Compare And Contrast The Articles Of Confederation

The Untied States put the Articles of Confederation into place on March 1st, 1781, during the Revolutionary War. It was the first form of national government in the U.S. The Articles gave the majority of power to the individual states and limited power to the national government, this power structure was chosen due to the British excessive control on the colonies. Soon it became apparent that the Articles of Confederation was not sufficient means of governing the populace. Therefore in May of 1787, delegates from the thirteen states arrived in Philadelphia to improve the Articles and prevent the country from collapsing. James Madison arrived two weeks before the Constitutional Convention to have time to think about the best way to amend the Articles of Confederation. James came up with the Virginia Plan, which would not improve the Articles of Confederation but create a whole new government. The Virginia Plans main features were: a very powerful legislature, national power to veto power over any state legislation, an executive chosen by the legislature that would

This meant that each state would have a certain number of representatives based on the states population. Delegates were afraid that this system would lead to malapportionment and the larger states would become dominate. The delegates from the thirteen states were so quick to turn the Virginia Plan’s powerful national government down because of the British extreme control over the colonies, however James Madison did bring up some worthy opposing augments. James Madison said on June 8th 1787 “Experience evinced a constant tendency in the States to encroach on the federal authority; to violate Treaties, to infringe the right and interest of each other”. James proposes that without a strong central government the states would go back to causing mayhem and put the country on the edge of collapsing yet