The Article Of Confederation: Second Continental Congress

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 Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States. They were written during the revolutionary war to create a more unified government, and to establish what the national government could and could not do. The Articles let each state keep “sovereignty, freedom, and independence,” and created a very weak central government. For example, Congress could not regulate commerce or impose taxes. The impact that the Articles of Confederation had on federalism for the next few years was: the federal government had very few powers, and most of the authority remained in control of each individual state.

The Articles of Confederation were the United State’s first constitution that was drafted in 1776 and set in motion a year later. The Articles of Confederation also known as “The Aoc”, ran the US government successful through the time of the American Revolution. However, the Aoc didn’t permit the national government with the power to levy taxes or regulate commerce, as a result of that all efforts at national cohesion was disheartened. So during the summer of 1787 they decided to create the “Supreme law of the land”, The Constitution. The constitution did everything the Aoc couldn’t do, it established more laws and provided increased federal authority while protecting the basic rights of it’s citizens.

The Articles of Confederation were the document the United States had before the Constitution. It was ratified in the year 1781. It was unsuccessful in creating an actual union. The document did not create a strong central government. Since it gave most of the power to the individual states, it was much harder to keep order. The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation led it to be replaced. In 1789 the Constitution was ratified. It was a much more effective as it created a stronger central government. The flaws of the articles were due to the fear of the government becoming tyrannical. Some were worried about the constitution because it did not give as much power to the states as before. One of the powers it gave the central government was to tax. Many were not happy as they thought that such easily abusable power was given to those who would be in control. In the primary document Patrick Henry argued that the constitution, which gave

In one of his letters to George Washington he writes, “... Our affairs seem to lead to some crisis,some revolution” (Doc G). Shays Rebellion was one of the major events that helped the government realized that they needed to come up with a new constitution. Through Shays rebellion, it was revealed that the government lacked the power of leadership. It took about two years for the rebellion to end, this helped further the idea of a new constitution. With a lack of a strong central leadership, it was hard to pass any sort of amendment among the states, including the ratification of the constitution.

The article of confederation is a document that the United States of America made in Philadelphia 1787. This document established the functions of the national government after it declared independence from Great Britain. This had a problem though, it did not help defend against tyranny. The need for a stronger Federal government, it soon became apparent and eventually led to the constitution. The constitution was written in 1787 by James Maddison. The Constitution guards against tyranny by having federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances and big states vs small states.

The Articles of Confederation is the first "constitution" for the United States. In lesson, it goes into more detail about how 13 thirteen single colonies became one to make decisions. The United States was the first nation in the history of the world to be created by colonial people fighting against their mother country for freedom. The United States government at the time was similar to England's. The people whom lived in America wanted a democratic republic, just without all the kings and queens. This type of government has never been seen before, thus America will be creating its own version and testing it out. The Articles that they had previously created had some issues. One issue is who owned the land in the west? Better yet, how were

The Articles of Confederation is a document which was created prior to the United States Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The Articles of Confederation had strengths and weaknesses just like any other official doctrine created for the foundation of the United States. Some of those weaknesses lead to fights within many states, which made people rethink the efficiency of the document and the rights recorded within it. One of the weaknesses it that Congress had no power to tax the people, or the goods that they produced. Some people may think that it is a good thing, but without the ability to tax, the United States was in debt to the countries it had borrowed money from to fund the American Revolution. One piece of

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.

Shays’ Rebellion was an armed uprising of farmers in Massachusetts from 1786 to1787. Farmers in Massachusetts rebelled against the United States government. This occurred because several farmers incurred high debts from creditors, that they could not afford to pay off. Farmers also suffered from high taxes, that the government imposed in attempt to pay off debt from the Revolutionary War. Massachusetts did not respond to farmers asking for help, so the rebellion transpired.

The first problem is that under the Articles of Confederation Congress did not have enough power. Congress could not raise an army to defend the country, collect taxes from the people, regulate trade between states, or force states to follow laws. Under the Constitution Congress was given more power which included the power levy taxes in Article 1 Section 8.1. The General Welfare Clause granted Congress the power create laws as long as they were for best of the people.

The Articles of Confederation was one of the first steps in the birth of the United States as we have it today. Though it was flawed in many ways it did help establish a foundation in which the United States Constitution could build it self and help shape the country. The main flaw in the Articles of confederation that were fixed with the writing of the Constitution was a weak federal government that could not levy taxes, manage trade, and enforce its’

“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.

After the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States still had a major task ahead of them. They had to form a new government that would satisfy the demands of the people and ensure the success of their nation. The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that was proposed and put into effect. This attempt at creating a system that protected the people form a strong central government ultimately failed but was an important step in the development of the current government system. The weaknesses presented by the Articles of Confederation helped lead to reforms that made the Constitution successful. Both the Articles and the Constitution demonstrate the struggles that the colonists went through with the British and