Examples Of Confederation Was The Strength Of The American Government

Strengthening the American Government During the early years of America, the nation was under the power of the Articles of Confederation. This weak way of leading the nation was unable to control uprisings like Shay’s Rebellion. The government was too weak to take control and tame the rebellion, thus it was decided that the Articles needed to be revised to give the national government more power. At the time the Anti-Federalists feared that the Constitution, which would give more power to the central government, would destroy america, as well as take away rights from the common man. However, the expansion of the central government greatly helped protect the average person's rights and liberties, mainly due to the fact that the central government

When delegates formed The Articles of Confederation “Most delegates realized that the Articles were a flawed compromise, but believed that it was better than an absence of formal national government” (“Articles of Confederation”). To ratify the articles, the states needed to approve of its provisions, some argued that without approval of some type of government foundation that the country would remain weak and divided and open to foreign manipulation. Although the Articles were passed, the national government “only had the power to declare war, appoint military officers, sign treaties, make alliances, appoint foreign ambassadors and manage relations with the American Indians” (“The Articles of Confederation”). Because the national government did not have the power to excise a tax, states would tax its citizens heavily to raise money to pay for the war. These heavy taxes imposed by the states put many farmers into debt, Daniel Shay soon became the leader of a group consisting of angry farmers in Massachusetts, and led them through a violent protest. The national government under the Articles did not have the power to build up an army to terminate this rebellion. “Neither Congress nor the state was able to raise a militia to stop Shays and his followers, so elites assembled a privately paid force to do

“The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states” (Council on Foreign Relations). Confederates initial plan was to have their Navy attack Union commerce at Sea. During this time, commerce raiding was centuries old, Americans had much success raiding British commerce in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. In the end, the South lost. Although the South was not entirely composed of Anti-Federalists, they still opposed the formation of a strong centralized government. Ironically however the North won the Civil War partially because of support gained by a centralized government, and part of the reason that the South lost is because they were unable to maintain a stable government to provide sufficient supplies to the