A comparison and contrast of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of 1787. The Articles of Confederation voted on and adopted by the Continental Congress, November 15, 1777 (Carey, 2013). It was the first constitution of America, though complete ratification of the Articles of Confederation by all thirteen states did not take place until March 1, 1781. After some of the states realized that the Articles of Confederation did not adequately resolve the national and international issues that the United States was facing. As a result, on March 4, 1789, the Articles of Confederation were then replaced by the new Constitution of 1787. This new constitution was signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia (Grubb, 2006). In the new constitution, members tried to strengthen the central government. The new constitution was the demand of time. It was more practical. It was broader than the article of Confederation. Under article of Confederation, states were free to form their military. But under the new Constitution of 1787, this power was taken from the states and given to the centre. In new constitution, foreign affair and defense department was given to federal government. No state was given power to sign treaties with other nations. Some changes were also brought in the composition of congress under the new constitution. Now, seats in Congress were decided on the basis of the population of each state. On various instances, it was observed that the Articles of Confederation was insufficient and ineffective to tackle the problems. In 1786, Shays' Rebellion occurred in the western Massachusetts area in a major protest to the rising debt and terrible economy (Monty, 2011). Th... ... middle of paper ... ...he articles of confederation. Public Choice, 109(1-2), 205. http://search.proquest.com/docview/207143359?accountid=44759 KEITH, L. D., & MICHAEL, J. G. C. (1997). Marginal cost sharing and the articles of confederation. Public Choice (1986-1998), 90(1-4), 201. http://search.proquest.com/docview/194644735?accountid=44759 Keith, L. D., & Jac, C. H. (2006). A pivotal voter from a pivotal state: Roger Sherman at the constitutional convention. The American Political Science Review, 100(2), 297-302. http://search.proquest.com/docview/214442876?accountid=44759 Monty, G. M. (2011). The measurement of democracy and the means of history. Society, 48(1), 24-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12115-010-9390-7 Public administration under the article of confederation. (1990). Public Administration Quarterly, 13(4), 433. http://search.proquest.com/docview/226967799?accountid=44759
There were many differences between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. At the end of the American Revolution the free states needed some sort of control that would generate to a unified country. Issues arose such as: How should power be divided between local and national governments? How should laws be made, and by whom? Who should be authorized to govern those laws? How could the government be designed to protect the unalienable individual rights? Their first attempt at solving this issue was the Articles of Confederation, which was a failure for the most part, but not completely. After the failure of the articles, the state delegates tried to revise the articles, but instead, constructed the Constitution. There were so many changes made and very little remained the same.
Beard, Charles Austin. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1998. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2014
Approved on 15th of November in 1777 by Congress and confirmed by the state on March 1, 1781, The Articles of Confederation were a humbled effort by a new country to consolidate itself and to create an ideal national government. The Articles were said to have been a “firm league of friendship” () between the states which means that these thirteen states would cooperate and commute together, but leaving out a principal form of government; hence to give limited powers to the central government. However, to some states the current form of government was not satisfying because the Articles of Confederation will come out to be too disadvantageous. Constitution will become the saving grace for America. Written in 1787, Constitution was requesting united and more powerful government.
The Articles of Confederation were approved by Congress on November 15, 1777 and ratified by the states on March 1, 1781. It was a modest attempt by a new country to unite itself and form a national government. The Articles set up a Confederation that gave most of the power to the states. Many problems arose and so a new Constitution was written in 1787 in Independence Hall. The new Constitution called for a much more unified government with a lot more power. Let us now examine the changes that were undertaken.
By throwing off the British monarchy it left the states without a central government. The states needed a new government and fast, which paved way for the first constitution, the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was started on November 15th 1777, and was in force on March 1, 1781. It was written to bring a union between the 13 states: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
In comparing the Articles of Confederation with the U.S constitution that was produced by the federal convention in 1787, it is important to note that the U.S operated under both documents. During March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation went into effect when it was ratified by Maryland. However, the U.S constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation as soon as it was ratified on June 21, 1788 by New Hampshire. The main difference between the Articles of Confederations and the U.S Constitution is that the constitution didn’t force the laws, but established the why of the constitution. In establishing the why, it warranted the farmers to work on the government being better than the Articles of Confederations. They wanted the government
Feldmeth, Greg. 1998. Articles of Confederation vs. the Constitution. March 31. Accessed January 22, 2014. http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/chart.art.html.
Following the failure of the Articles of Confederation, a debate arose discussing how a centralized government ought to be organized. The prevailing opinion ultimately belonged to the Federalists, whose philosophy was famously outlined in The Federalist Papers. Recognizing that in a free nation, man would naturally divide himself into factions, they chose not to remedy this problem by stopping it at its source; instead, they would limit its effects by placing strict structural safeguards within the government's framework. The Federalists defined a facti...
Kimberling, William C. “The Electoral College.” Federal Election Commission, May 1992. Web. 13 March 2012.
The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781 represented the former colonist’s first attempt to establish a new government after the Revolutionary War. These Articles provided a weak political document that was meant to keep the states united temporarily. The states had all the power, so any changes made to the Article of Confederation would take every state to approve it or amend it. In February 1787, Congress decided that a convention should be convened to revise the Article of Confederation (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2009). Congress felt the Article of Confederation was not enough to effectively deal with the young nations issues. Congress knew it was time for the country to move forward, and to do that, there would be some big changes ahead, and that was the end of the Articles of Confederation, and the beginning of the created US Constitution.
Kimberling, William C. “The Electoral College.” Federal Election Commission. May. 1992. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
3. Beard, Charles A. "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States". American Politics. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. 1999. (Pages 27 -- 33).
Currie. David P. The Constitution in Congress: Democrats and Whigs, 1829-1861, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (2005), 344pp. ISBN: 0226129004.
Spaeth, Harold J. and Edward Conrad Smith. The Constitution of the United States, 13th ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991 (paper). ISBN 0064671054.
When the Articles of Confederation were in use, America was a young nation still recovering from a costly war. The central problem by the early 1780...