The Articles Of Confederation And The Constitution

The Articles of Confederation was first written in 1777. It was passed by the Confederation of Congress. Congress decided that they needed a firm government to organize the states as a whole. At least that was their primary goal. Since each state had separates rules. The Articles of Confederation was later ratified by each state in 1781. It was “America’s first federal constitution” (Keene 138). The confederation had a few strengths but many weaknesses. The nation faced many economic and political issues that lead people to controversy.

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress established a government by writing a set of laws known as the Articles of Confederation. This document was meant to give more power to the people, the opposite of the British monarchy, but it proved to be too weak and the federal government lacked power to govern the country. Because of this, Congress needed to draft a new set of laws that would create a central government powerful enough to control the country without seizing power and leading to tyranny or uprising. Eventually, the 55 delegates of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention agreed on a document, the Constitution of the United States. It would guard the country against tyranny through balanced federalism, separation and balance of federal government powers, and equally representing all the different states of the union.

America was persistent in developing a government to keep the country afloat after they won the American Revolution. The first attempt was with the document Articles of Confederation but was later replaced by the U.S. Constitution. During the 1700s after the American Revolution, a dispute in the newly formed United States was created. The Articles of Confederation was not able to perform as a successful government due to its numerous deficits of power and issues and therefore needed a replacement. This led to many views exchanged on the ratification of the U.S. Constitution at the Constitutional Convention, where the U.S. Constitution was written between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists parties and the large and small states.

After declaring independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, the American colonies needed to establish a frame of government so that they could effectively operate independent from their former rulers. Immediately, drafting began at the Continental Congress and in 1777, their drafting was completed, with ratification from all states finally in 1781. However, it was quickly replaced by the Constitution in 1787. Differences between the two documents have affected how each is both successful and unsuccessful, all while affecting and controlling everyday operations for the government.

When you build a house you have to have a strong foundation to have a sturdy house, well a government is them same thing. You have to create a reliable foundation to assure a successful country, that is what John Dickinson and James Madison thought when they were assigned to write the first drafts of The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution. These two documents were the most basic rules during and after the Revolutionary War, they assisted with clarifying what the public was expected to follow. It gave citizens of America a glimpse into the future of the government. I will be discussing what each document is and their purpose and then comparing the two to clarify how they were both helpful, yet different from each other.

Federalism is the sharing of powers between federal and state governments. This allows an equal balance of power that the states and the federal governments have and share between one another. One example is that both state and federal can tax money. Yet only the federal can coin

Governments and institutions continue to change depending on the economic, social and political requirements. The USA has operated under two different constitutions. The first constitution was called the Articles of Confederation was effective after Maryland ratified it on March 1, 1781. The second, which is referred to as The Constitution, came into effect on June 21, 1788, after the ratification by New Hampshire. These documents have numerous similarities and differences since it was established by the terms of contemporaries e.g. the ideologies from the same people.

The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution and served to form a type of government for the 13 colonies at the time. ”The Articles of Confederation is the original framework for the government of the United States, adopted in 1781 and superseded by the U.S Constitution in 1789. It established a “firm league of friendship” among the states, rather than a government “of the people” (Dye 66). When the Articles of Confederation were established the federal government lacked power, but most of the power was held within the states. “The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments” (Primary Documents in American History). The articles of confederation failed by giving state more power than the federal government. U.S. feared that if the federal government had

After the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the United States Government was reorganized under the Constitution. This gave the federal government far more power than did the Articles of Confederation, which invested power within the states. Basically, the Constitution created three branches of government (Executive, Judicial, and Legislative) which would work together to run the government. To make sure that there was an equal balance of power among the branches, a system of checks and balances was devised so that each branch could limit the power of the others. It is important to note that "the doctrine of separation of powers is not established by any constitutional provision [but] rather it emerges from he framers'

The Constitutional Convention met in the Pennsylvania State House in order to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The notes of the Constitutional Convention were written by James Madison, a supporter of further reform, most significantly a supporter of the Virginia Plan. The notes he wrote were provided to the delegates in order to keep an organized log of what was debated during the meetings. In this transcript, the delegates of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia agreed that the ideas of the Constitution were far too democratic, and would later ruin the established democracy. “[The people] should have as little to do as may be about the Government .. they are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions by the

When the government first achieved independence from England there were thirteen individual governments. They had an agreement called the Articles of Confederation that specified how each would interact with the others and manage the states. Despite the ratification by every state the agreement soon became problematic. What ensued was the meeting of state delegates, known as the Constitutional Convention, who planned to revise the problems. As a result the U.S. Constitution was fashioned to take its place. The idea was to ultimately federalize the States. That means each State remains an individual government but also agrees to be part of a Union. Thus created a federal government that would handle those things that are best controlled by a central government, which acts on behalf of the many States. An example would be the Navy and Army. The Federal Government has the right to raise and maintain a full time standing military. The Federal government is not limited to just the enumerated powers granted to Congress. It was also arranged that the national government would have powers not specifically stated in the Constitution, called implied powers. Although popular

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

The most significant issues that the United States had under the Articles of Confederation were: “managing the western expansion, foreign relations, and debt.” The first significant issue was with the western expansion as Americans relocated to the Nashville, western Pennsylvania, and Kentucky areas in mass numbers in the 1780s. The result of this meant that the areas were enhanced greatly that had western charters. At the time, the northern and southern areas (in the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River) had specific boundaries based on the original colonized charters which meant that the western area was the Pacific Ocean. The states that did not have part of the western area resented the condition and as a result, Maryland protested by not approving the Articles of Confederation unless the state of Virginia yielded its western land to the federal government which they did in 1784. However, their yielding was not without strings attached as they demanded that they be allowed to keep a small portion of the land reserve for their own use as a part of the deal which Congress had no choice but to accept. Eighteen years later in 1802, every state had yielded their western land to the federal government.

Rules would be the new topic of discussion at the end of the American Revolution amongst the newly formed Free states that won their independence from Britain. One huge question loomed over the Free states, how could they conduct a civilized way of living without another ruler such as the king of Britain here in America? There needed to be some sort of system that would generate a control to create a unified country. States were acting and conducting business as if each state was its own country and this left the America vulnerable on many fronts. Some of the main issues that surfaced were; How to divide powers between local and national governments? Which laws should be made, and by whom and who would enforce them? I will address some of the differences between the Constitution and The Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation, which was considered the first constitution of the United States of America, and the US Constitution, which acts as the supreme law in the United States today, both are poles apart. In fact, it was only because of the weaknesses of the Articles that the present-day US Constitution was drafted. The Articles of Confederation or Articles was a written agreement which laid the guidelines for the functioning of the national government. It was drafted by the Continental Congress and sent to the thirteen original states for ratification in November 1777. Within a few years of its ratification, the Articles was subjected to severe criticism by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Problems with the document existed in plenty; the biggest issue being the fact that it left the national government at the mercy of states. Eventually, it was decided that this agreement had to be revised to suit the needs of the nation as a whole. The delegates at the Philadelphia Convention came to the conclusion that it was better to draft an entirely new constitution instead of revising the existing agreement, and thus came into existence the new US Constitution.