There were many problems with the Articles of Confederation that led to its replacement by the U.S. Constitution. The states had more power than the federal government, leaving the federal government was weak. The federal government could not levy taxes, and the Articles gave major responsibilities such as negotiating treaties, coining money, and declaring war to state governments. Each state had one vote despite its population, and this angered many of the larger states who felt under-represented. Finally, the Articles lacked a judicial system, and required a unanimous vote to pass any legislature, which often proved difficult to achieve. The turning point that led to a demand for change was Shay’s Rebellion. Daniel Shay along with other farmers
However, an uprising led by Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays that took place in western Massachusetts in 1786 was the event that got the attention of the founding fathers. The Shay’s Rebellion demonstrated to the founding fathers that the Articles of Confederation brought commercial problems, threaten civil order, and conflicts between states. Likewise, at the constitutional convention the founding fathers crafted and ratified the U.S constitution to address the problem the Articles of Confederation could not tackle. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the divided the powers of the national government into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Furthermore, the constitution established a one true currency system and presented the job duties and requirements the three branches and individual states. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the constitution presented the rights of its people (Bill of Rights) and a system of check of balance and separation of powers that the United States as democratic country. The Articles of Confederation was a popular democracy with its chaotic results and the constitution was a responsible democracy with its civilized outcomes.
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two very important guidelines of government that shaped the political minds of the Americans. Mainly because these guidelines limited, or expanded the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The Articles of Confederation were a series of laws that gave more power to the state government than the federal government. As a result, the federal government could not enforce laws or levy taxes. After Shay’s Rebellion, the Founding Fathers realized that a change was necessary. So the Constitution was created. The most important change of the Constitution was that the majority of power was then shifted into the hands of the federal or central government. This allowed the federal
After fighting for our country against Great Britain in the American Revolution, the United States gained independence. We had to figure out how to govern ourselves since we would no longer be under the power of the monarch. The Articles of Confederation was the answer to our problems; even though it established a very weak central government and had many problems, it was our first constitution and our first step towards a solid government. Some of the problems with the Articles included that the Congress had no power to tax, no power to regulate commerce, no power to regulate domestic affairs, no power to enforce laws, and many more. The problems lead to troubles with the States which convinced the Continental Congress to create a convention of delegated people to revise them; this convention was called the Constitutional Convention. The Convention fixed these problems by throwing the Articles out altogether and creating a new Constitution.
The Articles of Confederation was a loose “league of friendship” between the thirteen colonies that would create a confederation in contrast to Great Britain 's unitary system. While the Articles of Confederation helped establish a systemic role in trying to unify many of the states under a weak central government, it later created many more problems than solutions. One of them being that Congress had no ability to propose taxes to deal with war debts and running the government. Another weakness was that Congress did not have the ability to regulate commerce among states and foreign nations which hurt Congress’s credibility. One of the most considerable weaknesses of Congress under the Articles of Confederation was its failure to provide for a strong central government. The Articles of Confederation was created to not compare with the totalitarian regime of the British and made sure of not creating a strong central government. The problem was that without a strong central government it eliminated all sovereignty that the central government had, giving increased sovereignty to states which lead to increased chaos. It is seen that Shays Rebellion was that nail in the coffin of The Articles. Lead by David Shay a group of farmers who had served in the Continental Army marched to Springfield, Massachusetts to stop the state court from foreclosing on the veterans farms. Congress’s failure in being able to formulate a militia and stop the disgruntled farmers was the end of The
The Articles of Confederation, which was considered the first constitution of the United States of America, and the US Constitution, which acts as the supreme law in the United States today, both are poles apart. In fact, it was only because of the weaknesses of the Articles that the present-day US Constitution was drafted. The Articles of Confederation or Articles was a written agreement which laid the guidelines for the functioning of the national government. It was drafted by the Continental Congress and sent to the thirteen original states for ratification in November 1777. Within a few years of its ratification, the Articles was subjected to severe criticism by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Problems with the document existed in plenty; the biggest issue being the fact that it left the national government at the mercy of states. Eventually, it was decided that this agreement had to be revised to suit the needs of the nation as a whole. The delegates at the Philadelphia Convention came to the conclusion that it was better to draft an entirely new constitution instead of revising the existing agreement, and thus came into existence the new US Constitution.
The thirteen American colonies unified by forming a national government that began as a singular body of government under the Articles of Confederation and evolved into a government with multiple branches under the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation acted as a plan of government to help America get back on its feet during and after the Revolutionary War. However, Congress could not enforce the laws of The Articles of Confederation or ensure that their taxes would be collected. After the war America owed a lot of money to other countries and could not pay it unless they started to tax more. They faced serious economic problems and had to rely on the states for money. Therefore, people did not agree with the Articles because it taxed
The Articles of Confederation, while not perfect, created a baseline that helped to form the United States of America. The Articles of Confederation gave the new nation the power to effectively produce some laws and regulations. This power led to land ordinances, which created a starting point for the development and distribution of land. The articles also established a strong power for the states, and a federal power just strong enough to hold the states together. The Articles of Confederation helped to solve some problems that challenged the new nation regarding its basic principles and structure, but it was quickly realized that it caused many problems and needed to be changed drastically.
The three major issues the Articles of Confederation brought upon the United States were: managing the western expansion, foreign relations, and debt.
The Founding Fathers during this time-period was emphasizing the concept of the nation being recognized as a representative democracy back then. In this taking sides, two individuals have two unique and opposite arguments, discussing if the Founding Fathers Democratic Reformers. The first individual was The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, on November 15, 1777. The second continental congress appointed a 13-man committee to commission a federal constitution on June 12, 1776.
As territorial expansion continued, the inability of the Articles of Confederation to control even a small state like Rhode Island narrowed their chances to control the entire new nation. Rhode Island had the option “to reject the recommendation of Congress” (Doc A), seemingly giving all states the right to ignore Congress’ commands. The other way around, when discussing the American army, the Congress had “the inability… to pay their demands” (Doc C). Without the ability to fulfil a citizen’s requests, the states were left to control themselves independently. Additionally, the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation meant “that the better kind of people… will be led by the insecurity of property, the loss of confidence in their rulers, and the want of public faith and rectitude” (Doc G). The Articles of Confederation couldn’t hold any power in the states, couldn’t fulfil states’ requests, and people would lose confidence in the government’s ability to maintain the society. This absence of government connection to both the states and the people forced the farming class towards what was known as Shays’ Rebellion. Due to a lack of central government, each state could tax the crop exchange between states, as well as issue their own currency. Farmers of western Massachusetts were tired of the state lacking these important aspects, and rebelled despite the rebellion’s imminent downfall. Although seemingly unsuccessful, the rebellion proved the faults in the Articles of Confederation. Civic virtue, which was supposed to drive the new nation, was insufficient. Finally, the split between the Articles of Confederation and the states directly influenced the split in political parties. While the Federalists believed the strong central government would help secure
As Document 1 states, legislative rule under the Articles lacked a national court system as well as the power to enforce treaties, raise an army and collect taxes (Doc 2). Stemming from post-war urgency, the Articles reflected the nation’s concern about executive power; however, the lack of an executive meant the lack of effective leadership. Congress had no authority to raise an army on its own and had to requisition troops from the states. Major policy issues required the approval of nine states. Secondly, the United States had accumulated an immense amount of debt that eventually led to a financial crisis. Of course, the country had not developed a centralized government strong enough to combat this obstacle. As a result, high taxes, debt collection as well as other financial strains ravaged the people of the United States, and had a monumental negative effect on lower classes. In Massachusetts, the government refused to print its own money to cover debts, choosing instead to heavily tax its citizens. Many uprisings occurred as a result, namely Shays’ Rebellion. Led by Daniel Shays in response to high taxes and stringent economic conditions, the rebellion was a crucial argument calling for the need for a more centralized government, and urged the question of whether the governments formed under the Articles of Confederation could
The Articles of Confederation proved to be a weak form of government. Because of this, farmers in the North rebelled against states and because of weak tax collections and debts. This became known as Shays’ Rebellion. Shays’ Rebellion showed the government officials how weak the Articles of Confederation really were, and in agreement people felt that they needed a strong central government. John Jay wrote, “That we shall recover, and things again go well, I have no doubt….” (Document 6) Therefore, because of the weak Articles of Confederation, which led to Shays’ Rebellion, the government was eventually changed to the Constitutional Convention that also eventually led to the current Constitution of the United
The Articles of Confederation was an ineffective government, failing both externally and internally due to a weak central government. Externally, other nations refused to trade with America and disputed over territorial gain. Internally, the Articles of Confederation had little distinct power over the states forcing a split into differing political parties and social stratification. With a lack in both external and internal control, the negative aspects of the Articles of Confederation helped the nation towards the positives of the Constitution.
From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation did not provide the United States with an effective government. This is due to the following three reasons: The United States’ lack of an army, nonexistent judicial branch, and surplus of power to the states. After the American Revolution concluded, thousands of soldiers returned home to find little or nothing left. Financial support the government had promised the soldiers with after the war was no longer available due to the inability of the central government to collect taxes as stated in the Articles (Doc. C). This later resulted in Shays’ Rebellion, a march led by Daniel Shays in western Massachusetts during January of 1787.
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution have changed our government by separating how the US is ruled from other governments. In all seven continents, there are hundreds of thousands of countries. Each country has its own way of protecting their people and ruling the country. There are dictatorships, democracies, monarchies, and many other kinds. The Articles of Confederation was the first document that governed the people. After the Revolutionary war was won, the founders wanted a government that was for the people. They wanted to form a strong government where responsible leaders were in charge and an incident like King George never happened. The Articles of Confederation was a brief plan for our government. It didn’t go into as much detail as the Constitution, and some parts of it were unbalanced. The checks and balances we have today that prevents people from getting too much power did not exist in the articles. People were scared of a weak government. What would happen when their fellow citizens got unruly. Others were afraid of a strong government. Would their government use power and fear to rule them in an unjust way? The questions the government officials faced confused and upset the people of the US. Why wasn’t the government taking charge. They won the war, what was it all for? Rebellions such as Shays Rebellion began congregating in the