Compare And Contrast The Articles Of Confederation Vs The Constitution

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The Articles of Confederation vs The Constitution When the idea of replacing the Articles of Confederation was introduced to the American citizens, there were many different reactions to it. People got in lots of debates associated with the idea of the Constitution. After winning Independence against Great Britain on July 4, 1776 Americans created the Articles of Confederation as a form of national government and established their own state governments as well. After many years of having the Articles of Confederation as the source of government for the thirteen states, problems started to arise and people started to see the weaknesses in the Articles. Eventually some of the citizens wanted to revise the Articles of Confederation. So, in 1787, delegates from the 13 states all met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to revise …show more content…

In document 3 George Washington says “ We have errors to correct. We have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation.” He also talks about how the Articles have many problems and how the government gave too much power to the people. The government had so little power, that they couldn’t control the states very well and the states pretty much became independent countries. Since their was no judicial system before the Constitution, the states could practically overturn any law they wanted because Congress could not enforce laws. This created many problems and became very unfair for the people. Another important problem was that Congress could not regulate trade. This caused a problem because they could not trade with foreign countries. According to document 1, “Ships were rotting in the harbors..” because they could not be used to export and import foreign goods. After the Revolutionary War, America was in great debt and they had no way to get rid of their debt since they could not tax the