Pros And Cons Of The Articles Of Confederation

The Constitution of the United States of America was framed in part by The Articles of

Before the constitution became the law of the land there was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States, and the first form of government established by the U.S. Under the Articles of Confederation the government consisted of a congress of delegates chosen by state legislatures. Congress was also unicameral, or a single house legislature. Each state had the same amount of power regardless of size or population. The powers to make, administer, and enforce laws were all placed with Congress. The government did not consist of a President or executive branch, instead the executive power was spread among several committees of congressmen. The articles granted certain limited powers to Congress. The Congress could not raise money through taxes, therefore it relied on contributions from the states, which was not reliable. Passing laws required approval of at least nine of the thirteen states, and amending a document required approval of all thirteen states. Congress had no power to regulate trade between the states or internationally. There was no national army, so the government relied on the individual states to establish a military.

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.

The Articles of Confederation, written in 1777 and ratified in 1781 formed the basis for the new American government. Written during the revolutionary war, many delegates were cautious of the new government, especially because they were very careful not to put the new nation under the rule of a government too similar to the one the colonies had just seceded from. Although the Articles of Confederation were meant to limit the government and provide for more freedom, its shortcomings would prove that if the new nation were the succeed, the Articles of Confederation had severe shortcomings that would lead to major complications.

The weakness of the Articles of Confederation in meeting the monetary needs of the new nation, to recruit troops or enforce laws for the common good of the nation prompted change dividing the nations politicians in two groups. The Federalist believed that a stronger and more centralized government would be needed. The Anti-Federalist believed that most of the power should lay with the states and ultimately the citizens. While both sides agreed that the Articles of Confederation were to weak and could lead to anarchy the differed on their views on how to fix it.

The Articles of Confederation started as a concept Americans had in an attempt to federalize the 13 colonies to become a stronger unified nation against Great Britain. The Revolutionary War had broken out and up until 1776, there was no structure of government that unified the colonies. The colonies were looking for a centralized government to oust the powerful British influence they were fighting against. Each state still had a sense of singleness recognizing they were citizens of their own state and not a part of a whole central government. So in 1776, the Second Continental Congress named 13 delegates to meet and draft an agreement to form a structuralized government with rules and laws to govern and protect the thirteen colonies. Little

On November, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which was the first constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation provided for a national government much like the one already in place before independence. Its powers expanded to give it authority to conduct wars and foreign relations and to appropriate, borrow and issue money (McGraw-Hill 2015). However, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. It did not have the power to regulate trade or levy taxes directly on the people.

The reasoning behind the United States having to create a new Articles of Confederation, as opposed to simply revising the original, is due to many different flaws within the original document. The original Articles of Confederation lacked separation of powers. That meant that there were no legislative, judicial, or executive powers because the Articles of Confederation only called for a unicameral government. This meant that the Articles of Confederation basically gave power to the states, as opposed to the nation. The original Articles of Confederation were mainly written to keep the national government powerless and the state governments in control. Also, the Articles of Confederation called for equal votes in Congress, regardless of state

After the U.S. gained independence from G.B., they followed their first constitution. It was called the Articles of Confederation. Many people did not agree with the constitution. They did not like that every state was equal and got one vote. Northern states and Southern states had different human and geographic features. The Northern states had a larger population and so they did not like the rule that every state got one vote. Populated states wanted representation to be based upon population. However this lead to another debate on whether we should count slaves as part of a state’s population. Overall, states were fighting over who had power in the government.

The first government was based on a very weak document called the Articles of Confederation. This document established a very weak national government that lacked many of the traits found in the Constitution of the United States. According to the Article the national government was a subordinate to the each of the state governments. The document was intentionally written in this manner because the states were in fear of a large powerful government that they fled in Great Britain and Europe.

The Articles of Confederation were proposed in 1777, to a country suffering from attempts to gain costly freedom. The Revolutionary War was in full swing, and many colonists were inclined to be suspicious of powerful, centralized governments, such as the one they were attempting to free themselves from. With this in mind, the Articles of Confederation were written and proposed, giving each of the thirteen individual state governments much more power than they gave the central government. This unequal distribution of power was the main weakness of the Articles, and was the fatal flaw that created many of the conflicts that would come about in the following years. For instance, many large states were angry because they felt their populations

Back in the 1700 when the colonist just had broken up with the king they were in a great debut they didn’t know how they wanted the government set up . They knew that they didn’t want a government like the last one they had they wanted to be fair to the people and not only them. But the first try wasn’t so great let me explain how the Article of Confederation almost separated our country again. When they first started to set the goverment up they decied to do so with the Articles of Confedration which was a written document that stated all the fuctions of the national goverment it was basically the app of the United States of America. Now they thought it was a perfect way of goverment but sure enough they found out they were wrong they basicllay

The newborn United States of America was in a state of disarray following the American War for Independence. The people had just fought a war against tyranny and corruption, which naturally raised concern over the government’s role in the sovereignty of independent states. This fear of corrupt government led to the failure of the Articles of Confederation. Soon after the war ended, American politics revolved around two important ideologies. Republicanism and Federalism.

After declaring independence from Great Britain, the newly independent nation had to form a government that would satisfy the needs of the people while still maintaining state sovereignty and independence. The 13 individual states formed a confederation where they were united as one nation despite having the vast majority of powers lie among the states unlike a unitary system where all the power lie with the national government. After its adoption in 1777, the Articles of Confederation became the first U.S Constitution that established a system of government and set up guiding principles for the government and states to follow in order to maintain order and sovereignty among states. As the Articles of Confederation continued to be exercised, delegates soon realized the limits and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation such as the government's lack of power to enforce laws, levy taxes, and regulate commerce; however, despite these weaknesses, the Articles of Confederation introduced Congress, ended the American Revolution, and developed policies for managing western territories through the passing of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

In mid-1776, the first Continental Congress appointed a committee to prepare the Articles of Confederation. The draft prepared by the committee was approved by the Congress on November 15, 1777. However, the process of ratification by all 13 states dragged on for more than three years, and the Articles of the Confederation entered into force only on March 1, 1781. The Articles established a set of governing rules of the United States. Thus, the Confederation through Congress could declare and support a war, negotiate diplomatic arrangements, solve the problems related to its western territories. The Articles of the Confederation legally formalized and consolidated the creation of a "perpetual Union between the States." It is further emphasized in Art. II that " Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled” (Articles of Confederation, Agreed to by Congress 15 November 1777 in force after ratification by Maryland, 1 March 1781).