Dbq Constitution

From 1781 to 1789, the newly created United States of America put its trust in the Articles of Confederation to adequately govern itself in times of war and distress. The Articles of Confederation was the United States’ first attempt at a guideline for creating an effective federal government. It was efficient in holding the new country together during the Revolutionary War and managed to help the country attend to pressing foreign and economic problems right after the war. Although the Articles helped bring about momentous and significant change in one decade, it was not the suitable framework for the federal government to effectively govern the new country over a long period of time.

In the late 1700s, the United States had began to split into two factions: Federalists and Antifederalists. Factions are groups of citizens united by a common interest. The reasoning behind the differing views of how the government works across the world was best said by Locke “Men are equal in a natural sense, but society establishes many dimensions that are unequal”. (Barbour and Wright, 2017). In the states, Federalists wanted a strong central government while anti-federalists wanted a weak one. “The Georgians, for example, wanted a strong central authority to provide military protection for their huge, underpopulated state against the Creek Confederacy; Jerseymen and Connecticuters wanted to escape from economic bondage to New York; the Virginians hoped to establish a system which would give that great state its rightful place in the councils of the republic” (Roche, 800). The one thing they agreed on was having George Washington as president. George Washington tried to be a neutral leader of the United States and suggested for the states to stay together rather than divide into factions. “Thomas Jefferson is credited as stating: “North and South will hang together if they have you to hang on””(Jamison, 2016).

The feebleness of Congress was a major weakness of the Articles of Confederation. When the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777, they created a “loose confederation” of states (Pageant, 181). This meant that each state was independent and sovereign, linked by Congress only to deal with common problems and foreign affairs. Congress was meant to be part of a united central power of the government, but due to the abuse suffered from the king, the states so limited the powers of the central government to the point of powerlessness.

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

However, the most important power was that Congress had the right to obtain territory and control development of the western territories, which was previously controlled by their mother country, Great Britain. (Doc D) With the Articles of Confederation, the United States was able to break away from their mother country and become a free nation, setting up their own government. Although the articles set the United States free, it was unable to provide them with a solid government. Leaders like John Jay and James Madison criticized the Articles of Confederation because of the weak government. (Doc G) There were several problems between the states and the central government. For instance, sometimes the states refused to give the government the money it needed, and they engaged in tariff wars with one another, bringing interstate trading to a halt. The government could not pay off the debts it had incurred during the revolution, including paying soldiers who had fought in the war and citizens who had provided supplies to the cause. (Doc C) In addition, the new nation was unable to defend its borders from British and Spanish encroachment because it could not pay for an army when the states would not contribute the necessary funds. Another serious problem was that Congress could not pass needed measures because they lacked nine-state majority required to become laws. The states

After the American colonies won their freedom from Great Britain needed to create a new government. The Articles of Confederation were developed, bestowing America with its first official government. The Articles were composed of many restrictions creating an inadequate body of government. One of the main reasons the articles didn't work was from the lack of a strong central government the states received too much liberty and freedom, and on the other hand congress was weak and restricted. The government did not have enough power to govern all the states efficiently under the articles of confederation, it couldn't tax or regulate trade . From the time period when the Articles were constructed in 1781, to when they were discarded in 1789, the

The Constitution was written by our founding fathers as a way to set up a system to protect the United States from becoming a tyranny. The United States Constitution is guarded against tyranny in four major ways but the three best ways that the Constitution guards against tyranny is with representation, separation of powers, and checks and balances. These three principles helps keep the Constitution safe so that no one person can take control over the United States and that the U.S. does not turn into a dictatorship. One way the Constitution of the United States guards against tyranny is by using representation.

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 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 wasn't a strong form of government. Both of these documents show this is true and these documents also show that there are people concerned. The first problem that arose with the Articles of Confederation is the lack of a chief executive. In Washington's first quote he says that he is concerned because our country is slowly moving towards anarchy. An anarchy is a problem that spirals out of control because there is no leader. Therefore, Washington feels that we are running into issues because we don't have a leader and someone to take control. The British thought of the United States would break down for this reason. Without a leader, there's no structure because there are too many opinions going around. There

Some problems were involved throughout the steps that the Founding Fathers took to create a new country. The Articles of Confederation was created because the thirteen states were separate from each other and needed a central form of a government to help resolve their differences. Many states rejected the Articles because they didn’t want to risk having an overpowering government similar to the monarchy of England. An example of this fear about creating a new oppressive government was that the smaller states would be in favor of the Articles on all states due to their fewer resources and less decision making power than the larger states. The Articles gave smaller states more power in situations such as how to raise money for war and to settle debts for war. The central government that the Articles of Confederation created turned out to be very weak, and

1. Before the Constitution, the Articles of the Confederation did not bind the states together; the Articles were called the “League of Friendship” which did not bring the states together as a United Nation. The states were totally independent and many were still in conflict with each other. There were no rules about taxes, and each state printed their own money. There was no protection from piracy on the seas and the states borders could not protected. The so called government had no money and did not have the ability or the authority to collect taxes and had no form of revenue. Nothing was in place that took the American citizens best interest in to account.

By the late eighteenth century, America found itself independent from England; which was a welcomed change, but also brought with it, its own set of challenges. The newly formed National Government was acting under the Articles of Confederation, which established a “firm league of friendship” between the states, but did not give adequate power to run the country. To ensure the young nation could continue independently, Congress called for a Federal Convention to convene in Philadelphia to address the deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation. While the Congress only authorized the convention to revise and amend the Articles the delegates quickly set out to develop a whole new Constitution for the country. Unlike the Articles of

Okay, so we know that the article of Confederation just wasn’t cutting it and we needed something to help us out a little more with our way of running the country. Well that is where the new constitution comes in. The Constitution not only breaks down our role with the government it made our relationship better. Now that we have amendments we have more defined freedom to express our roles as American citizens. Even though we took a lot of principles from England and analyzed the way they ran their country we still do not want to be under British rule again so that is why James Madison and others went back to work on giving us a better way of life and a new constitution. Now instead of us all having to struggle within our own state we can work

When the Framers of the U.S. Constitution met, they did not intend to write the U.S. Constitution, they met to fix the Articles of Confederation. The Articles was too weak and could not support the nation either domestically or abroad. After the Framers had worked on the Articles for a while, they realized they need a whole new document; and they started over. While the Framers realized the need for a strong federal government, they also intended to protect its citizens from a monarchial government such as the England government. The Framers decided that people needed to be citizens of both the nation and their respective states. However, the Framers did not want any one person or group to have total control over any aspect of the