Unit 3: Documents From The Revolution And Beyond

Effectiveness of Articles of Confederation While the Articles of Confederation unified the American colonies for the first time, the individual states had a hard time allowing a central government to solely control their territory. Due to fear of an all powerful monarchy like the one they had experienced in England the colonies were wary of allowing a central government certain powers. These certain powers included control of commerce, ability to tax, and even the ability to act directly upon individual citizens of a state. While the Articles provided a loose confederation to unify the new country, they were only a temporary solution due to their obvious weaknesses in several areas. The Articles of Confederation were essentially

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

Founding a Nation 1783 - 1789 Through the congress of confederation, the new National government was to be the everlasting unity between the states. The article of confederation ensured the need for national coordination on the war to independence since centralized political power had continuously raised danger to liberty. The article of confederation was rather a plan for a common government than a mutual defense treaty. States were represented by one house congress in the national government who were only allowed to cast a single vote and despite being part of the national government, States were still entitled to their sovereignty, freedom and independence.

Under the Articles of Confederation state sovereignty was different from the new constitution. States were superior under the Articles of Confederation. So since the state was superior, this resulted in a creation of a confederal form of government with a frail national government. On the other hand, under the new and current constitution we use today, the national government had become superior with the Supremacy Clause. The result to this was where both the states and national government shared power they had.

Compare and contrast the Articles of confederation and the Constitution, especially in regard to the specific powers granted to the national government.The formation and ideals of the Articles of Confederation and its successor, the Unites States Constitution, varied from each other in terms of a stronger or weaker federal government in dealing with issues. The Constitution gave more power to the federal government, while the Articles of Confederation involved a very weak government with primary rights interests of the individual states as the focus. Both gave Congress legislative power and set up departments that would eventually be incorporated into the president’s cabinet. The formation of the Articles of Confederation was of the

1. Necessary and Proper Clause: This is a clause within the United States Constitution specifically in Article I Section 8. It grants Congress the power to create laws or take certain actions that are not explicitly seen in the Constitution and allows flexibility within Congress. The Necessary and Proper clause allows

They reserved to each state and not to the national government. The national government consisted of a congress with only one chamber that was elected by the state legislature in which each state had a vote. Congress had the right to request funds but could not put taxes on things without every state’s approval. Lastly, an approval was required by all states to ratify the articles. The articles gave the states all the freedom and United States just had few right overall. The Articles of Confederation only lasted eight years and was replaced by the US Constitution on March 4, 1789. There were many strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation was written to create a new government after the British were chased away. The Articles gave more power to the state governments and made the central government weaker. The founding fathers were still not willing to give power to one person thus letting state governments have more power. The government also provided each state with one vote in the Congress and nine out of thirteen states had to agree for a law to be passed. The main purpose of the Articles was to “form a perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” (Sabato 63). The Constitution is similar to the Articles

The Articles of Confederation were created as a loose binding of the colonies whilst they declared their independence from Britain, the document in itself worked well on paper, but when applied to an expanding nation that needed more intensive unification and strategic organization, the articles failed greatly. It didn’t build the internal systems that call for the calculated and precise decisions of a country. However, the Articles of Confederation provided a basis for the Constitution, to which is the basis of American government today.

The Articles of Confederation created a federation government, which in actuality seem like thirteen countries with an alliance agreement in case of international problems like it was the Independence war or even any invasion in the territory as delineated in Article IV and IX. Also, Article V gave each state the right to be represented in Congress, making each state seemed as its own country with what today would be called a Secretary of State. At the same time, the Articles of Confederation give total power to each state to carry out most if not all of the political decisions, more specifically Article II. This evidence shows how the power was concentrated mainly in the states as they had many political freedoms and were also responsible

Under The Articles of Confederation, the American government was decentralized which proved to be a problem for the country as a whole. The Articles of Confederation stated that each state “retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.” This document established the states as separate, and only united in a “friendship.”

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was given several new powers, while still allowing the states to maintain their sovereignty. Some of its’ powers included the ability to have jurisdiction over foreign affairs and relations. Similarly, it also possessed the power to make treaties and alliances. Other important powers the new government had were to be able to coin its own money, manage Native American affairs, and create vital establishments such as the national postal service. The army and navy could also be sustained in this new government, as it provided the states with a strong sense of security.

They did not trust strong governments, so the central government very little power (Murphy). There was no court system given to the national government so the states were in charge of it all, which meant complaints could not be filed against them (Brackemyre). One of the only powers the national government had was to declare war but they were not allowed to raise an army to fight it and it lacked a chief executive to conduct foreign affairs. The United States also had an ineffective legislative under the Articles of Confederation. Amendments that they wanted to be passed needed to be vote on unanimously and there had to be a nine out of thirteen vote to pass a law (Kelly). Each state also had only one despite their population. Under the Articles, the government did not have a stable economic system, lacked key central leadership and had an inefficient legislature.

Chia Yu Lin Professor Louis Desipio Political Science 21 07/02/2015 Failure of the Articles of Confederation 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

State Sovereignty has always been a relatively big issue in regards to the power of the country. Since the beginning of this great country, in 1776, state sovereignty has always been one of the top concerns for the states. When our first government was started, the states had most of