Comparing the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution

In contrast, William Paterson submitted the New Jersey Plan which merely amended the Articles by giving the federal government more power. Ultimately, the Articles were abolished, the Virginia Plan was chosen, and the Constitution was adopted. The Constitutional delegates wrote the Constitution with the goals of creating commensurate representation, answering the question of state sovereignty, and ensuring a government that was free from tyranny. The Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781, and the United States government operated under them for eight years. From 1776 through 1787, two political parties dominated in America – the Federalists and the Nationalists.

The Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777 were accepted by Congress, but not ratified by all the states until March 1, 1781, Maryland was the last state to ratify. The Articles were a humble attempt to form a national government by a new country trying to unite itself. The Articles of Confederation, however, wanted the states to have the majority of the power. The Articles government was very weak, but this was done on purpose, because after finally gaining independence from Britain, they feared that a strong central government would lead to an empowerment of another monarchy. Alexander Hamilton called for a convention to be held in Massachusetts to advise congress to “render the constitution”.

As a federalist Alexander Hamilton wanted to establish a stronger federal government under a new Constitution. He met in Philadelphia with other delegates to discuss how to fix the Articles of Confederation that created a weak central government. During the meeting, Hamilton expressed his view that a dependable current source of revenue would be crucial to develop a more powerful and resilient central government. Although Hamilton played a diminutive part in the writing of the Constitution itself, he did heavily influence its ratification. In cooperation with James Madison and  John Jay, Hamilton wrote fifty one of eighty five essays under the joint title The Federalist “The Federalist Paper.” In the essays, he cunningly explained and defended the newly drafted Constitution prior to its approval.

The Christian Science Monitor. 26 October, 2005. PG 8. . EBSCOhost Redlands Community College. 5 November, 2005. http://library.redlandscc.edu.

Congress had the power to set up a postal department, to estimate the costs of the government and request donations from the states, to raise armed forces, and to control the development of the western territories. With the consent of nine of the thirteen states, Congress could also coin, borrow, or appropriate money as well as declare war and enter into treaties and alliances with foreign nations” (). A problem arose early in the first years of the Articles of Confederation. This problem was one of the main downfalls of the Articles, and one of the main reasons why the Constitution was born. This dilemma was that there were many disagreements among the states, and there could be no amendments made to the Articles unless there was a unanimous vote.

The first attempt at constitution, the Articles of Confederation, failed miserably. The constitution that was established in 1787 faced its fair share of debate, opposition and compromise before being ratified and becoming the new and improved United States government. The road to ratifying the constitution all began with the Revolutionary War. Americans were not unhappy being under British rule, they just believed they were entitled to the same rights and benefits of all the subjects of the king. At first the war was not about obtaining freedom from Great Britain but protecting the liberties of the colonial people.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 gave Madison the opportunity for which he had so long prepared. Success, he believed, was imperative because failure would lead to a return to monarchy or to the dissolution of the United Staes into several different governments. Basing his theories on the historical ... ... middle of paper ... ...y solved the problem of representation. His plan called for the creation of a senate that gave equal representation to all states and a lower house with representation based on population. Roger Sherman's public career reflected the heritage and concerns of his native New England.

The Founding of Our Nations Government The Articles of Confederation were extremely important in the founding of our government today. The Articles gave us a sort of good base to start from, and was ground breaking in the shaping of our new nation. The Articles of Confederation were written by a Second Continental Congressional committee during the early part of the American Revolution in 1777. A report of the proposed articles was presented to the committee by John Dickson (committee head) just eight days after the signing of the Declaration Of Independence. The fear of the 13 colonies was to have a powerful central government, as they did in Great Britain.

Towards the end of the Revolutionary War, the people felt they needed a document to secure their independence from Britain. This document was the Articles of Confederation. Shortly after that, a new document was formed to what we know as the Constitution of the United States. These documents were similar but more different at the same time with each other, and each granted specific powers to the national government. By throwing off the British monarchy it left the states without a central government.

When the founders of our country created the Constitution they wanted to created a long lasting document that addressed the concerns of all citizens. Before the Constitution was created society was governed by the Articles of Confederation which proved to be inadequate. There were two proposed plans that were put forth at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to address the problems of governing the U.S. These plans were the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan which mainly focused on the issues of representation among states. These plans were distinctly different from one other and in the end they resulted in the Great Compromise which included elements from both documents.