Comparison Between the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution

Thus, the large states advocated a form of repres... ... middle of paper ... ...ver be passed and creating an inflexible government. The Continental Congress, renamed the Confederation Congress after the Articles of Confederation were ratified, was not an ineffectual body. It led the United States through a war against Great Britain, gained independence, negotiated the Treaty of Paris, and set up an unprecedented system of government. Ultimately, however, this government did not solve many of the new nation’s problems. The ruling document of this Congress, the Articles of Confederation, created a government without the power necessary to perform the tasks it was charged with and claimed the states were sovereign nations while depriving them of essential powers.

Federalism is a form of government that divides power between central government and states government. Federalism allows states to be independent in their own policy making while also integrated within the federal system. This system allows the states to regulate their own issues while also staying connected through the federal system. Federalism is one of the most important and innovative concepts in the United States Constitution, although the word never appears there. In America, the states existed first, and they struggled to create a national government.

The Founders were confronted with a multitude of concerns in the establishment of an American democracy, a fundamental one being how to best apportion power in order to avoid the rule of a “tyrant” individual person or group. The Founders answered this issues with conflicting ideals, and through their experiences in the Revolutionary War and the Articles of Confederation, arrived at a compromise, ratifying the U.S. Constitution The manner in which power in America was balanced was a direct result of being subject to British rule. Authority in the English system was highly centralized, with the power predominately held by crown and parliament. Due to salutary neglect, the colonists had at first became accustomed to managing their own affairs, but in the years prior to the Revolution, had lost the ability to do so when the national government stepped in to exert more control. The colonists dissented, subject to the wishes Grenville ministry, an ocean away, rather than their own.

They were now going to take on an even greater task then fighting the British: establishing a system of government that would be fair and that would be accepted throughout all of America. One thing the founding fathers knew they had to do was establish a document that would unite the states under one system of laws, so they would be a single country. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and could not meet the demands the country as whole needed, so they drafted a new constitution. This new constitution was a brilliant document that expressed how there is no true sovereign power because the power ultimately lies in the people. This document, created in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, was to become the foundation for our country and is still the chief document that the America of today follows.

Their emphasis was placed on the rights and powers of the federal and state governments, not on the implementation of Native Americans into American society. Through the act of Shay’s Rebellion, the leaders of the United States realized the need for a powerful federal government. This realization created the Constitution. Although created to empower the federal government, it gives each

With each state governing on their own the states were not united. But with the adoption of the U.S Constitution, that all changed. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of American. –pg. 171 The preamble of the Constitution helped unify the United States of America into the country that we live in today.

Dana Majewski Due September 28, 2011 Mr. Klaff AP U.S In 1776, when the United States declared independence from Britain, the new country needed a set of laws to apply to all of the states to replace the earlier British rule. The colonists, however, were concerned that if the United States put too much power in the central government the states rights would vanish. Therefore, the first form of government, the Articles of Confederation, gave too much power to the states and insufficient power to the central government. States could create their own money and refuse federal taxes, which caused many tribulations and almost destroyed the new country. In 1787, delegates from twelve states came together to revise the Articles of Constitution to provide the citizens with a stronger central government.

After winning their independence in the American Revolution, America's leaders were hesitant to create a strong centralized government in fear that it would only replace King George III's tyranny. As a result, the first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, gave the national government hardly any power over the states, and created chaos within the nation. Because of the Articles' inefficiency, a new document called the Constitution was drafted. The Constitution created a more centralized government with the separation of powers among executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The ratification of this new constitution created a debate among the federalists and the anti-federalists.

After the Constitution was written, the new born nation was immediately split into two political sides, the federalists and the anti-federalists, over the ratification. Federalists, southern planters or people that tended to hold interest in trade, advocated a strong executive. On the other hand, anti-federalists, back country people or people involved in business but not in the mercantile economy, opposed the ratification of the constitution. The two sides, after much debate, were able to come to a compromise after the Bill of Rights was included into the Constitution. When the new Constitution was drafted, the ratification, the official approval by the people of the United States, sparked a national debate.

Here the government was instituted only by “consent of the governed”, making it clear that Jefferson thought that the only way a ruler or ruling body could be seen as legitimate was if they were elected by the people (Cummings 2015, 64). This was a direct critique of the British King’s rule over the Colonies. For Jefferson, not only was British rule oppressive but also completely illegitimate as it was a system of rulership that did not source its power from the people (Cummings 2015, 65). In addition, the introduction of popular sovereignty as a core governing principle also lent itself to the idea of limited government. If the government “derviv[ed] their just powers” from the people, not from divine authority, as it was with Britain and other monarchies, then it followed that the government would only be able to exercise powers in the areas allocated by the people and, therefore, would be limited to their purview alone (Cummings 2015, 64).