Gov Notes

As the name proposes, the Intolerable Acts were not getting well among the settlements. Prior to the shots were discharged at Lexington and Concord, the provinces made an endeavor to settle the worries and dissatisfactions raised with the Intolerable Acts through open deliberation and discourse. In this manner, the First Continental Congress was called to arrange on September fifth, 1774. 55 provincial delegates, including acclaimed Patriots like John Adams, Samuel Adams, George Washington, and Patrick Henry, from twelve settlements, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to define an arrangement of activity. Georgia was the main settlement that did not send delegates. Virginia's

By the fall of 1786, America’s unrest towards their government had reached a tipping point. During this state of political chaos and rebellions, George Washington and James Madison called a meeting to order of five states in Annapolis, Maryland. At this meeting prominent visionaries debated the fate of their country and discussed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. After meeting in Maryland, the Congress called all the states to a meeting in Philadelphia during May of 1787. In these meetings, the delegates chose to keep incomplete notes and essentially have the meetings in secret to assure that they could speak freely amongst one another. Not soon after the Constitutional Convention began, it became incredibly clear that the panel was

Events like these lead up to a delegation in 1785, proposed by Alexander Hamilton. As important topics were brought up, ultimately Hamilton’s response addressing a national reform plan or idea, became the highlight of the conference. Without a delay, James Madison rushes to Hamilton’s support and organizes a conference in Annapolis, Maryland to find a solution to the issues. All the states were given invitations to attend this conference concerning the future of the nation. Unfortunately, only five state representatives attended. Regardless, the attendees sought to create an organized conference for all the states to be more persuaded to attend to. The 1787 Philadelphian convention took place on May 1787 in Philadelphia. In fact, 55

            In May of 1766 Jefferson met with the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to discuss whether or not the states should regard themselves as part of the British Empire. The manner was debated by a group of radicals such as Jefferson and the Adams

One cannot truly grasp the magnitude of this Continental Congress until we look at the prominent figures in attendance during this time. There were 55 delegates in Carpenter’s Hall but perhaps the most prominent figures include, “George Washington, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, John Jay and John Dickinson.” The delegates were mainly those of high social standing and many made their living in the fields of “trade, farming and law.” Communication between the colonies was very minimal, therefore many delegates were meeting for the first time and all would have different opinions and issues.

One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.

The colonists responded to the Coercive Acts of 1774 with resentment, and the act itself stirred thoughts of rebellion amongst the colonies against the British government(Wood, 47). Indignation towards British rule spread throughout the colonies and led to the eventual formation of the First Continental Congress in September 1774 (Wood, 48). With the exception of Georgia, representatives from 12 out of the 13 colonies convened in Philadelphia to discuss their grievances towards Parliament and the King.

As we have strengths of the confederation, we also have weaknesses. First of all voting, to have one vote to each state is big

The Articles of Confederation was needed to conduct foreign affairs, such as war. The Confederation wanted to tax states for their whole population, whites and blacks. The southern states did not approve of this because there were a larger number of slaves in the south. With the Articles of Confederation, there was only the legislature which existed. No president and no judicial branch. To amend the articles of all thirteen states, all would have to agree, therefore, this would bring a great deal of difficulties. (History.com, Articles of Confederation)

They also formed an association for insuring “ Commercial non intercourse with Great Britain” (Fiske 111). They prepared to send these arguments to the King and to the people of Great Britain. On May 10th a Second Continental Congress was appointed at the Virginia convention and it included representatives from all thirteen colonies.

The articles of confederation had limited powers they weren’t allowed to do many things for example, they weren’t allowed to tax, it can’t force the states to finance its operations, and couldn’t force a commercial policy. It didn’t make sense how the citizens of the United States felt like the constitution was weak if the articles of confederation did not have an executive branch in their documents. The articles of confederation only had a legislative branch whereas the Constitution had an executive, judicial, and legislative branch.

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.

On 1783, the thirteen colonies defeated the Great Britain at the Revolutionary War, however, the United States government was not founded officially until the United States Constitution came into force on 1789. Although the thirteen colonies had established the Articles of Confederation in 1777 to fight against the Great Britain, the Articles of Confederation was too weak and it became a concern after the Revolutionary War. On May 25th, 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, with twelve delegates from all colonies except Rhode Island, to revise the Articles of Confederation. However, a new constitution was created and replaced the Articles of Confederation. In order to create the new constitution, all states had to give

This was essential towards the growing abolitionist movement and emancipation movement. Due to the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, a completely new and different Constitution was finally “agreed” upon by all thirteen states by 1790.Virginia called for a convention to modify the Articles of Confederation in 1786, and state representatives from every state, except Rhode Island, gathered in Philadelphia in 17887, numbering 55 in all. The representatives at this gathering all could be considered nationalists, and desired a strong, central government. None of the Representatives were from the lower/poorer classes. They aimed to strengthen America’s foreign affairs and weaknesses in negotiating with the European powers. They aimed to give the federal / national government genuine power and authority in dealing with issues, domestic or overseas. They wanted to preserve the union from runaway anarchy and “mobocracy”. They wanted to halt runaway and unrestrained democracy in the various states. This was accelerated by the fears caused by Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts.Deciding to completely scrap the ineffective Articles of Confederation, the members and representatives of the convention disobeyed orders from the Congress to revise. Choosing a compromise between “the large state plan“ of Virginia (bicarmel house in Congress of which representation would be based on population) and

They did not trust strong governments, so the central government very little power (Murphy). There was no court system given to the national government so the states were in charge of it all, which meant complaints could not be filed against them (Brackemyre). One of the only powers the national government had was to declare war but they were not allowed to raise an army to fight it and it lacked a chief executive to conduct foreign affairs. The United States also had an ineffective legislative under the Articles of Confederation. Amendments that they wanted to be passed needed to be vote on unanimously and there had to be a nine out of thirteen vote to pass a law (Kelly). Each state also had only one despite their population. Under the Articles, the government did not have a stable economic system, lacked key central leadership and had an inefficient legislature.