The limited powers of the United States central government under the Articles of Confederation, exemplified by events like Shays' Rebellion, significantly influenced the development of the Constitution between 1777 and 1789, leading to the creation of a stronger and more centralized federal government. This transition from a weak and decentralized government to a more powerful federal authority was a direct response to the challenges and shortcomings experienced under the Articles of Confederation. The period from 1777 to 1789 was marked by the aftermath of the American Revolution and the formation of a new nation. The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777, established a decentralized government with limited powers given to the central authority. However, this system of government faced numerous challenges, including economic instability, lack of national defense, and difficulties in implementing policies.
Settlers in the Western parts of the Unites States during the eighteenth century, sometimes looked to violent protest to express their grievances of political, economic, and social issues. The March of the Paxon Boys, Regulator Movement, Shay’s Rebellion, and The Whiskey Rebellion were all examples of settlers expressing their grievances. The Paxton Boys were frontiersmen of Scots-Irish origin from along the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. They formed a group to retaliate in 1763 against local American Indians in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion. However, this group of men were racial and had political unrest during this time.
The whiskey rebellion was a protest by many Americans who were against the new law that taxed whiskey. This law was put into place in 1791. The United States government was in debt from the war and they decided that taxing whiskey would slowly start eating away at Americas debt. George Washington was in his second year of presidency during 1791 although he wasn't the mastermind behind the whisky tax. Alexander Hamilton was the man behind this idea because he realized that Americans needed to do something to get out of their nearly eighty million dollars in debt they had accumulated from the war.
The Articles were a little over(under?)kill, though, establishing a VERY weak government. The Constitution established a much firmer government by comparison, but it could still change much more easily than other forms of government. The reason the Articles were written was to unify the States, but there were many problems, such as non-uniform currency, laws not being passed, amending being near impossible, and even things like Shays’ Rebellion. The Constitution was created to solve these problems and create a stronger, but still restricted, national government.
It gave the country the inability to form a army, it just wasn’t one of the right of the central government under this constitution. The congress had little to no money, often they would ask individual states for money, and a lot of the times they didn’t receive as much as they asked for. It was also difficult for the people up north to create and pass a law since nine of the thirteen states have to agree upon the new law, which was very hard to get them to do. With this constitution there wasn’t even a national government which means that if a problem had come upon two states it would be settled in one there
Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.
Another silly thing all the founding fathers missed in the Articles is that the continental congress couldn’t enforce any laws. Which in so many words meant that congress could make all the laws they wanted but none of the states had to follow it due to the state government having much more power than the federal government. All the flaws in the Articles in confederation had made many things happen such as Shay’s rebellion and of course the adaptation of our new government which took ten months for the first nine states to ratify the rest of course came one by
The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.
The federal government instituted a legislative branch that deals with creating laws, the executive branch which contains the president, and the judicial branch which is the national court that interprets the law. As a result, checks and balances and separations of powers were created so none of the branches become too powerful. Another reason why Anti-federalists didn’t want to ratify was that there wasn’t a Bill of Rights. Patrick Henry had problems with the Constitution as there were no protections for the rights and liberties that American citizens held. (Doc 6)
The Articles of Confederation was written when the United States was a fairly new country, and from the people wanting to create a different government from the king of England. Although this document respected individual rights, it was too loose of a document that could drive the country to success. After revising what they had created, the founding father of the us the created the us constitution. It was more strict, but still valued peoples rights.
In one hand, the Articles of Confederation had a weak central government, differing form the strong central government in the Constitution. The Constitution’s government had a structure of three different branches; the legislative, executive, and judicial branch; unlike the Articles of Confederation that had no structure whatsoever. The Articles of Confederation had many problems like, the poor international trade, poor foreign relations and a weak economy in contrast to the Constitution that only had one problem, the struggle over the ratification. the Articles of Confederation achieved the Northwest Ordinance and the Northwest Territory and according to a history website, the Constitution achieved that we had a system of checks and balances, that we had a bill of rights, and, eventually, the survival of a bloody civil war intact. Lastly, the Constitution had three compromises: the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Slave Trade compromise.
Due to the fact that Congress had little power, the states acted as if each were their own country, managing their taxes and court systems independently. This was especially a problem during Shay’s rebellion. Because there was no national army, each state should have given a portion of its troops to help build an army. However, no state would assist another unless it received a benefit for doing such. To sum up, while The Articles of Confederation gave the colonists the rights they deserved, America’s weak national
The Articles of Confederation couldn’t deal adequately with many problems that arose during the 1780’s. Some of the problems include National Security and Currency. On the other hand, The Articles of Confederation did have some admirable traits to it. Such as the Ordinances of 1787 and 1785. Though the Articles had some praiseworthy achievements, it did come with some major complications.
Although the Articles of Confederation protected the power of states, it severely limited the power of the federal government. For example, the Articles of Confederation prevented the federal government from regulating imports and exports. This allowed states to disproportionately levy taxes on each other. To rectify this issue, the Constitution granted the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce. Also, the Articles of Confederation prevented the government from raising a standing army, which allowed for events of instability, such as Shay’s Rebellion to form.
The Articles of Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.
