The Articles Of Confederation And The Constitution

The Articles of Confederation Following the Revolutionary War, the new American Government was set up under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation did not give the federal government enough authority to be effective. So in 1787 delegates from all the states attended a meeting known as the Constitutional Convention. Among those attending were James Madison, representing Virginia, William Paterson, representing New Jersey, and Roger Sherman, representing Connecticut.

The Articles of Confederation was the first federal foundational laws of the United States. It was composed due to the conflicting views of the politicians at the time and the need to unite the States during the war. Its development and resoluteness had a sluggish inception due to some Americans uncertainties of the government’s substantial central power and property demands by States. The Articles of Confederation was finally sanctioned on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles, each States stayed autonomous, with Congress having the final say over disputes. Congress was also given the ability to make accords and agreements, uphold armies and currencies. The Articles of Confederation did best with territorial expansion in the West, thanks to the Ordinances that were written for the Articles and the benefits they had. However, under the Articles, the central government had no power to impose taxes and manage commerce, because of this the government was consistently short of funds. Despite the lack of funding, money was still required for the war effort, and Congress' meantime solution was to print nearly $250 million paper currency, this led to major inflation in the States. This deficit urged legislators to find a solution; the Constitution of 1787. Both the Articles and the Constitution worked to preserve a free government, different from the tyrannical rule they have experienced from the British Parliament. Also, both documents allowed states the power to manage mercantilism,

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 formal charter of the government of the United States that was the first binding document outlining its independence from Great Britain. As tensions grew between the United States and Great Britain, a war was inevitable with the people of America growing tired of the British rule and wanting independence, the Revolutionary War was the next step in trying to free itself from British tyranny. The Articles of Confederation was fully ratified in 1781 after the Revolutionary War and seemed to be more interested in stability rather than liberty. The Articles of Confederation was the first document outlining a national government that wrote into law the unplanned arrangements of the continental congress and was

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.

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.

The topic of this paper is the Constitution. The paper will cover the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, which was addressed in the Constitution. The paper will cover the how the Constitution addressed the complaints in the Declaration of Independence. Another topic of the paper will be the Great Compromise and how the representation of states in Congress was determined. Finally, the paper will view the treatment of slaves for the purpose of representation and the effects thereof.

It all started after the Declaration of Independence during the time America was busy fighting the Revolutionary War, when Congress realized that they needed to form a plan to move forward and unite the thirteen states as a nation.

The Articles of Confederation became the first guiding principles of the original thirteen states. However, the weaknesses embedded in the articles became obvious, outweighing its positive impact and they were ratified in 1781. George Washington sated that the articles were "little more than a shadow without the substance."1 They limited the central government’s ability to work smoothly and adversely affected the economy. Lack of power left the government in dismay and they sought a fix to their problems without becoming a tyrannical monarchy. The founding fathers believed that replacing the articles with The Constitution was the best way to give the central government enough power to carry out its tasks. In 1787 delegates from all 13 states met in Pennsylvania to begin amending the articles. This process revealed many of the similarities and differences that were contained within The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution.

Early colonists needed to have a written document that recognized the purposes and roles of their national government. This need arose soon after they declared their independence from Great Britain. Because of their experience, they feared strong national governments but needed a constitution to bind their states together & protect them from future assaults and to strengthen their economy by trading with each other and other nations. The document that was adopted by the continental congress was the Article of confederation. But because of its weakness, the colonists needed a stronger federal government which forced them to adopt the new Constitution. (Keene, Cornell, & O’Donnell, 2011).

In 1781, the thirteen independent states of America had been bound together by the Articles of Confederation. Under this document, the Continental Congress had successfully waged war, made alliances, secured loans, negotiated peace with Great Britain, and passed the Northwest Ordinance. This document served as the foundation for the United States Constitution, which was ratified in 1787. This ratification process took place over 200 years ago. Since that time, most modern-day Americans have assumed that this great document had always been honored and respected by everyone. On the contrary, the Constitution set off months of fierce and often bitter debate after it was written and submitted to the states for ratification. Creating a new

The Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, was adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. However, sanction of the Articles of Confederation by all thirteen states did not occur until March 1, 1781. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, which resulted in most of the power residing with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The present United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation on March 4, 1789 (Researchers,

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States; it was an agreement among all thirteen original states in the United States of America that served as its first Constitution. In the early 1781 the Articles was ratified, The Beginning Benjamin Franklin wrote the first “rough draft” of the Articles.

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.

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