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Articles Of Confederation Dbq

Decent Essays

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

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