Articles Of Confederation Research Paper

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.

With the United States new found independence from Great Britain, its founding fathers realize from their historical experiences that a document of law needed to be crafted and established to preserve its new found independence, while maintaining order. However, the first document crafted by the founding fathers, the Articles of Confederation, did preserve the country new found independence but it did not maintain order. The Articles of Confederation described by many founding fathers to be a document that was crafted to satisfy needs of every state for its ratification, even when the document did not present a responsible democracy. The Articles of Confederation granted all national powers to the congress; however, it allowed each state

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.

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

The Articles of Confederation, although a big first step, had more weaknesses than strengths. In fact, the major downfall of the Articles of Confederation was its weakness. Under the Articles, the federal government had little power and was too weak to enforce any laws. The Articles gave Congress the power to pass new laws but they did not have any power to enforce them. If a state decided that they did not want to follow a law then they could just ignore it. Congress also had no power to regulate trade or levy taxes and without an executive leader or federal court system there was no way to enforce anything. Another large downfall of the Articles of Confederation is that to Amend it required a unanimous decision which in most cases is extremely difficult. Because the Articles of Confederation are often considered a failure, it’s easy to look past the achievements of the American government under those Articles. The most important piece of legislation passed under the Articles of Confederation is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This Ordinance provided the guidelines by which new states would use to be admitted into the Union. Judges and Governors appointed by Congress would oversee a territory until there was five-thousand free male citizens of voting age. The citizens would then elect a territorial legislature, which sent a non-voting delegate to Congress. When the population hit sixty-thousand, the territorial legislature would be eligible to submit a state constitution,

The government that our country operates under in modern times is quite different than the government in place at our country’s conception. However, they do share many of the same practices and ideologies. The Articles of Confederation were founded on the basis of a very limited national government, and the idea that states should interact with each other through a “loose league of friendship”. In this friendship, the states would work and trade together, but no form of central government was needed. This system was not nearly sufficient for the nations problems at the time. Recognizing the need for a reform, the nations leaders tried to reform the current system, and with little success, the decision was made that they should start

After the Revolutionary War, The Articles of Confederation was the first form of government for the United States of America. They, however, created both peace and chaos in the new nation. Daniel Shays organized a rebellion through which the farmers of Massachusetts marched on towards the U.S. Arsenal to show the lack of strength in the government (shaysrebellion.stcc.edu). Robert Morris, a merchant, was responsible for compensating the Continental Army he later became a delegate to the Continental Congress. The government had no way to retrieve funds, so Morris payed them with his own money (nationalhumanitiescenter.org). Thomas Jefferson spent the duration of the time during these events in Paris, France. Soon the status of his young country

The Constitution succeeded where the Articles of Confederation for one major reason was that it had created a government that was acceptable to those with the real power in early America. The Articles failed because they were not able to create a government under which there could be a "good business climate." The lack of a national government and the excess of democracy in the states meant that people who owned businesses could not feel secure and could not trade well with other states. This meant they could not make much money. It also meant that the economy of the nation suffered.

The colonies and their mother country were at their brinks with each other. Taxes, rebellion, and unreasonable law pushed these nations into battle which would be known as the American Revolution. The separated colonies would unite and fight together for their well deserved independence. Throughout this the first government was set up by the Continental Congress known as the Articles of Confederation. Some may argue that the Articles were effective in expanding the nation; however, the Articles proved to be ineffective when dealing with the falling economy and taking control of the colonies.

After the American Revolution, states from the thirteen colonies came together to modify the Articles of Confederation. In this meeting, the authors of the Constitution rewrote the Articles of Confederation creating the Constitution, and a new government which altered the United States forever. The Articles needed to be revised to the Constitution because they were weak.

For many reasons, the Articles of Confederation were failing. First was the fact that Congress did not have the power to tax. Without income from taxes, there was no way for the government to pay their bills or support a national military to protect the new nation (Article 1). In fact, many states had their own military and printed their own money. In addition, the Articles of Confederate did not support a national court system or and Executive Branch to enforce any laws passed by Congress. Federalists such as John Jay felt that without a strong central government the United States would never be taken seriously by foreign countries, and eventually would become even more divided when the various states would side with different foreign countries depending on their needs (Artifact 2). Definitely, the country’s new independence was created a need for a new form of

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 United States of America first followed what was written in the Articles of Confederation, however instead of leading the country to success it lead the country to failure. Some of the articles were dreadful towards the nation, such as the fact that all states needed to agree on a change for the Articles of Confederation, the congress did not have power to tax citizens, and there was no national court system. The Articles of Confederation was very deficient that it was not able to support the country. One of the features of the Articles of Confederation was that all states needed to approve the changes to the Article of Confederation.

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.

“The Constitution devotes the national domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare and to liberty” (Maier 154). This quote, stated by William Henry Seward, displays the strength and stability that the Constitution had over the nation, and the liberty and justice it supplied for all of its citizens. Although the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation have similarities, they have many differences, which proved that the Articles of Confederation were a weaker document in comparison. It can be said that the Articles were the “rough draft” to the final living document, which significantly influenced and “ruled” our government, as it still does today.