Articles Of Confederation Argumentative Essay

The Articles of Confederation were written on November 15, 1777 when the, “Constitutional Congress met to try and come up with a framework or constitution for a new government,” as stated in the textbook Keeping the Republic by Barbour and Wright. The goal was to, “establish a ‘firm league of friendship among thirteen American states, but they did not empower a central government to act effectively on behalf of those states,” argued by Barbour and Wright, and they were not officially in effect until 1781. The Articles of Confederation started off as the first framework of government for the United States in 1781. It served as a stepping stone for the American government in order to create the Constitution.

Replacing the Articles of Confederation

Although there were some positives of the Articles, such as the Northwest Ordinance, which created new states in the Union, there were also some negatives, such how the, "Articles had limited powers: it had no power to tax, it could not compel the states to contribute to financing its operations," as explained by historian Jon Gjerde. Taxes are meant to fund the development or building of something that will help the country.The Articles of Confederation stated that the government would ask for a voluntary donation from the states, who would pay 1/4 of the times that they were supposed to, while the government couldn’t enforce this policy. If this continued, then America would have little to no money to fund anything expensive, such as a war or an exploration of land. Another flaw with the Articles of Confederation, was that, "It had no executive branch and no separate judiciary; instead, it relied on a legislature in which each state had equal representation”. When I read this statement, I thought that it was a fair law, because even though there was only one branch of government, each state had an equal representation, which meant that small states such as New Jersey would have the same amount of power as large states, such as Virginia. This quote made me think about checks and balances, which help watch the other government branches