ipl-logo

The Articles Of Confederation Was A Dismal Failure

1059 Words5 Pages

Towards the end of the Revolutionary War, the founding fathers decided that that the colonies would need some form of government that would unify them. At the same time, they decided that they wanted to avoid creating a monarchial type of government from which they had just split. The period just after the Revolutionary War was a critical time for the fledging country and it was important that the government formed would not only unify the colonies and protect them, not only from foreign countries, but also from destroying themselves internally. The Articles of Confederation, the new nation’s first attempt at creating a framework of government, was a dismal failure. Under the Articles of Confederation, almost all of the power was in …show more content…

Under the Articles of Confederation, there was no Executive Branch of government, no power of taxation, no right for the central government to regulate trade, no way of enforcing any of the laws that it passed and no right to declare war (Congress 1). All thirteen states had to ratify unanimously any legislation for it pass (Blum 118). These restrictions severely limited the national government and made it very weak. “The impotence of Congress made the United States a beggar in the eyes of the world” (Blum 119). It order to rectify the problems created by the Articles of Confederation, a convention was called to rewrite the Articles, but, when the founding fathers gathered in May of Stemple 2 1787, they decided instead to write a new outline for the government of the new nation. This new document, known today as the Constitution of the United States, provided a framework for our government that we still follow to this day (Congress for Kids 5). On May 25, 1787 until September 17, 1787, delegates from twelve of the thirteen states met in the State House in Philadelphia (Blum 120). This gathering, called the …show more content…

When discussing and writing the framework for the new Constitution, the delegates wanted to ensure that the new government would not be able to become all powerful and that no one person would gain absolute power over the people. In order to ensure that no one state would have more power than another, it was decided from the beginning of the process that, no matter how many delegates a state sent, each state would have only one vote when issues were voted upon. Over the next four months, the delegates met in the State House in Philadelphia. The proceedings of these meetings were secret. Early on, the issue of how many representatives each state would have under the new government arose. The larger states supported the Virginia Plan in which the number of representatives was based on a state’s population (Weatherman 2). The smaller states, afraid of losing power in the new government because under that plan their number of representatives would be substantially less would not accept the Virginia Plan and instead opted for the New Jersey Plan in which each state would Stemple

Show More
Related
616 Words | 3 Pages

This men in this house would be elected using the popular vote for each state. The second house would be called the Senate. The men in the House of Representatives would elect members for this house. This proposal favored the larger, more populous states. The smaller states reacted by proposing their own plan, the New Jersey

Read More
516 Words | 3 Pages

A little over a decade after having declared their independence from Great Britain and working together to agree on a rudimentary constitution, the thirteen American colonies found themselves divided on a new issue. Governed by the Articles of Confederation, it soon became evident to all the sovereign states that this doctrine was inadequate, thus the provinces of the east coast convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was the stage for the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where James Madison, William Paterson, and Roger Sherman all argued three of the most crucial proposals that served as aggregates to the United States Constitution. These proposals were known as The Virginia Plan, The New Jersey Plan, and the resulting Connecticut Compromise. Although the convention was originally intended to amend parts of the Articles of

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

Many Americans grew upset with the Confederation government. So Alexander Hamilton a lawyer and General’s Aid to George Washington decided to change the Articles of the Confederation. He called on the National Convention to overhaul the document. He requested that Congress call upon all of the states to attend a gathering in Philadelphia. George Washington was the first to arrive in Philadelphia giving the large amounts of creditability for the meeting bringing 55 men from all of the states.

Read More
297 Words | 2 Pages

Under the Articles, each state only has one vote in Congress, regardless of its size. The larger states wanted presentation to be based on population. James Madison of Virginia crafted the Virginia Plan, which guaranteed equivalent representation and granted powers

Read More
1680 Words | 7 Pages

In an attempt to address concerns dealing with representation of the states in Congress, delegates chosen from the states: Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, and Georgia met in Philadelphia on July 16, 1787 in a meeting called, The Constitutional Convention. Among these delegates was Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Sherman was seen as awkward and unmeaning, giving off the air of a sub-conscious farmer when seated quietly. Although Sherman’s posture and physical appearance was not up to par of other politicians, and gave insight on his background as a Yeoman farmer, his superior intelligence was often recognized and spoken about on a grand level by those

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

On 1787, a constitutional convention was held in Philadelphia state house, where three proposal were suggested: the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, and the Connecticut Compromise. The Virginia Plan intention was to establish a Congress with numerical representation and a more robust national government; however, this proposition led into an opposed proposal called The New Jersey plan. The New Jersey plan was made to make modification to the Articles of Confederation but more importantly, the plan is to make clear of whom has the power of what states. Two delegates from Connecticut were joined together to acquire the image only by the states in senate and numbers in the House, calling it the Connecticut Compromise. As all the Plans I previously mentioned, I will go on depth on how the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, and the Connecticut Compromise shape America today.

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.

Read More
1018 Words | 5 Pages

After the Articles of Confederation failed because they failed to give enough power to the national government and congress, our founding father’s needed to reflect on its flaws for a new system to be set in place. Their new creation, our Constitution, was then set into place, and was created from a basis of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation directly influence the Constitution by its failure by changing some of the responsibilities of the federal and state governments. The Articles of Confederation gave too much power to the states, and the Constitution changed that.

Read More
792 Words | 4 Pages

The Shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation. The United States of America was formed under one banner by the Articles of confederation and was guided by it through the war and its aftermath. This document was the governance behind the unified states and the ordinances that quelled the states’ disputes over the Ohio River Valley. However, despite these great accomplishments the fledgling government under the Articles encountered problems that would bring its demise.

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

Under the Articles of Confederation, the government endured successes and failures while trying to figure out the process of managing what it inherited. From the get go it lacked adequate powers to deal with interstate issues or to enforce its will on the states, and it had little stature in the eyes of the world (p. 153). Little stature because of the unpersuasiveness in keeping Great Britain to fulfilling its terms of the peace treaty and the inability to repay their debt at home and to foreign nations. The nation also faced a postwar depression, state-to-state taxation, and rioting of farmers because of increased taxes which led to Shay’s Rebellion.

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

Under the Articles of Confederation, The U.S. government was ineffective, as a result of the little power granted to Congress, along with weak relationships with other nations, and prompting the need for a centralized government. The biggest reason for the ineffectiveness of the U.S. government under the Articles of Confederation was the lack of power granted to Congress. The lack of power granted to Congress led to a disrespect of Congress’s rulings from the state governments. Whenever a law was passed, mainly, the state governments chose to do what they wanted, neglecting the laws and other commands, which ultimately lead to the disunity throughout the nation. As a result of thes disunity, many nations, Britain included, saw the Americans as weak and unorganized people.

Read More
1104 Words | 5 Pages

It included the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Branches. Most delegates favored this plan because their state would get more seats in the house, having more of a say. Resolving the argument, Roger Sherman came up with The Great Compromise also known as The Connecticut Plan. The government incorporated, two house legislature, containing a Senate and a House of Representatives. The senate would have an equal number of representatives from each state, which fulfilled the New Jersey Plan.

Read More
685 Words | 3 Pages

It had become readily apparent that the US had issues way beyond state power so the founding fathers were anxious that a powerful government would lead to tyranny so they decided to hold a Constitutional Convention, (The Articles of Confederation and Confederation to Constitution, 2017). May of 1787, Delegates from each state excluding Rhode Island met collectively at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to discuss and draft a new constitution for the United States of America, (The Constitutional Convention,2017). According to, (The Issues: Revise or Replace,2017), at first, the delegates disagreed sharply on the fundamental issue of whether they should revise the Articles of Confederation or draft a new document. In the end, the delegates agreed to draft a new document which would be called the Constitution of the United States.

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

The Constitution shaped America into who we are today. It started with the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was “the nation’s first constitution and was written to create a firm league of friendship between the thirteen states”(Crouse, Slide 5). Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the United States Constitution was created(Weatherman). After the United States finally won their independence from Great Britain, they spent their early years governed by the Articles of Confederation.

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

The debated decision would take more than a few favored votes in signing a written document. The Articles of Confederation, being used to unite the new born country after the war, were deemed unfortunately insufficient by the representatives of the thirteen colonies. During this time, the young government was composed of one house that served as the Congress, containing no leader and no court system. This new government had miniscule power over the states, who governed themselves. (3) Consequently, this led the representatives of the 13 states to make a journey to Philadelphia, the capital, where they began to scrutinize possible options, and this meeting would become known as the Constitutional Convention.

Read More

More about The Articles Of Confederation Was A Dismal Failure

Open Document