The Constitution Of The United States

Under the Article of Confederation, the power of the government rested in the hands of the state governments, which was then transferred to the national government. The national government had no courts, no power to levy taxes, regulate commerce, create an army and had no power to enforce its rules upon the states and individuals. While the Articles of Confederation unified the states to resist the British; but it gave each state control over

Under the articles, each state had 1 vote to pass a law without considering the size of the state. When they were written they were designed to be the against of a monarchy. Unfortunately, this problem was an important problem; because as the smaller and larger states were not balanced. Under the Articles of Confederation, all states had the same power, without considering the size of state. the Constitutional Convention tried to correct this problem, and created the Constitution.

After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, early Americans were hesitant to create a new federal government and feared that it would become too powerful. To avoid this, the Founding Fathers created the Constitution of the United States of America. The new Constitution was based on several basic principles that limited the power of the federal government and kept it from gaining too much power. These systems helped set a base for the federal government while limiting the powers that it withheld. One of the main parts of the federal government are the three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

Checks and balances is a system that prevents one branch from having too much power, and giving each branch some power over the others. Doc C is an excerpt from Federalist #51, that was written by James Madison in 1788. The federalist papers were written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, to convince the states to ratify the constitution. According to Doc C, “... the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several officers in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other…. (The three branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” The quote from Doc C shows that each branch should have some power over one another to ensure that not one branch becomes a tyrant. The constitution guards against tyranny through checks and balances, which lets each branch check each other on their actions, and stop them if they are abusing their

    The states feared a strong, central government which is the reason the Articles of Confederation were so weak. In order to appease the fear of the states, the Constitution divided the power between the central government and the states. This division of power is known as Federalism (Doc A). With Federalism the central and state governments can “control each other” but also “be controlled by [themselves].” This prevented one government from gaining too much power. For instance, a state cannot ignore a federal tax law because the central government has the power to enforce the law. This safeguard is important because it not only prevents the central government from gaining too much power but it also allows the states to set policies specific for their inhabitants.

Congress could not enforce laws or assemble an army. Without an army the United States had no defense force. And without a judiciary branch, the government couldn’t enforce the laws that were made in Congress. The Legislative inefficiencies were such that each state had one vote in Congress regardless of its population. Therefore it was difficult to pass laws because states would block them, leading to an impractical amendment process. Amendments were difficult to pass because if five states voted against the passing of a bill it would be blocked. For all these reasons and more the Articles of Confederation were truly a failed form of government.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the government had little control over the individual states, and the nation was not organized or well protected. With the Constitution, three branches of government were created; legislative, executive, and judicial. The branches all checked each other, which kept them balanced, so one branch could not overpower the others. This created a strong but balanced government, that would keep the country organized. The Articles of Confederation did not create these sturdy branches, only tested them (Finkleman, Wallenstein 98).

The Articles of Confederation gave the states’ a grand amount of sovereignty. While Congress did have the authority to make treaties and coin money, the weaknesses outweighed the strengths. Lacking the ability to levy taxes, only having one vote per state, each state having its own paper

The Articles of Confederation were our Nation’s Constitution. Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation in 1777; however the articles came into effect in 1781. Although it was our nation’s first government, it wasn’t the best. The country faced many problems under the Articles of Confederation. One was that congress had no power over the state governments, or their citizens. Another important problem was the citizens thought that their property rights were threatened. However the biggest problem was the nation didn’t have the same currency. These and many other problems and events led the founding fathers to think of a new government.

To start, the Americans used the Articles of Confederation as their first government mostly due to fear. Many colonist feared that the government would have too much power and that the states would have an unbalanced amount of power. According to the We the People textbook, “Both of these fears influenced the organization of the first American government” (40) and it lead to the Americans using this system. Next, as mentioned before, many colonists feared that the government would have too much power. The colonist were afraid to give too much power to the national government after the Revolutionary War, because they were just freed from British Rule. With this mentality, the people were afraid that if their government gain too much power, than it would eventually become a monarchy all over again. The Articles of Confederation were America’s first attempt at a constitution that had its ups and downs thanks to its creators’

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 of Confederation, Adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777, for all practical purposes was the United States’ first Constitution. Created to establish a bond between the newly formed states, “...the Articles purposely established a "constitution" that vested the largest share of power to the individual states” (Early America). This ensured that the government did not have the majority of power. “...the Articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws...allowing the states retained their "sovereignty, freedom and independence” (Early

The Constitution was created with a strong central government, but state governments remained weak. Congress was given the power to imposition taxes; oversee trade between states, and bare military forces. A three-branch government was created to where a judicial branch monitored disputes in a federal court, and a President was head of an executive and a legislative branch. However, Anti-federalists believed in a weak central government and strong state governments, the way the Articles of Confederation was set up, and believed in strict loyalty to the manuscript ion of the

The Constitution of 1787of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Supporters of the document paid a hard won battle to win ratification by the necessary nine out of thirteen U.S. states. The Articles of Confederation, ratified just before the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Congress the central authority had the control to govern foreign concerns, conduct war, and control currency. These powers were suddenly limited because Congress was given no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops. By 1786, it was specious that the Union would soon break up if the Articles of Confederation were not corrected or replaced.

In the 1700s when the United States had detached itself from British rule it was then seen as a plutocracy. The U.S established as a democracy; a government of the people and by the people. However, this establishment was in favor of the rich, educated, and powerful and anyone who was categorized or known as elites and it has remained in favor of these people ever since. Yes we can say we have witnessed variations and seen a semi-democratic rise in the past two centuries, but we have remained a plutocracy hidden behind the word that people use to cover its true identity, democracy. Those like the framers, the public opinion role, interest groups, and money all portray our hidden plutocracy.