More handpicked essays just for you.
Which was a main reason for creating the Articles of Confederation
The confederation and constitution
The confederation and constitution
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
After fighting for America’s independence the nation was faced with the situation of developing their own government; with that idea the Articles of Confederation were made as a way to define the government’s structure. With the articles came dysfunction, and a lack of authority. Consequently the dysfunction caused division in the nation, separating the people into two political parties, Federalist and anti-federalist. The parties developed over time and discord, with the development of the Constitution into the Federalist Party and the Democratic Republican Party. The two parties, the Federalist, and the Democratic Republicans, based on their backgrounds and means of income, opposed each other with differing political and economic views.
During the Constitutional Convention, the delegates came up two plans. One plan is called the Virginia Plan drafted by James Madison that the number of representatives are depend on the population of the state. Another Plan is called the New Jersey plan presented by William Paterson that every state should have two representatives. At last, they ended up with a new plan called the Hamilton Plan which was unsatisfied with the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. “The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand.”
Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist on Taxation Although the Articles of Confederation had its flaws, not everyone agreed with the Constitution. Under the Articles, the federal government had no taxing authority. This posed a major problem. After the War for Independence, the new country had various forms of debt.
Every state would have the same amount of representatives in the upper house (Robertson). This was a simple compromise that was needed because we could not all agree on one set of rules. The Great Compromise is “game changer” that saved
The authors of the Constitution created a balance between federal and state government by creating federalism or a division of powers with checks and balances while maintaining the separation of powers. That being said, the Virginia Plan of having every state hold a two-house legislature was debated against the New Jersey Plan that entailed a single house Congress (Foner, 2014). The end result was a two-house Congress in which each state could then have two senate members that are required to serve for one term of six years and a House of Representatives in which member were elected directly by the people every two years. This system made sure that each population was represented equally despite one state being larger than the other (Foner,
An effective legislature that the Constitution designed assisted with the issues of representation and making decisions, powers which the Articles of Confederation lacked proper ability to perform. The Articles of Confederation gave each state one vote, regardless of its size. This caused unequal and limited representation, with only 13 votes in total. To fix this, the Constitution added a bicameral congress, with a House of Representatives and a Senate. The Senate would have equal state representation, and the House of Representatives would have members based on state population.
States such as New York, with a small population wanted representation in both houses of the legislature to be based on the population. States with a large population wanted each state to have the same number of representatives. Due to this disagreement the debate continued. Without the vote of Rhode Island, the proposals of the
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of a newly formed country. Congress ratified the Articles in 1881. The Articles of Confederation gave the states significant power, but defined a weak central government. For example, the central government could not impose taxes. They could only collect revenue when states made donations.
Alexander Hamiltion had wrote The Federalist 21 to express the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The Federalist 21 talks about many weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The specific weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation according to The Federalsit 21 included the following, the first weakness is the inability of the government to enforce its legistation. The government could pass laws but could not force the laws on the states. States could choice to disregard the laws without conquences from the government.
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 articles of confederation were not truly democratic because of the leadership and the voting policy. The central authority of a confederation is usually a weak body appointed by the member states who usually will focus on joint foreign policy and defense matters, but rarely will have the power to do much more than that.. Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States was a Confederacy. The whole Government of the United States was vested in one body, The Congress Assembled, no official, no legal. The capacity of law authorization and judging law went by Congress was left to the States.
The House of Representatives had representatives from each state based on that state’s population. The Senate has equal amount of representatives from each state. This made it fair for all states in decisions. In our unit 5.3 packet, it explains how under the New Jersey Plan there would be one house, with equal amounts of representatives from each state not making it fair for bigger states. It also describes the Virginia Plan, and how there were 2 houses, both based on states population, not making it fair for smaller states.
The Untied States put the Articles of Confederation into place on March 1st, 1781, during the Revolutionary War. It was the first form of national government in the U.S. The Articles gave the majority of power to the individual states and limited power to the national government, this power structure was chosen due to the British excessive control on the colonies. Soon it became apparent that the Articles of Confederation was not sufficient means of governing the populace. Therefore in May of 1787, delegates from the thirteen states arrived in Philadelphia to improve the Articles and prevent the country from collapsing.
After no progress of which plan to go through with, Roger Sherman came up with the Great Compromise. The compromise called for two house legislator. Members of the house of representatives or the lower house would be elected by popular vote. Members of the Senate or the upper house would be chosen by the state legislators. Each state would only have two senators no matter the size, or population of the state.
Articles of Confederation vs. U.S. Constitution The Articles of the Confederation and the U.S. Constitution are two articles that where written and accepted by the United States as a foundation for their new government. They are both very important documents that have similarities and differences. Some of the main things the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution have in common is that they addressed the needs of its constituencies.
