Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

With a revolution starting, the thirteen colonies needed to implement a new government to replace, and improve upon the British one that the colonies were fighting against. The Founding Fathers’ first attempt at such a government was drafted and defined in the Articles of Confederation. This draft was put in front of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. It was completely ratified and adopted by March 1, 1781. While battles large and small enveloped the fledling country, it was written quickly, and in the grand scheme of things was also adopted and implemented rather quickly. This rush to establish a working government outlined in the Articles of the Confederation made the new central government weak and inefficient, thus leading to a mistrustful

As Armitage states “Each of the 13 states had a vote in the weak national Congress while a vote of 9 states was required in order to pass any laws and a unanimous vote of all 13 states was required for the Articles to be amended.” This gave all of the new states extreme power to make their own laws and pass them while defanging the new central government. It could not raise an army, collect taxes, regulate trade between the states or foreign trade markets, or force states to follow laws it set. The Constituion addresses these weaknesses by declaring that the new Federal Government had enumerated powers that were explicitly listed in Article One, Section 8 of the

Its purpose was to give the people it governs rights instead of having several states compete with each other. It united us. Right from the beginning the Preamble states “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” This highly effective introduction sets the stage to blueprint how this government would now run. It could now raise a standing army and declare war. It could collect taxes to pay for that army. It could regulate trade on foreign and domestic soil. It established a national currency that could be used to pay debts, and it would have the power to borrow money. The Articles of Confederation called for a very weak central government, while the Constitution called for the opposite. The new Congress was apprehensive about giving the Federal Governemnt to much power. They felt it needed to have protections put into place that would act as a checks and