Articles Of Confederation Power Essay

Some of the problems of the Articles of Confederation were congress had absolutely no power. When they wanted to raise tax, an army or even regulate the foreign trade they couldn’t. Congress had no power over the states to enforce the laws. The Constitution ended up giving Congress something we call today Enumerated Powers. An enumerated power is explained in the Constitution Article 1 Section 8 that are often called “expressed powers”. That then gave the right for Congress to raise taxes and spend the taxes that were collected. The taxes helped raise an army and the general welfare of the people. Another problem was that Congress had absolutely no power over the states. In Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution Federalism was first implemented

The solution to this problem was the separation of powers, which consists of three branches Legislative, Judicial and Executive. Article 1 Section 1 of the constitution is where you’ll find Legislative Branch. The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. They are in charge of passing laws, approving treaties and impeachment. The Executive Branch Article 2 Section 1 is assigned to the President, which the president is the only one to call the shots on war. The Judicial Branch is located in Article 3 Section 1 of the Constitution, that branch has the responsibility of determining laws and how to relate them to society today. In September 1787, a system called Checks and Balances were incorporated in the Constitution. Checks and Balances help control the power of the three separate

George Washington, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were Federalists themselves and favored the Constitution. These men believed that the Constitution was adequate in defending specific rights and believed in ratifying of the Constitution. Federalists often argued that courts had barely any jurisdiction, which left laws up to the state courts. The Bill of Rights was written in September 1789 and put into place December 1791. They were written in order to increase the likelihood of Anti- Federalists to vote for the Constitution. Anti-Federalists wanted the complete opposite of the Federalists. Anti-Federalists were for power of the states and not the government. They believed in the Articles of Confederation that the Constitution wouldn’t defend individual rights. Anti-Federalists such as John Hancock, Patrick Henry and George Mason argued that the Constitution did not include the Bill of Rights and the government had way too much