The topic of this paper is the Constitution. The paper will cover the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, which was addressed in the Constitution. The paper will cover the how the Constitution addressed the complaints in the Declaration of Independence. Another topic of the paper will be the Great Compromise and how the representation of states in Congress was determined. Finally, the paper will view the treatment of slaves for the purpose of representation and the effects thereof. Weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation Early weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation became clear. First was the poor attendance by the delegates of each state, became apparent with the Treaty of Paris. The final version was informed in …show more content…
Congress agreed with the finding presented by the Board of Treasury and prepared to address the states concerning this matter. William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut was put in charge of drafting the address to states. However, friends of Johnson warned him that the address would do little to encourage the people to contribute to the nation crisis, so the address was never delivered ("The Library of Congress," n.d.). Finally, the ability of Congress to control commerce between America and foreign nations was addressed ("The Library of Congress", n.d.). Because the Articles of Confederation gave Congress little control over the trades between foreign nations and various states, it was important for Congress to gain some order over the matter. According to "The Library of Congress" (n.d.), "In 1784, Congress requested that the states grant it limited power over commerce for fifteen years, but many of the states did not comply” (Congress is Unable to Control Commerce Between American and Foreign Nations). In 1785, James Monroe, a delegate, once more addressed the need for more control over commerce, which led the creation of a committee lead by Monroe. The new committee recommended amending the Articles of Confederation, on February 16, 1785, so that Congress could get the power needed for commerce ("The Library of Congress," n.d.). However, as before, few
The Articles of Confederation Following the Revolutionary War, the new American Government was set up under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation did not give the federal government enough authority to be effective. So in 1787 delegates from all the states attended a meeting known as the Constitutional Convention. Among those attending were James Madison, representing Virginia, William Paterson, representing New Jersey, and Roger Sherman, representing Connecticut.
The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that the united states ever put into force, and is the only one they ever wrote besides the constitution. The articles was created due to a need for the United States to unite during the american revolution, and was basically a loosely bound union of states, so it was obvious that this was essentially just to semi-unite the states in order to fight the british, and they would form a more stable form of government after the fact, which they did when they wrote the constitution. I will now list the provisions of the Articles of Confederation.
Last year, our new government was formed. We agreed to what the Articles had said. It seems that now we are having issues with what we had once agreed with. In this newsletter, I will only address four of the most problematic things in the Articles of Confederation. However there are many more that will not be brought to light today.
With the United States new found independence from Great Britain, its founding fathers 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. However, the first document crafted by the founding fathers, the Articles of Confederation, did preserve the country new found independence but it did not maintain order. The Articles of Confederation described by many founding fathers to be a document that was crafted to satisfy needs of every state for its ratification, even when the document did not present a responsible democracy. The Articles of Confederation granted all national powers to the congress; however, it allowed each state
The Articles of Confederation was first written in 1777. It was passed by the Confederation of Congress. Congress decided that they needed a firm government to organize the states as a whole. At least that was their primary goal. Since each state had separates rules. The Articles of Confederation was later ratified by each state in 1781. It was “America’s first federal constitution” (Keene 138). The confederation had a few strengths but many weaknesses. The nation faced many economic and political issues that lead people to controversy.
The most significant issues that the United States had under the Articles of Confederation were: “managing the western expansion, foreign relations, and debt.” The first significant issue was with the western expansion as Americans relocated to the Nashville, western Pennsylvania, and Kentucky areas in mass numbers in the 1780s. The result of this meant that the areas were enhanced greatly that had western charters. At the time, the northern and southern areas (in the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River) had specific boundaries based on the original colonized charters which meant that the western area was the Pacific Ocean. The states that did not have part of the western area resented the condition and as a result, Maryland protested by not approving the Articles of Confederation unless the state of Virginia yielded its western land to the federal government which they did in 1784. However, their yielding was not without strings attached as they demanded that they be allowed to keep a small portion of the land reserve for their own use as a part of the deal which Congress had no choice but to accept. Eighteen years later in 1802, every state had yielded their western land to the federal government.
It all started after the Declaration of Independence during the time America was busy fighting the Revolutionary War, when Congress realized that they needed to form a plan to move forward and unite the thirteen states as a nation.
This document was written in the 18th century specifically during the Federalist Era. It was written 18 years after America won independence from England on July 4, 1776. This lead to the creation of the “Articles of Confederation” which were made primarily for the people because they feared central government having all power. Then at The Annapolis Convention (1786) is where the groundworks of “The U.S. Constitution” were discussed to replace the “Articles of Confederation”.
"Throughout the years the constitution and the laws have made a tremendous impact in society. White men were privileged with all their rights since they were born. Women and men of color however were not, and they had to fight for their rights throughout the years. The Articles of confederation showed how the states had more power than the government did. In document two it states, “ urging to reject conservative attempts to repeal a law that set in motion an end to slavery.†(E,126) This shows how African American’s had to wait many years for laws to pass and give them freedom. They had the same rights as the White men after the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments were passed. Women had to wait longer and finally got their right to vote when
Next I would like to explore the weaknesses and strengths about the New Constitution that the Constitutional Convention adopted in September 1787. Not so long after the Articles of Confederation were enacted, some citizens started to feel that the national government was too weak. As a result of this the Constitutional Convention was called to order in Philadelphia between May and September 1787 to help address the problem of a weak central government. First even though the New Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, it also had some weaknesses. One of the main weaknesses of the New Constitution was that it lacked a bill of rights, and the New Constitution still protected slavery. Even with theses weaknesses, the strengths of the New Constitution far out weigh the negatives. One of the greatest strengths of the New Constitution was a central
During the years 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation was the bases of the current government. This confederation was set up to create a weak government, leaving main power in the state legislatures. The people of the new United States did not foresee having a strong central government in fear of a monarchy such as that of Great Britain's. To a significant extent, the government under these articles were ineffective due to the lack of power in Congress and control of foreign relations. A contribution to the downfall of the Articles of Confederation is the insufficiency of it.
While the newly independent United States was full of new ideas and plans, there were also multiple challenges that had to be discussed amongst the the higher ups. For instance, what kind of government should be established? What will the goals of this new government be? How will new territory be managed? As these very valid and vital questions were being discussed, other challenges came about, and more answers were needed. American leaders agreed on a republic government, or popular sovereignty, but then came an entirely new set of challenges such as the burdening consequences of this new government, and what exactly would be done about who should be more powerful; a central government or the states. It was more than obvious that there were
The Articles of Confederation was drafted to create a sense of political unity to the newly formed nation of United States of America and combat the British rule. The Confederation was modeled to resembled a confederacy arrangement that serve to unify the thirteen states at the time(Feeley 98-100). However, the confederation was later replaced by a federal arrangement which granted the government with more centralized control. Statism is one of the factors that contributed towards the failure of confederalism in United States. The original confederation intends for each state to remain relatively sovereign. Yet, the thirteen states treated their roles in this relationship as an alliance of independent states instead of a unified nation(Feeley
The Articles of Confederation did not produce a well working government, and had many weaknesses. The three major weaknesses are economic disorganization,
The original governing document of the United States was the Articles of Confederation. In 1777 during the revolutionary war the continental congress was adopted, and was written before the United States was officially a country. This plan laid out a very weak and under looked national government and a very strong state government. In the end the government could not tax, could not enforce the laws it passed, and could not regulate any of the commerce. All these things and other weaknesses, along with, the great compromise, three-fifths compromise, commerce compromise, slave trade compromise