The Articles Of Confederation And The United States

Last year, our new government was formed. We agreed to what the Articles had said. It seems that now we are having issues with what we had once agreed with. In this newsletter, I will only address four of the most problematic things in the Articles of Confederation. However there are many more that will not be brought to light today.

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 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.

Before the Declaration of Independence was signed, colonists were treated very unfairly by their mother-countries leader, King George III. King George had not helped the 13 colonies in any way and really only used them to gain wealth for Great Britain and himself. George’s method of gaining wealth from the 13 colonies was that they could only trade to Great Britain, which did not help the 13 colonies expand as a country. Also, he heavily taxed colonists on the western hemisphere because he needed aid to pay off his former war debts. The colonists were not happy about his acts because it gave them little opportunity of expanding their wealth or fortune which, is the main idea of coming to the “New World.” This made colonists very angry now was thickening the hatred for their leader they were now just as motivated as the politicians; resulting in, plenty of change, leading to the American Revolution. Jefferson understood the colonists and he was able to express or summarize their ideas, thoughts, and motivations through the document; “We the People”. Even though the Declaration of Independence was a main contribute to the ending of the American Revolution, the war had lasted an extra five years with Britain. Britain did not want to lose the 13 colonies

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 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.

The Article of Confederation was a written document that was put in place in 1777 after the 13 colonies had gained independence from the British. During the time in which the Articles of Confederation were still in place; there were problems arising like: the Continental Army not being paid for their services, the struggling economy, and the people wanting to overthrow the government. But events that had taken place had brought the elite for a Constitutional Convention. In the Convention; the elite had discussed the problem that the Articles had caused for them and for the people. The elites during the convention had scrapped the Articles and wrote a new document; which was the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation had a lot of weakness, and this pushed the leaders to hold the Constitutional Convention, also the leaders had to make sure that the people didn't as much power over the government as they did.

The Articles of Confederation were ineffective in allowing for government of the United States to act as a unified country. The Articles of Confederation, came up short in many respects and treated each state as a separate country, instead of member of a unified country. For this reasons many felt it was important to write a new constitution. Many citizens were opposed to a new constitution because they felt that it would give the new government too much power over the people and they would lose their freedoms. Some people also felt that it would lead to a government that resembled a monarchy, which is exactly what the new union had fought against. However, many felt that by not giving the federal government enough power, The Articles of Confederation, afforded too much freedom to the people and they argued this could breed turmoil. Shays’ Rebellion, many argued was an example of this excess power of the people. Madison believed that an excess of liberty could be a threat to itself. As he explains, “liberty…may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power.” In 1788, the book The Federalist, a collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, was completed. The essays in The Federalist were written to gain support for the ratification of a new constitution to replace The Articles of Confederation. The essay, The Federalist No. 51, Madison explains how the rights of the people will be ensured by a system based on the

The colonists felt that they were under tyrannical rule at the time of their revolution which is what ignited it in the first place. The constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways which were: Federalism, separation of powers, the balance of power between large and small states and check and balances. The first guard against tyranny was Federalism which is defined as: mixed government combining a central and multiple state governments. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay all show support of federalism in the Federalist papers which they wrote to get Americans to support the ratification of the constitution.

Although, the war was won and there were lots of flaws in the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution started shaping the laws and government in the nation. Democracy was something that may be hard for the people to handle according to Alexander Hamilton of New York, and it would also make them confused by the challenges of running the nation. The nation was on the European economic system which it had trouble and struggled. The people got married, raised families, bought slaves, they moved west and built new homes while daily life was going on. In the 1790 's the Politian 's was faced with a lot of questions such as could the leaders pulled the nation together and was the independence temporary? They all preached liberty and equality, but they went to great lengths to safeguard both slavery and taking control of Native American lands. During Thomas Jefferson 's reign as president stabilized and the land acquired helped start an economic revolution.

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Congress knew that they would need a stronger and powerful government to beat Britain. During the Revolutionary War, drafts of the Articles of Confederation were presented before Congress, which were then edited and revised into the final draft that was approved in November 1777. After the war, the colonies were left with a central government that was unable to levy taxes and regulate trade. In his YouTube video, “The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course US History #8,” John Green states, “Both the national government and the individual state had racked up massive debt to pay for the war, and their main source of revenue became tariffs, but because Congress couldn’t impose them, states had to do it individually.” Since the central government was unable to pay for the war, the people had to pay for all the

The United States has governed with two constitutions, the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution. The Articles of Confederation was the first attempt of forming a legal government from March 1, 1781 to March 4, 1789. There were many problems as the articles became to take effect so it was replaced with the US Constitution in June 21, 1788.

The Articles of Confederation was adopted on November 15, 1777. It was the sixth draft of the document. After declaring their independence from Britain, the thirteen states needed to create a central government. At the time, each state had its own state legislature that controlled the activity of the people within its border. There was a lot of deliberation among the states regarding the power of the central government. Most feared that the central government would become a tyranny just like Britain. The war was still ongoing and the capture of Philadelphia precipitated the decision of the delegates. By March 1, 1781 all thirteen states had ratified the documents thereby establishing the first national government of

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