Noah Stevens
Professor James Maggio
POS 1041
30 September 2016
Over three-hundred years ago The United States had to quickly make a constitution, and decided upon the Articles of Confederation. The United States started out like an experiment for the World. This experiment was what our Government will become, there was not a defined path on what our future will behold. The path to present day for The United States was a rough one, but the experiment turned out to be a success in the end. One of these rough patches was the Articles of Confederation, which taught us that a balance of power is of great importance. We abandoned the Articles of Confederation and adopted a new Constitution because of State powers, and lack of Congressional powers.
The fear of a Central Government like Great Britain led The United States away from having such a strong Central Government. So the States were given autonomy to make most decisions & have many powers under early American Government. The States could never be enforced to do anything, except for war and closing borders, the States could
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Congress could not enforce states to pay taxes. In many cases when Congress asked states for taxes for military reasons, the states would not pay anything. Due to the lack of taxes, many War Veterans from the Revolutionary Army who were promised payment from the Government were barely given anything back, this ultimately lead to protests and rebellions. Congress could not do anything about these rebellions and protests because of their lack of funding from the states, and control over the states, so the States ultimately had to deal with this themselves. The United States then quickly made the new Constitution which balanced the power between the State and Congress. With this new system keeps both in check, to make sure the system is not being abused, and people are not being
They felt it needed to have protections put into place that would act as a checks and
The limited powers of the United States central government under the Articles of Confederation, exemplified by events like Shays' Rebellion, significantly influenced the development of the Constitution between 1777 and 1789, leading to the creation of a stronger and more centralized federal government. This transition from a weak and decentralized government to a more powerful federal authority was a direct response to the challenges and shortcomings experienced under the Articles of Confederation. The period from 1777 to 1789 was marked by the aftermath of the American Revolution and the formation of a new nation. The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777, established a decentralized government with limited powers given to the central authority. However, this system of government faced numerous challenges, including economic instability, lack of national defense, and difficulties in implementing policies.
The framers of the United States constitution decided to give more power to the federal government than the state government, the framers did this because they didn’t want to create a government with tyranny in it, they also did this to create new ideas for the states. The framers did this because they simply didn’t want the government to have complete control over the people, instead the framers wanted to have the people to have a government just not a complete power one. The framers wanted the people to be able to choose what kind of government they had, what kind of leader they had, they wanted to the people to have a choice. Some problems that the articles of confederation had is that that the articles limited the government significantly.
In addition, as the states did not want to give too much power to a central authority, the Articles of Confederation left the central government very weak to govern effectively. Under these articles, the Congress did not have the authority to levy taxes or regulate the business and trade. The Congress depended on the contributions of the states, which did not always pay. As a result, Congress did not have money to operate fluently.
Without taxes, the federal government was unable to raise or maintain a standing military. This inability to provide for the common defense caused individual states to increase their militaries and a lack of trust became evident between the government and each of the thirteen states. Since Congress couldn't raise money through taxes or control/regulate trade its only revenue was through essentially asking for donations. This left the New American Republic unable to pay back its debt to France or any other national debt. However, with a federal constitution congress would be able to regulate commerce and levy taxes.
To solve the national government's issue of not being able to tax the states, the legislative branch was created so that it could make laws, such as the power to tax. The legislative branch also resolved each state having its own form of money by creating a national currency. Both of these resolutions are mentioned in article one section 8. This same article and section also allow congress to raise armies. Instead of requiring and unanimous vote from all of the states to amend the government, the fifth article of the constitution only requires two thirds of either the states or both houses in order to amend the government.
The United States of America as they stand today are a result of the evolution of the frameworks our founding fathers set in to place long ago. Among them were the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia and New Jersey plans, the Federalist Papers, and the Constitution. Beginning with the original frame work for the government of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, established in 1781, formed a firm league of friendship among the states, instead of a government for the people (Dye, Gaddie 66). The United States fared well under the Articles of Confederation. With success in gaining independence from Great Britain, gaining France as an ally and establishing a viable peace.
Even though they had just fought a war justified by unreasonable taxes the members of the so called governing body that was head of the U.S. at the moment realized that were necessary to run an economy. While they had no way to pay many of the soldiers their promised money for their service in the Revolutionary War, a large group of soldiers didn’t like having it all reposed when they couldn’t pay for their farms because of the war bonds not being paid to them. This is what led to Shays’ Rebellion masterminded by the former Continental Army Captain Daniel Shays. In a failed attempt to capture the Springfield Armory the former soldiers were met by the Massachusetts Militia where they were quickly defeated by a cannon filled with grapeshot and no musket fire was exchanged. This was a very bad situation for Congress as it pressured them to create a new constitution which is the one we know of
Our national government has not always dad this much influence over matters concerning this country. Under the Articles of Confederation, power for the national government was vastly limited compared to the current central government today. The people who wrote the Articles where worried about a strong central government that would oppress them like the King did. In turn they came up with the Articles of Confederation which gave greater power to the states instead of the national government. Under the Us Constitution the central government know has more power than it did under the Articles of Confederation to stabilize the United States.
With the victory against England the newly independent Americans earned an official claim to America and needed to establish a written plan of government for the new states. The Americans sought to implement some form of sovereignty without total power or any influences of monarchy. In 1777, the congressmen generated the Articles of Confederation, defining the union as a “loose confederation of states” existing mainly to “foster a common defense” (Roark 190). However, the Articles of Confederation had many flaws and imperfections. Because it provoked too many conflicts, the Articles of Confederation resulted in failure and was ultimately overturned by an improved document of government, the Constitution.
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 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.
These authorities that the national government should have, were all up to the states to decide under the Articles. With the taking away some of the states rights in the Constitution, Anti-federalists feared that this would leave the states too weak, resulting in more problems. Under the new Constitution, many powers that were now in the government 's hands are: the power to levy and collect taxes, the power to regulate interstate commerce, the government set up a national court system consisting of district, circuit, and a supreme court, the government could enforce laws, there was now a house based on population, and a senate based on equal representation (two votes per state), to amend the Constitution, a ⅔ vote of Congress was needed, and a ¾ vote of the states were needed, and a majority rule was needed to pass bills. These new powers and abilities of the national government helped to create a strong, new
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.
This is one of the successful parts of the Articles of Confederation because under the articles, the government cannot institute tax thus the government cannot make money. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 removed debts from the states and it also allowed the government to raise money by selling off the new