The Failure Of The Articles Of Confederation

The Constitution of the United States of America was framed in part by The Articles of

During the eight years under the Articles of Confederation, the national debt continued to grow. The country came up with solutions, but the states ignored them. A correspondent in the Independent Chronicle in 1787 plead, “How long are we to continue on our present in-glorious acquiescence in the shameful resistance that some of the states persist in, against federal and national measures?” (Humphrey 2003, 113). Printer Nathaniel Willis called the young country a “union in crisis” (Humprey 2003, 106). Lack of revenue and no way of forcing states to contribute was one of the major and most noted flaws in the Articles of Confederation (Henretta et al. 2010).

One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was formally adopted. The American Revolution had already been going on with the battles of Lexington and Concord over a year prior, but the first government of the United States is the Articles of Confederation, a constitution based on Republican ideas and democracy. The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation in 1777. It was adopted, written by John Dickinson, but there was a delay in ratifying it by the states. States like Virginia and Massachusetts had claimed a bunch of land stretching from the East Coast all the way to the Pacific Ocean as part of their colonial charters. States like Maryland and Pennsylvania, who did not have these land claims, did not want to ratify this new national government until the land is relinquished. It was not until in 1781 when the states officially ratified the Articles of Confederation. From 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation failed and had created problems in political, economic, and foreign policies, making this new national government an ineffective government.

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 declined in light of the fact that they didn't give Congress and the national government enough power. The new United States just battled a war to end what they considered the ruthless run of a solid government that overwhelmed local government and the pioneers of the U.S. dreaded an effective central government. Along these lines, they didn't give the central government the power it expected to run successfully. The Congress' control over the states was particular and limited, it had the sole energy to arrange bargains, proclaim war, and make peace. It likewise claimed all authority to keep up an army and navy and controlled collaboration with Native Americans in the Western piece of the nation. The members additionally

The Articles of Confederation is no longer used as the basis of laws and rights that all states must follow due to it being an unfair system that caused states to follow the will of other states without consent, gave nine states the ability to form a makeshift congress excluding what at the time what was only four other remaining states near powerless, and allowed states to refuse the government soldiers when needed. The Articles of Confederation allowed for nine states to form a congress in the absence of the usual congress, that met once a year, allowing for nine states to band together and have near total power over any others, it allowed for states to if they so pleased to deny the government soldiers to fight in war inside or outside the country, this rule allowing states to refuse the lending of men to fight is the one of the main factors that led to Shays’ Rebellion, an uprising of four armies in Massachusetts that fought over a federal armory and the removal of the Articles of Confederation, three groups of rebels in Massachusetts rose and prepared to attack the federal armory, one of the three armies, Luke Day, wasn’t able to make it to the armory in time for the battle, the two other rebel armies, faced off against an army funded by wealthy Massachusetts land-owners.

One major flaw of the Articles of Confederation was that Congress was not granted the power to collect taxes from the citizens. Without having the power to levy and collect tax, Congress depended on the states to pay their assigned tax quotas voluntarily. The estimated amount of taxes to collected from the states every was not collected. The United States struggled to pay off debts and, without the power to collect taxes, Congress only had two alternatives for paying the debts and loans back: print more money or obtain loans to meet the deficient (Office of the Historian, para. 2). Congress decided to print more money, which led to inflation. The problem of inflation and the struggle of paying off debts monthly/annually were relatively reduced

The Articles of Confederation have strengths and weakness. I am going to start with the strengths. The first strength and the important one is having thirteen colonies united under one government that make these colonies a strong country together. Another strength is given the departments a specific defined roles for various parties to run the country more effectively. The Articles of Confederation inspired the coordination and cooperation between different states, so that’s also one of the strength of the Articles of Confederation. “ It allowed the Central Government to sign treaties and peace deals with other countries giving rise to a stable neighborhood. The peace treaty with England was one such deal.” (Web) Having a stable country is most important thing to have a strong new country, and to have a stable country it should be peace between the states. And that is what the Article of Confederation accomplished. Finally, the population got increased to more than 60000 as big untied country and that could increase the economy of the country too because more people means more tax.

I support the federalists opinion that the ⅔ ratification is a good idea because if they just do whatever they can to get the standard foundations of their government set up then after that they can worry about the specifics. This will give them more time to ensure that all of their specific laws and decisions will benefit the people and that everyone agrees with them.

The first reason of weakness of the Articles confederation was its economic disorganization caused by financial hardship. Congress did not have the power to collect the tax needed to pay for the expenses of the national government. Congress could request for funds from the states directly, yet it had no power to force the state legislature into paying them. Without payment from states, congress could not pay the America’s foreign debts nor could it provide a national budget. Also, congress could not regulate trade.

Although, the aftermath of America Revolution resulted in a lacked economic stability due to high inflation, colonists were determined to institute a strong political foundation that would ensure political, social, and economic success in the United States. In 1777 The Articles of Confederation was a shift towards democracy, liberty, and equality. However, The Articles of Confederation contained weaknesses that left the United States vulnerable attack, economic disorder, and judicial issues. Recognizing the weaknesses in The Articles of Confederation five states representative met in secret at Mount Vernon to begin the framing to the United States Constitution. The framing of the United States Constitution was the result of the conditions of the

With the articles of confederation our country is falling to pieces. There is a high chance of rebellion against our weak country. There are foreigners at our borders that can attack at anytime. We can not pay our debt because the state will pay the money necessary to get our country out of debt. States can not interact due to the Change in money between states make there money useless. Our country is being mocked for our weakness and debt. These problems are caused by the Articles of confederation. The constitution would be able to handle all of this. To the others who say that the government will get to much power or one group will take over, The constitution Will spread power over the three branch of government through checks and

The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.

The Articles of Confederation, a written agreement that ensured each state’s sovereignty, freedom and independence, led America to victory over the British centralized government. During the late eighteenth century, the empowered government terrified the Americans, hence the thirteen colonies decided to spread governance powers equally to all functional states. The states had absolute dominance over the Congress due to the Articles of Confederation. While the localized power of states seemed to be promising, the system posed great threat to the major components of a democratic government, which are coercion, revenue, and legitimacy (Lecture 1 - The Roots of Government). The system of localized power did not ensure legitimacy, which referred to people’s recognition of national government. Congress’s lack of power to control each state’s actions caused great chaos. Eventually, national government’s lack of power and inability to unify the states exposed multiple flaws in the Articles of Confederation; consequently, a new supreme law, the Constitution was established by the founding fathers. The new supreme law successfully altered the imbalanced system into a novel democratic government.