It was the mid-late 1700s, and America had finally achieved and received independence from Great Britain. Peace in America on the other hand, not so much. After gaining independence, the Articles of Confederation were made as a system of government for the United States, but gave very imbalanced power between federal and state levels. For example, on the federal level, the national government couldn't force a state to pay taxes. To try to amend the Articles, in 1787, a meeting made up of delegates representing the states was called up, but instead, what would be created is what we now know as the Constitution. But how exactly did this document remedy the flaws of the Articles, and prevent tyranny from unjust amounts and usage of power? The Constitution helped stop tyranny in government with a …show more content…
At the time, larger states like Virginia were creating an unfair amount of power for themselves that the small states didn’t have. In the new government, Congress was created to make laws, and was made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives would give states a number of Representatives they could have based on their population. This would give fair power deserved to the larger states. The Senate however would be two and only two Senators for each state, no matter how large or small, bringing some equality to Congress. With these different balances to control the powers throughout the new government, the problem of tyranny wasn’t as such of a problem as it was when the Articles of Confederation were in place. The states were now represented justly, the national and state levels of government fairly empowered, and the three branches within the national government were balanced. Even the three branches within balanced each other out, so one wouldn’t become too under or over powered. The new government created by the Constitution was a good answer to protect against
The thirteen states formed a Confederation referred to as the “league of friendship” in order to find a solution for common problems such as foreign affairs.The Articles of Confederation was the nation’s first Constitution. The articles created a loose Confederation of independent states that gave limited powers to the central government. Each state would have one vote in the house of Congress, no matter the size of the population. Members of the one-house Congress, such as Pennsylvania, agreed that the new government should be a unicameral legislature, without an executive branch or a separate judiciary. Under the articles, there wasn’t a strong independent executive. There wasn’t any judicial branch but Congress had the authority to arbitrate disputes between states. Congress was responsible for conducting foreign affairs, declaring war or peace, maintaining an army and navy and a variety of other lesser functions. But the articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws. Because of this, the central government had to request donations from the states to finance its operations and raise armed forces.
The Articles of Confederation and its ideas were strong and powerful in bettering the US and its government. However, the realization of its ideas and an improvement of federal government and states representatives were not successful enough. On the other hand, the government under the Constitution was radically different from the one under the Articles of Confederation. United State's economical, political, cultural, and social aspects and statuses changed under the new type of powerful government, with different type of voting, and by the new way of levying taxes. Constitution of the US prevented people from gaining too much power, and it was the greatest success of the US government.
Under the Articles each state could send between 2 and 7 delegates to Congress. In the Constitution each state was allowed 2 members in the Senate and 1 representative per 30,000 people (this number has now increased greatly) in the House of Representatives. As I stated earlier each state wanted to be represented according to different factors. The states with bigger populations wanted representation to be based solely off of population. The states with smaller populations wanted there to be a fixed number of representatives per state, regardless of size or population.
The Articles of Confederation was the United States first attempt at creating a democratic government. Instead of giving power to the central government they divided it up among the states (Kelly). This fact left the Articles with many weaknesses that ultimately led it to fail. The lack of a strong central government led to economic disorganization, no central leadership and an ineffective legislative, all which led to its downfall (Brackemyre). Leaving power to the states left the nation in a state of economic disorganization. Without the national government having the power to levy taxes, it was left with the states (Murphy). The legislature only had the right to request taxes, and it was left up to the states how they wanted to raise them, but they oftentimes weren't (Brackemyre). There was also no uniform system of currency which made trade between states difficult. The fact that states instead of Congress regulated trade led to a lack...
Analyze the degree to which the Articles provided an effective form of government with respect to any two of the following: Foreign Relations, Economic Conditions, or Western Lands
The Articles of Confederation was the first government of the United States. The Articles had created a very weak national government. At the time the Articles were approved, they had served the will of the people. Americans had just fought a war to get freedom from a great national authority--King George III (Patterson 34). But after this government was put to use, it was evident that it was not going to keep peace between the states. The conflicts got so frequent and malicious that George Washington wondered if the “United” States should be called a Union (Patterson 35). Shays’ Rebellion finally made it evident to the public that the government needed a change.
small states wanted equal representation with the large states in Congress, and the large states
The United states was founded independence from Great Britain it’s founding fathers realized from their experiences that the a new document of law was needed. They thought that they should establish something to preserve the U.S. new found independence while maintaining order. However the first documation that was created by the founding fathers was called the Articles of Confederation. The Article of Confederation did preserve the U.S. new found independence but it did not maintain order. From my point of view the Articles of Confederation was created to satisfy the needs of every state. When they were abiding by the Articles of Confederation each state view it’s own authority and power as superior to the who was in charged. However, this lead to recurring arguments between the states. In addition, the states would not willingly give money to financially support the national government. As a result the government was powerless to enforce any acts that Congress passe. Furthermore, some states began to make individual agreements with foreign
The primary people that received authorship for the Constitution include, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and John Adams. In addition, George Washington is credited for taking responsibility for overseeing the Constitutional Convention. By 1786, Americans realized that the Articles of Confederation needed to be revised and edited. The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14th to September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The fundamental reason of this convention was to revise the Articles of Confederation but the delegates had much bigger plans. A secondary reason behind the convention was to decide how America was going to be governed. When there was ideas proposed to upgrade the Articles of Confederation, “The
The Articles of Confederation’s were written for a purpose, in the first place. This was done in hopes these articles would help guide and resolve problems that existed under the British rule. These articles were needed because the people were becoming increasingly disgruntled with the British government. The Revolutionary war had been fought because of anger and outrage for the British government. Thus, the Articles of Confederation were presented as a solution (Wilson, DiIulio, Jr. and Bose).
The year of 1776 was a time of revolution, independence, and patriotism. American colonists had severed their umbilical cord to the Mother Country and declared themselves “Free and Independent States”.1 The chains of monarchy had been thrown off and a new government was formed. Shying away from a totalitarian government, the Second Continental Congress drafted a document called the Articles of Confederation which established a loose union of the states. It was an attempt at self-government that ended in failure. The Articles of Confederation had many defects which included a weak central government that lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, required equal representation and a unanimous vote to amend the Articles, and had only a legislative branch. As a result the United States lacked respect from foreign countries. These flaws were so severe that a new government had to be drafted and as a result the Constitution was born. This document remedied the weak points of the federal government and created one that was strong and fair, yet still governed by the people.
To change that, they decided to put in the Constitution that Congress has the right to regulate trade between states. The passing of laws was complicated because again the congress could only do so much with the little power that they had and to approve legislation they needed 9 of 13 of the states to approve. There was not a strong government provided and that’s was something that the leaders wanted to change. There were three branches of government created independently so that no branch could control the other. There was the Executive Branch which was the White House (President and Vice President), the Legislative Branch which was the U.S. Capital (Congress, House of Representatives, and Senate), and the Judicial branch which was the Supreme Court. Under the Constitution in order to pass laws, they needed 50%+1 of both houses plus signature of the
The delegates finally came to the decision to create a new and improved set of principles, which would become known as the United States Constitution. This refined version provided the government with a more defined and stronger rule by allowing it to finally regulate taxes, control commerce, and draft troops. Plus, unlike the Articles of Confederation, it called for the creation of an executive branch in government, which allowed for laws to be more heavily enforced. However, in order to insure that one branch did not gain more power than another, check and balances became established as well, and it essentially divided power between all three branches.
The Articles of Confederation was the first form of government that was created after the United States received their independence from Great Britain. It was a decentralized government where the national government got their power from the states. The state government power was much more supreme than the federal government’s. There are many events that proved that this type of government was really weak and that there needed to be a change. There was absence in the balance of power between the states, national government and the people. One of the problems that was visible is that the weak federal government. State government concentrated a lot of the power. The need for this change was seen when Shays Rebellion took place in 1786.
Essay IV The Articles of Confederation was one of the first official documents of the United States. The purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to create a confederation of states whereby each state retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence. Every state was as independent as possible, with the Federal government only responsible for the common defense, security of liberties, and the general welfare. There were many problems that soon became evident as the Articles took effect, the Articles contained more weaknesses than strengths which let the authority to get rid of them and create a new document.