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Pros And Cons Of The Continental Congress

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We the People On November 15th, 1777 the Continental Congress set into motion the first Constitution of the United States. In the early days of the American Revolution Congress knew that a stronger union and more powerful government was going to be essential in order to defeat Great Britain and stand alone. Fear settled in the hearts of the civilians of this new nation as one organization was to be put into place to implement laws. Rumors began to circulate that a republic could not serve a nation as large as the United States sufficiently. The leaders of such a large nation would be unable to stay in touch with the people that they were representing and inevitably the nation would fall to tyranny. The motivation for a central government was essential …show more content…

Congress did not possess the ability to tax and states were not willing to give money to support the government of their own free will. Congress did not have the ability to regulate exchange of business between foreign countries or between the states. This combined with each state printing its own form of money led to an extremely unstable economy. Congress quickly realized that an executive branch was needed in order to inforce the acts they passed; unfortunately it may have been realized too late. In western Massachusetts between 1786 and 1787 a slew of protests arose from local farmers who were opposed to the state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Former captain of the Continental Army Daniel Shay led the protests. He refused to sit back and watch as his fellow Americans were about to lose their farms due to high taxes, economic depression, and bad harvests. Almost every state had its own military force and the national government could not gather enough individuals to ban together. This made ending the protests nearly impossible and the new leader’s hands were

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Redmond Peiro Ms. Smith Maryland State Constitution Paper 9 February, 2016 In the months preceding the American Revolution, a convention was held in Annapolis between a number of Maryland’s most powerful men in which to discuss the development of a new government. In addition to this, they sent representatives to the Continental Congress to finalize pre-war preparations. On July 3, 1776 the convention agreed that a new group was to be created to draw up their first state constitution as the old ad hoc government structure was considered inadequate. “That all government of right originates from the people, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole.”

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The Articles of Confederation, the first governing document in American history, only allowed for one branch of government, Congress, which could lead to one group of people having all of the power, possibly not allowing for representation of all of the social classes. This upper class tyranny was exactly the problem that the colonists had fled from in England, and they were afraid that these issues would continue to plague them in America. This fear led to a very weak central government, whose extremely limited power stunted the development of our young nation. Later, when writing the Northwest Ordinances, Jefferson proposed the idea of having three branches of government, and a system of checks and balances between the three to ensure

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What would happen if the original thirteen colonies never united? What if each state only looked for themselves in a loosely united federation? This chaos is what caused the farmer Daniel Shays to start his rebellion against Massachusetts in 1786. Only three years earlier, the newly created United States of America had won the Revolutionary War. In order to govern the states, the Continental Congress, the only federal assembly governing the US, drafted the Articles of Confederation.

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As it applies to the Articles of Confederation there were many weaknesses in the way it went about governing the United States. For one, the loose federation of the states was too weak to act as a foundation to be considered or act as a central government. In addition the state legislatures had too much power and in turn had the ability to influence economic issues of all kinds. This strong legislature is the same one that allowed for mob ruling and actions by debtors. The Articles of confederation were also weak because the required congress to have all 13 colonies in agreement when a new tax was to be passed.

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Before the U.S. Constitution there was the Articles of Confederation. The document could declare war, negotiate treaties, and control foreign affairs. It couldn’t enforce laws, tax, and raise its own army. What the Articles Of Confederation lacked was a strong central government. Alexander Hamilton called for a constitutional convention in 1786, and it took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787.

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The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations. The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency. 7. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies.

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The Articles of Confederation had too weak of a central government. An example would be Shay’s Rebellion, a group of farmers attacked and shut down the courts, but the Articles didn’t allow them to get an army to

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The first Continental Congress assembled in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1774. One of the leading delegates was Joseph Galloway, a wealthy lawyer and member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was speaker of that colonial legislature from 1766 to 1775. Galloway was a chief exponent of a moderate position toward Great Britain, and he was opposed to the more radical and in flammatory pronouncements of people such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. At the Continental Congress he argued that the delegates were facing two break choices: restoring British-colonial relations to the way they were prior to 1763, which he argued was not possible, and total independence from Britain, which he did not support.

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Shay’s rebellion was a crisis happened in 1780s at rural areas of central and western Massachusetts. At that time, many farmers were bonded to high debt when they started new farm, because of the local government did not handle the economic crisis well, there was no pro-debtor laws (i.e. forgiving debt and print more paper money). They already sent letters to the elected leaders, however, they only getting ignored by the state government, also the national government could not do anything because they had no power under the Articles of Confederation, which had many weaknesses, such as; (1) The national government did not have power to tax, (2) Congress did not have power to forces the states to obey the laws, (3) There was no system of national courts, (4) Congress could declare war and raise army, however it could not force the state

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After the United States declared independence from Great Britain. The Article of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. After a year of reflection, it was submitted to the states for ratification in 1777. It was not approved until 1781. After weak years with the Article of Confederation, in 1789 the Constitution was adopted.

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After declaring of independence from Britain in 1777, the representatives, who participated the Constitutional Congress meetings in 1774, formed together to create the Congress. Power within the Congress believed that creating an official document, a constitution specifically, will create a timeless guide for a beneficial and successful government system for the United States. Not only will that document bring peace between all of the current thirteen-states, but for also the future of America. The first constitution that was officially agreed on was the Articles of Confederation. the Article of Confederation, however, was not as successful as many had thought during the first time it was written.

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Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.

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With the victory against England the newly independent Americans earned an official claim to America and needed to establish a written plan of government for the new states. The Americans sought to implement some form of sovereignty without total power or any influences of monarchy. In 1777, the congressmen generated the Articles of Confederation, defining the union as a “loose confederation of states” existing mainly to “foster a common defense” (Roark 190). However, the Articles of Confederation had many flaws and imperfections. Because it provoked too many conflicts, the Articles of Confederation resulted in failure and was ultimately overturned by an improved document of government, the Constitution.

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The Whiskey Rebellion occurred due to the tax imposed upon whiskey, the growing need to pay off war debts, and the urge to levy government power. The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 occurred mainly throughout West Pennsylvania. The wealthy believed the tax was good for the society, while the laborers believed the government was being too harsh. Farmers rebelled against the tax that Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of State, placed upon whiskey.

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First, the Articles did not allow for the national government to collect taxes from the states or from the citizens, this starved the national government of vital funds it required to survive and function, the Articles provided no way for the national government to regulate commerce amongst the States. Because the states were so fragmented under the Articles, the already anemic central government could not speak to other nations with a cohesive voice, and any amendments to the Articles required the unanimous approval of all 13 states which solidified that no changes would ever be ratified; thus creating a fixed and never improving government. In addition, another downfall of the Articles was its lack of leadership and accountability within the national government, which was made obvious during Shay’s Rebellion in 1786 (Shea, Green, Smith 52). During the 1780s, due to the influx of imports, the United States experienced an economic depression. Farmers were hit the hardest because of the drastic drop in the value of their crops compared to previous years.

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