong enough to support an organized national government. Within the newly independent nation, there were two schools of thought regarding centralized government. On one hand, the Federalists favored a Constitution which established a strong unified government at a federal level. On the other hand, the Anti-Federalists were in favor of maintaining power within the 13 state governments, and believed smaller more local governments were best (Artifact 4). They felt that passing a Constitution may lead
After the American Revolution the people of the United States came up with a way of organizing their government called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation consisted of a weak Central Government and strong State Governments. As this plan was being tested, Shay´s rebellion occurred and the people realized that this way of governing was too weak to handle the people.In that case, people decided to attempt a Constitutional Convention to see what new types of governments they could search for and apply.In addition, while this process was going on, compromises also occurred and people took started taking sides between the consitution.
The government established by the Articles of Confederation lacked the coherence, strength, and cooperation needed to spur the young nation to success, instead wreaking havoc politically, defensively, and economically. For example, because there was neither a national currency nor regulation of commerce, the mid-1780s were stricken with inflation and economic depression. Moreover, due to the absence of a national legislature, laws varied from state to state; thus, Congress had difficulty passing and enforcing laws and taxes. Lastly, the nation lacked strong, solid leadership to guide decisions and head foreign affairs. In essence, at the time of America’s new-found independence from Britain, the Articles failed to provide a unified government
The Articles of Confederation proved to be an effective form of government during 1781-1789. They were used as one of the major stepping-stones to the current Constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation also helped with current land issues facing the states and problems it was having with other countries. Although the Articles of Confederation were a very weak form of government, but in the long run, it proved to be a useful and important time in American History.
The major fear that encouraged the creation of the Articles of Confederation was that the Federal government would have too much power. With this newly written government of 1781, most of the power would be in hands of the states. However, the Articles of Confederation proved to be ineffective. The American Government lacked the power to keep British forces out of United States in spite of declaring complete independence after the war. Under the Articles, the government did not have the power to pay for taxes which caused issues across the country.
After America gained their independence from the British, the founding fathers would create a new form of government named the Articles of Confederation. They had met in Philadelphia to adopt this first official constitution in September of 1777, however, it was not ratified until March of 1781. There were two main purposes of the Articles of Confederation. The first one had been to create unity amongst the colonies, while the second purpose was to prove to the French, along with other foreign countries, that America had a structured government. They needed to win over allies and set their borders. The Articles of Confederation were effective in solving some of the new nation’s problems to an extent. It had been effective in securing American independence and settling disputes over land.
The major debate in early American politics centered around the balance of state vs. federal power. Those fearful of a strong federal government backed their position well. They claimed that a strong federal government would end up abusing power similar to what had happened in England. They very reason why people migrated to America was to escape the abusive power of the King. The Articles of the Confederation helped to start the process of unifying the structural system of the American Revolutionary government.
In 1781, the United States ratified the Articles of Confederation - the first system of government to be adopted by Americans. The Articles were seriously flawed, granting little power to national government and allocating most of it for the states. Its short lifespan of 8 years and multitude of problems are clear signals that it mostly did not provide the United States with an efficient government.
While the newly independent United States was full of new ideas and plans, there were also multiple challenges that had to be discussed amongst the the higher ups. For instance, what kind of government should be established? What will the goals of this new government be? How will new territory be managed? As these very valid and vital questions were being discussed, other challenges came about, and more answers were needed. American leaders agreed on a republic government, or popular sovereignty, but then came an entirely new set of challenges such as the burdening consequences of this new government, and what exactly would be done about who should be more powerful; a central government or the states. It was more than obvious that there were