The Articles of Confederation was written in 1777 by nearly the exact same people who would later go on to write the United States Constitution. This document was meant to unify the colonies to create a sufficient government. The Articles of Confederation’s focus was to ensure that the state and local government possessed the power throughout the colonies. However, the document failed the country due to the lack of a central government because the states did not want to reestablish the type of government that England had after the Revolutionary War. The lack of bigger government caused many problems that would make each state almost look like they’re were separate.
Overview: The Articles of Confederation written by the second continental congress, came in effect on March 1, 1781, was the first constitution of the United States. The articles established a weak central government which led the states having more power and creating conflict. The Articles of Confederation lacked the power of trade and commerce, states had separate currencies, and even different militias. Although the Articles of Confederation were scraped, it became a learning point and the basis of our constitution that has lasted over 200 years and counting.
After declaring independence from Great Britain, the colonies needed to establish a form of government that would protect its land and its people from any future dilemmas. As a result, the Articles of Confederation was written; but it proved to be a failure, and something had to change. Some believed in providing a stronger national government, others believed in providing stronger local and state governments. Thus, this period created the clash between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. These issues have created many discussions on how the nation should be run; but ultimately, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists were to compromise in order to live in the United States peacefully.
As a new republic, we cannot afford to make the same mistake twice when establishing the law of the land for our government. The weaknesses and flaws in the Articles of Confederation were evident when Shay’s rebellion arose not long ago in Massachusetts. How do we protect the law-abiding citizen from enemies, both foreign and domestic, who seek to disrupt the Liberty of the United States and jeopardize our security? The Constitution of the United States Article 1, Section 8, Clause 12 state, “The Congress shall have Power To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years.” We the people of the United States must ratify the Constitution in order to create a Standing Army that provide security against both internal and external threats of America.
The idea unity and self-government has been germinating among colonies, especially when England started to levying taxes in his colonies. And thus before the revolutionary victories in Village green in New England and the historical defeat of the almighty England in Yorktown in 1781, the now independent from Great Britain rebelling colonies 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. The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that was proposed and was ratified by all thirteen colonies in 1781. This quote was written about the Articles of Confederation "Perhaps the greatest service rendered by the Articles
The Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781, and it is safe to say that everything went downhill from there. The government was unrestricting and ineffectual during that time and we are not allowed to blame them. Any government was needed, however, that government was not very operative. They had no provision for an Executive Branch or National Court System and were not able to force the states to do anything.
Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.
The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.
The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the thirteen original states of the United States that served as the first constitution. The Articles had first been introduced by Richard Henry Lee in the Second Continental Congress. Although the Articles of Confederation has made its contributions throughout history, the Articles, however, did not last very long and had been proven inadequate from the very start. I agree with this statement based on the examples and analysis of the Constitution I will soon provide. The Articles of Confederation were written during a time when the American people feared a strong national government.
Rafael Schuly Mendoza Annotated Bibliography: Reflections on Rights - The Second Amendment Articles of Confederation. Art. III. Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States. Government Printing Office, 1927.
Article of confederation essay The Articles of confederation and permanent union among the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, virginia, North Carolina, south Carolina, and Georgia. In this essay I will be explaining three problems that arose because of the Article of Confederation. The first problem isthat the Articles of Confederation had no president or ruler to run their government. As a result of nothaving a president or ruler, the under the Articles of Confederation suffered from alackof leadership because there was no president or single ruler.
In one hand, the Articles of Confederation had a weak central government, differing form the strong central government in the Constitution. The Constitution’s government had a structure of three different branches; the legislative, executive, and judicial branch; unlike the Articles of Confederation that had no structure whatsoever. The Articles of Confederation had many problems like, the poor international trade, poor foreign relations and a weak economy in contrast to the Constitution that only had one problem, the struggle over the ratification. the Articles of Confederation achieved the Northwest Ordinance and the Northwest Territory and according to a history website, the Constitution achieved that we had a system of checks and balances, that we had a bill of rights, and, eventually, the survival of a bloody civil war intact. Lastly, the Constitution had three compromises: the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Slave Trade compromise.
The Articles of Confederation were approved on November 1777, which left many constraints on the federal government. The people were so worried about corruption, that they left the government powerless on all affairs, including foreign relations, military, Indian issues, and interstate disputes. In addition it denied Congress the power of taxation, the states were supposed to donate money to the government, which rarely occured. Each state had only one vote in Congress, but could send as many as seven delegates or as few as two, but if they divided equally on an issue the state lost its vote. There was not a President or independent executive and no veto over legislate decisions.
With the Article of Confederation, this agreement among the 13 colonies in the United States as a confederation of sovereign states which served as the first constitution in America (Schultz, 2010). Under the Articles of Confederation had a weak government with a one-house legislature, while the states remain powerful. Although, designating a president and national court did not exist, however, the central government’s power was kept limited. During this time the country main problems consist of debt, humanity and authority over the lack of control of the western expansion, dubious foreign relations with other countries and debt accumulated during the war (Schultz, 2010). On an account of the Articles, the government had no way of raising money, due to no taxations allowed, which cause the government not to repay the debt owed, such as promissory notes were given to landowners to aid in the war, and members of the army wanted payment for their service
The Articles of Confederation was written by the founding fathers of the USA, and they worked for a long time, and wrote it very well, but there was complications towards the Article. For instance, in the Article, it says that each state would have only one vote in Congress, regardless of its size and population. The bigger states, such as Virginia, did not like this rule because Virginia was a much bigger state and was home to a large population of the 13 states. The people of Virginia thought that they should have more than just one vote in Congress since there was more population in Virginia. Another example of a problem with the Confederation would be that it says in the article that nine states have to agree with the Congress before it
