The Articles of Confederation Controversy
It is agreed upon by many historians that the articles of confederation were greatly flawed and would have led to the downfall of our nation, I agree in part that a change was necessary, but that the constitution was not the the perfect quick fix of the economic issues present. In the 1780’s newly founded America was on its way through political and economic turbulence as it tried to establish itself. The great American experiment began with the already set Articles of Confederation but rebellion and other events would make the use of this system be questioned. The Articles, though replaced by the constitution, did have some lasting effects as well.
The Articles of Confederation had their
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The protest was one of several that exposed the need to curb the excesses and inequities of state governments as Henry Knox saw it. Knox, a former commander in the revolution, wrote to Washington with his exaggerated and strong opinions on the matter. This combined with the other factors of these flaws finally made the great push to amend the Articles or create a new system. Many would say the Article’s flaws caused all the problems and the constitution fixed them, but this is simply not true. After our great war with Britain we were bound for a drawback just as great. Our debt and other results of the war helped the economic plunge, no matter the form of government. There was a considerable amount of inflation in this time, so much so that what soldiers who fought in the war were receiving as payment was close to worthless. We had an imbalance of trade that attacked our economy mercilessly. The constitution could have a part in fixing these many problems, but most of them had to be solved by time. This great and praised document was not the solve-all that it gets credited to be. The immense recession that our country went through was not a result of the Articles of Confederation, rather the Articles just made a political response to it a bit more challenging. A political response in which the constitution claims to have been able to make, despite the majority of this
I believe the Confederation Government was doomed to fail. For instance, their “weak Constitution,” had several money problems. One weakness was the Government did not have the power to tax. The Government lacked in funds. This left the Articles no choice but to rely on
“From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an effective government.” This statement is quite bold considering that the Articles lasted only eight years. In some ways this form of government was effective and in some ways it was not. It did provide the newly formed American colonies with the means to govern themselves in the manner that they wished to be governed and set the rules for operations of the United States government. On the other hand, it was ineffective because there was no president or executive agencies or judiciary, nor was there a tax base or even a way to pay off state and national debts from war years. They could also be called ineffective because of their limited scope and the
During the time of the Revolutionary War, the American Colonies were upset about the England’s tyrannical rule and exploitation through harsh taxes. Eventually, the colonists revolted and split from England. They wrote the Declaration of Independence and created a new government whose outlines were written in the Articles of Confederation. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had an overall negative impact, as it created a weak central government, a poor financial system, and inadequate militias. There are more disadvantages than advantages to this document.
The biggest fault in the Articles of Confederation was that it called for a confederacy, “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, 1777, p.1). This state sovereignty went against republicanism, which is more closely associated with popular sovereignty. The American people want the government’s authority to come from the representatives that they elect. This is easily seen as a crucial idea of the Constitution in its preamble, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
The Article of Confederation was ratified in 1781. This Article was part of the formation of a national government in the United States. But, by 1787, a reform convention was held to address the Article’s weaknesses. This event also brought about tension in the country between two groups, the Federalists and Antifederalists. Federalists were a group of people that advocated for a system of government, while Antifederalists opposed the creation of a stronger America. The Article of Confederation was designed as a loose confederation of 13 states, and reflected principles of the Declaration of Independence. But, difficulties began to arise with the new Constitution when economic weakness and farmers revolt proved the Article was a poor form of government, along with opposing views from Federalists and Antifederalists, verifying that an inadequate document had been created.
During the era or time in which the Articles of Confederation were in place, the document had a lot of weakness; maybe too many weaknesses. These weaknesses included: It had created a struggling economy, had no Judiciary, only had a legislature (Congress), no executive (President), and gave too much power to the states or the people. A weakness that the Articles had been that the people thought that the government would help with the economy. This caused a struggling economy, and that had a lot of consequences like Continental Army marching against the government for
The colonists were living in a brand new country that had no track record. Considering that the articles of confederation had no precedent to follow, and no other government to imitate; the articles were fairly good. However, the Articles of Confederation could have been more effective than they were. Effective does not necessarily mean that the government was strong. It does mean that the government was able to provide the people with the kind of government they wanted and needed. Also, ineffective does not necessarily mean weak. The Articles were deliberately written for a weak central government, the colonists set it up they way they wanted to. Despite the fact that they one the revolutionary war, and they now
The Constitution for the US has 7 Articles, and they are all very detailed. They help lead our country toward success and let us strive to be the best country that we can possibly be. It is crazy how they wrote it in the 1700’s, and we are now in the 2000’s and still obey it. The writers of it must have been genius’!
First, the Articles of Confederation were viewed as an overall weakness. It did not allow congress to obtain really any power over the people; therefore we had a weak central government. Congress was not granted the power that they needed in order to keep things in order,“Probably the most unfortunate part of the Articles of confederation were that the central government could not prevent one state from discriminating against other states in the quest for foreign commerce.” (Ginsberg, et. al. 2014: 35). States were rebelling and our new found country was in chaos and our Congress was not able to prevent states from discriminating against other states. For example, another downfall to this document was that, “The Articles of Confederation were concerned
The government under the Articles of Confederation found itself facing numerous of difficulties. By 1787, most Americans agreed that the Articles of Confederations were flawed and weak and needed at least two major changes. First, most people wanted Congress to have the power to
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 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 were horrendous and below are a percentage of the reasons why. The articles of Confederation had numerous flaws and shortcomings. The Articles had issues with Currency, Interstate Commerce, Foreign Trade, and Foreign Affairs. Drafted amid the years 1776 and 1777, while the colonists were still battling for independence, the Articles of Confederation made a weak national government with a large portion of the legislative forces held by the states. The Articles gave no division of powers.
“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.
The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.