Problems With The Articles Of Confederation

The United States ratified the Articles of Confederation in the year 1781. The Articles were the first system of national government of the country. Because it was the first national government, the Articles of Confederation had multiple problems that made it a poor form of government. These problems would lead to the calling of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where a new system of government would be created. The new system of government was provided by the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Constitution supplied a better foundation for a national government than the Articles of Confederation, but it still created divisions among the delegates that were to ratify the document. The delegates were subdivided into the Federalists and the Antifederalists:

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was given limited powers. Two major problems that made the Articles of Confederation a weak government were Congress’s inability to collect taxes, and also the lack of a national court system (political cartoon titled “Rough Sailing Ahead?”). Since Congress did not have the power to collect taxes, it was unable to pay off the country’s war debts. As a result of unpaid debts, property owners began to lose their possessions. These property owners, mostly farmers, began to conduct uprisings such as Shays’ Rebellion. Another problem that made the Articles of Confederation a poor government was the absence of a national court system. Without a national court system, there was no way of enforcing laws and punishing those who broke them. Furthermore, without a national courts system, the farmer uprisings could not be suppressed. As stated by George Washington in his letter to James Madison, “ If there exists no power to check them, what security has a man for life, liberty, or property?”, which basically means that if there was no form of enforcing laws, then the security of the nation was under

One major difference between both groups was that The Federalists supported the creation of a strong federal government, but the Antifederalists wanted more power for the states (Debate over Ratification of the United States Constitution). Moreover, the Antifederalists believed that the Constitution would limit the power of the people and give more power to the government. A second important difference between the two groups was that the Antifederalists demanded the inclusion of a bill of rights but the Federalists opposed the idea. The bill of rights was called for in order to protect the individual liberties of American citizens, which was not already included in the Constitution (The Constitution Webquest). Before being able to ratify the document, the writing of a bill of rights was