The structure and powers of the federal government changed under the Constitution as compared to the Articles of Confederation. Many people, known as the anti-Federalists, opposed these changes while on the contrary, many people, known as the Federalists, supported them. The framework and function of the federal government changed drastically under the Constitution. The federal government was much stronger under the Constitution because it was given the power to run the states under more unified control. The constitution claims to have a goal to “form a more perfect union” and “insure domestic tranquility” (Document 1). These were both issues under the Articles of Confederation, considering the 13 states were extremely separate and divided, each with the ability to make it’s own taxes, currency, and trade regulations. Also, there …show more content…
A leading rebellion was one in Massachusetts known as Shays Rebellion. Led by Daniel Shay, the rebellion consisted of a group of farmers unhappy with high taxation. The rebellion was squashed, but the effects spread throughout the country, striking fear for other rebellions in the future and increasing the belief for the need of a more stable, unified, and powerful government. Under the Constitution the government could: regulate commerce, impose and collect taxes, coin money, and raise and support armies, all powers it did not have under the Articles of Confederation (Document 2). The Constitution also included Clause 18, or the Elastic Clause, which gave the government the power “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing powers” (Document 2), also known as implied
Under the Articles of Confederation, separation of powers represent the division of government responsibilities into distinct branches to limit each one branch from exercising the fundamental functions of three branches known as the Executive Branch Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch. Another principle that was applied differently was Federalism. Federalism means that thereis a division of power between a central government and regional governments Under the Articles of Confederation, Federalism shares power bounded by state and National government Under the Constitution, Federalism however is shared by state, national, and federal power Lastly, Checks and Balances was another principle applied differently under the Articles of Confederation
After series of taxation without representation placed upon the American colonies by the Great Britain, the colonies finally declared independence in 1776. To become a stabilized country, the colonies established the Article of Confederation the following year. Americans were upset that under the Article of Confederation their voice was not being heard in the government and their businesses were failing economically. As a result, Daniel Shays led four thousand rebels against the government because of the economic and civil rights injustices. Then the Founding Fathers gathered at the Philadelphia in 1787 to modify the Article of Confederation.
America had just won the revolutionary war and became a free nation. Their constitution, the Articles of Confederation had many problems. Many farmer colonists felt like America was just another form of England with high taxes and unfair laws. Eventually, the depression was so bad the colonist got fed up and started to devise a plan. Daniel Shays was the leader of planning the rebellion.
Lectures Lecture 14 “Questions to Consider #1”: Why did the Anti Federalists object so strongly to the Preamble to the Constitution? The Anti-Federalists objected so strongly to Preamble to the Constitution due to the fact the Preamble establishes powers for the three branches of government, states’ relations, mode of amendment, debts, national supremacy, oath of office, and amendment ratification. This group felts as though when the federalists wanting to create a strong central government would not be strong enough if the Preamble was not put into place. Lecture 14 states, “Anti-federalists suspicious of central power fought the new Constitution tenaciously…..
The Articles did not have the binding power that the US government has today, the colonies were not a tight knit group of united in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, the Articles created a “firm league of friendship.” Each state was allowed to keep its sovereignty, rights, independence, rights, and etcetera. If each State is allowed to act as an individual and keep all of their freedom it is near impossible to expect thirteen self-serving states to unite under one government.
The United States has worked under two constitutions. Articles of Confederation was the first constitution in our nation. It was in effect from March 1st, 1781, after Maryland ratified it. Articles of Confederation was replaced by The Constitution on June 21, 1788, which was ratified by New Hampshire. The main principles behind the modern constitution were human rights, accountability, power separation, representative government, and independence of judiciary.
Federalists were led by many famous names including Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, George Washington, and The Father of the Constitution, James Madison (Document 3). Federalists can state that the Constitution is better seeing that events like Shays’ Rebellion would not have happened since the federal government could levy taxes and generate revenue. There were many angry farmers, led by Daniel Shays, demanding compensation for their service during the Revolutionary War. However, since the Articles of Confederation stated that the federal government would not be able to levy taxes and pay the veterans. At the same time, the state of Massachusetts was taxing farmers that had no money after fighting in a war for at least a year, posing the threat of losing their property.
After the Articles of Confederation failed because they failed to give enough power to the national government and congress, our founding father’s needed to reflect on its flaws for a new system to be set in place. Their new creation, our Constitution, was then set into place, and was created from a basis of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation directly influence the Constitution by its failure by changing some of the responsibilities of the federal and state governments. The Articles of Confederation gave too much power to the states, and the Constitution changed that.
Following British General Charles Cornwallis’ surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in the Revolutionary War, the United States, now no longer under British rule, was in dire need of a new government. Consequently, the Articles of Confederation government was formed in November of 1777, and was finally ratified by the states in 1781. The Articles of Confederation created a loose alignment of sovereign states, where the central government was incredibly weak, with almost no powers. After Shay’s rebellion, in which a group of farmers revolted against the over taxation and underrepresentation of those on the American frontier, and the subsequent failure of the government to do anything, a new, stronger government was created in the form of the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution is a radical departure from the Articles of Confederation because of it centralized the
The common definition we use of justice is just behavior or treatment. In relation to our United States government, this particular word means righteousness, equitableness or moral rightness. The Constitution aimed to better their original governing document called the Articles of Confederation and I do believe that the framers who shaped this made an immense amount of progress for our country, though do not stand for some of the policies they had to add. Our first paper involved learning three important men in America’s history voicing their personal opinions on the Constitution and how to possibly fix some flaws. George Washington was very determined to have a strong central government so the country would act as one state in any decision, stating that “we should confederate as a nation”, meaning he believed that the United States would become weak if we did not agree.
The framers were concerned that the current federal government under the Articles of Confederation did not possess enough power in order to preserve the union; therefore, the constitution must provide the federal government with enough power to serve its duty while still preserving power in the state governments. In Federalist Paper No. 1, Hamilton is urging that under the new constitution the “utility of the union” created by a stronger federal government will help to ensure the vitality of the states as it offers protection of liberty (Hamilton et al. 30). Madison argued in Federalist Paper No. 10 that in a larger government the impacts of factions will be lessened because the people will defeat “sinister views by regular vote” (Hamilton et al. 75). He also states in Federalist Paper No. 39 that the ratifying of the constitution creates a government that is “neither wholly national nor wholly federal” (Hamilton et al. 242). The idea of these three Federalist Papers that were written by the framers of the constitution is that the federal government has to have a higher share of power than was present in the Articles of Confederation in order to strengthen the union.
The Articles of Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.
After the United States declared independence from Great Britain. The Article of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. After a year of reflection, it was submitted to the states for ratification in 1777. It was not approved until 1781. After weak years with the Article of Confederation, in 1789 the Constitution was adopted.
DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal
The new government, the Constitution, is now able to enforces taxes, which allowed money to come in and the government was able to pay off their debt. One other weakness of the articles was that it gave all power to only one house of representative from each state, the constitution try to solve this matter that creating three separate branches of power, the Legislative branch, Executive branch, and the Judiciary branch, allowing the power to be more divided. Representation was another problem in under the Articles of Confederation because a big state like Massachusetts and a small state like New Jersey both have the same amount of representatives, the Constitution made a compromise by forming two house in Congress the Senate, where each state get equal representation, and the House of Representatives, where each state is represented by the population of the state. The Constitution also fixed the problem of passing a law; under the Articles of Confederation, laws can only be passed if 9 out of 13 representatives agrees on the law because of this not much laws were passed, now under the Constitution only 51 percent of the votes to pass the law. From this readers can infer that the Constitution fixed many of the defects in the Articles