The Articles Of Confederation And An Effective Government

The Greatness and Weakness of The Great Compromise After the Declaration of Independence, U.S. became a nation but didn 't have a government to guide the nation. People, the early settlers, suffered by the excessive power of the Monarch so they wanted to incorporate the ideas of ordered government, limited government, and the representative government. Based on these ideas the Article of Confederation was created. Although it was too weak and inadequate to manage all of the states. As the weakness became palpable, the nation required stronger government system and that 's when the Constitution was created as it saved the nation from the crisis.

However, there were those who were very important people in the revolution who felt that the Constitution would not work, most notably Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine, who felt they were the backbone of the revolution. Those who opposed the Constitution were deemed anti-federalists. This Constitution decreased the power of the states with less people in it, like Rhode Island... The anti-federalists, which also including George Mason, George Clinton, James Monroe, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Robert Yates, Samuel Chase, and Luther Martin, believed that a republican form of government could work on a national scale. They also did not feel that the rights of the individual were properly or sufficiently protected by the new Constitution.

The central government lacked authority; the national government could not collect taxes or force states to comply with their laws. The lack of a strong central government made it difficult for states to operate effectively as one single nation. The state legislatures had too much power under the Articles, so Madison’s goal was to restrain the power of the states. Madison, Jay, and Hamilton, wrote the Federalist Papers to encourage the citizens to support the ratification of the Constitution. Federalist No.10 and No.

The Continental Congress controlled public affairs, but the Articles of Confederation neglected to grant the Congress power to enforce laws or unify the States. Under the Articles, the United States lacked a solid monetary system to ensure that taxes would be paid and to protect commerce, both nationally and foreign trade. Also, without leading national figure, the strong unity America gained during the Revolutionary War began to diminish along with the nations overall strength. Being that Congress had only the power to recommend actions to the states, the Articles were incompetent. Law and recommendations could not be further enforced by Congress.

Yes, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was essential to preserve the Union, as the Articles of Confederation did a meager job establishing a stable America. Only a handful of people from the entire nation were pleased with the issues addressed in the Articles of Confederation. This document didn’t unite the nation, but created more differences among the people. The Articles of Confederation failed to properly allocate power between Congress and the states, giving the states supreme control, rather than Congress. This unbalance in society left each individual state on their own, besides the alliances they could form within each other (creating even more rifts within the country).

It could not enforce its recommendations or laws. Each State had its own constitution, monetary system, and means to enforce the law. Each State had a stronger commitment to the State laws and to the State's own self interests than to the recommendations of Congress. Regionalism pitted one State against another, which decreased the sense of unity in the country. For example, when Congress recommended an impost, or duty, on imported goods, the State of Rhode Island voted to reject the idea because they felt it was unfair and was against the constitution of the State (Document A).

By giving the largest amount of power to the individual state governments, the Articles had created a weak central government. The Articles had created a unicameral government, which meant that there was a one-house legislature with one delegate to represent each state. By not creating individual branches that could maintain a separation of powers, any alteration made to the Articles had to be made by the thirteen states as a whole. When making laws, prior to them being passed, 9 out of 13 states had to rule in favor of it. In doing so, the national government was kept from exercising their power when making decisions.

States had too much power in certain things and this meant that there was a weak national government in the United States. If the states all could do their own things and run their own governments, who was the leader of it all? No one, is the answer. There was such a weak central authority/government that caused chaos and failure. The states were simply looking for a way to replace the British way of ruling that they were fighting against.

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. It is very rare in politics to have a common idea that everyone agrees with. The small states wanted equal representation with the large states in Congress, and the large states were afraid they would have to pay an excessive amount of money to support the federal government. These disagreements also included quarrels over boundary lines, conflicting decisions by state courts, differing tariff laws, and trade restrictions between states (). In addition, the states disagreed over... ... middle of paper ... ... An important aspect, though, is that the Constitution gave the central government enough power to keep the nation in order while still giving the states some independence.

The Articles of Confederation were incapable of providing the United States with an effective form of government. The Articles of Confederation presided weakly over the government as it allowed little or no power to tax, control trade, and branches of government were missing. In addition to this, the thirteen states acted as separate nations and the national government had little control over them. As seen in Document C, Congress had so little money that it couldn’t afford to pay the army their bonuses. The army, of course, was discontented in this lack of action and thought they were being treated unjustly.