Compare And Contrast The Articles Of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was the first federal foundational laws of the United States. It was composed due to the conflicting views of the politicians at the time and the need to unite the States during the war. Its development and resoluteness had a sluggish inception due to some Americans uncertainties of the government’s substantial central power and property demands by States. The Articles of Confederation was finally sanctioned on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles, each States stayed autonomous, with Congress having the final say over disputes. Congress was also given the ability to make accords and agreements, uphold armies and currencies. The Articles of Confederation did best with territorial expansion in the West, thanks to the Ordinances that were written for the Articles and the benefits they had. However, under the Articles, the central government had no power to impose taxes and manage commerce, because of this the government was consistently short of funds. Despite the lack of funding, money was still required for the war effort, and Congress' meantime solution was to print nearly $250 million paper currency, this led to major inflation in the States. This deficit urged legislators to find a solution; the Constitution of 1787. Both the Articles and the Constitution worked to preserve a free government, different from the tyrannical rule they have experienced from the British Parliament. Also, both documents allowed states the power to manage mercantilism,

The Constitution that was created had a strong central government and weaker state governments. Under the Constitution, Congress was given the power to levy taxes, regulate trade between the states, raise an army, control interstate commerce, and more. A three-branch government was established in which a judicial branch handled disputes in a federal court system, a President headed an executive branch, and a legislative branch. Conversely, the anti-federalists believed in weak central and strong state governments, as the way it was in The Articles of Confederation and believed in strict adherence to the writings of the constitution.

The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the

The Articles of Confederation were seen by the Anti-Federalists as a solution to finding a government binding document instead of the Constitution. Although the Articles of Confederation could draw up treaties, borrow money, and produce money they could not enforce treaties, repay the money that was borrowed, and it could not stop certain states from the attempts of issuing their own money. These were just some of the reasons the Federalists believed that the Articles of Confederation could no longer be used to run a country. The Constitution was believed to solve all of these problems with the states as a whole but also give the states the power that they longed for. In order for all of the power to be divided, three branches of government were made; executive, legislative, and judicial.

The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.

During this convention, delegates fought long and hard over whether the national government must have direct authority over the people rather than governing the state governments, or if the national government must derive its legitimacy from the people rather than from the states legislatures (Tindall pg. 209). Keeping in mind of the sovereignty of “the people”, the Constitution would be declared as the voice of “the people” and the founders authorized the federal government to set limitations of the state government powers of printing paper money, making treaties, wagging war, and levy tariffs on imported goods. Additionally, the Constitution provided a two-house legislature that included a House of Representatives and a Senate. Representation in the House was based on population which satisfied the large states. Meanwhile, all states had equal representation in the Senate, thus pleasing the small states. Before adopting the Constitution, ratification was needed by nine states. There was a fierce debate over the ratification of the Constitution between the Federalists, the advocates, and the Anti-Federalists, opposers. Anti-Federalist, whose prominent figure and leader was Thomas Jefferson, cautioned that a new national government would become corrupt and tyrannical and emphasized the absence of a

The simple difference between the Articles of Confederation and US Constitution is that the articles were not strong enough to hold our young nation together. The articles operated the US as separate states. Under the articles, it was very difficult to pass laws since the requirement of 9 out of the 13 states ' approval was needed for ratification. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The members of the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787 in

After the Revolutionary War, the thirteen colonies of America gained their independence and had to create their own version of a government. In the year 1777, the Articles of Confederation, written by John Dickinson, served as the United State’s government. More importantly, it provided a basis for the Constitution and established what America needed to improve on, such as taxes and a form of currency. The Articles of Confederation gave the U.S. the ability to organize settlements, create peace, and improve government.

The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution in the United States, congress needed a stronger union for them to be able to defeat Great Britain. The articles of Confederation needed to have a great balance between freedom and order so there wouldn’t be any objections or dissapointments between the union and the people. The articles of confederation and the us constitution had quite some similarities, they were both established by the founding fathers which were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. They both were also the official government of the United States, and they both were the laws of the U.S. government. The Articles of Confederation were the first laws made until Maryland ratified which is

In my opinion the Articles of Confederation was a messy ordeal that the people threw together. The intention of the Articles were to unite the states in a loose alliance, while each state still had its independence. I think they only adopted this because they were in a pickle, I do not think they thought about the issues that would arise out of this Confederation. They wanted this form of government because each state wanted their own independence and this was the only way to get it while forming a confederation. Although the Articles were a messy time it was important for laying down future ideas and foundations. From the Articles we got the concepts of republicanism ,which in other words mean the people would not be governed by queens or

When you build a house you have to have a strong foundation to have a sturdy house, well a government is them same thing. You have to create a reliable foundation to assure a successful country, that is what John Dickinson and James Madison thought when they were assigned to write the first drafts of The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution. These two documents were the most basic rules during and after the Revolutionary War, they assisted with clarifying what the public was expected to follow. It gave citizens of America a glimpse into the future of the government. I will be discussing what each document is and their purpose and then comparing the two to clarify how they were both helpful, yet different from each other.

To understand what the benefits and drawbacks  were, it is important to compare and contrast the positions in which the documents differ. I believe that they are thus:

Between the Articles of Confederation and the creation of the Constitution, democracy shifted from a weak central government in favor of sovereignty lying within the states to a stronger national power. The main focus of the Articles had been to ensure a limited national government in which the states, and thus the people, had the majority of the power and could not be forced to do anything. This system of a confederate government ultimately failed as it rarely was able to deal with the rising problems facing this new nation; the result of this failure leading to the creation of the Constitution. Though many were ready to create a new government in which the national had more control than the states, even if that meant losing some power of

Nonetheless, disagreements and various opinions lead to the formation of two different groups. The Federalists, and the Anti-Federalists. The Anti-Federalists opposed this revision of the Constitution, because they did not approve of one single, strong, central government. A long list of possible abuses of power by the central government were written by the Anti-Feds, which included a Constitution’s lack of protection for individual rights, and ignoring the rights of the majority people. The Federalists, on the other hand, were in favor of the Constitution, because they approved the balance of power between the central government and the states governments. In their opinion, the division of powers and a system of checks and balances among other branches from the government, would prevent any tyrannical actions. These branches of government were the Judicial Branch, which held the Supreme Court, the Legislative Branch that concluded of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Executive Branch which included of only the president. Each of these branches, had a “check and balance” with each

The Articles of Confederation were written and ratified in 1781 and the first thing it states is, “We the People”. This phrase was written because they were afraid of strong government. This first statement shows that we as a people have to stick together and not become separated by a higher power, being government. We need a strong State Government. We can’t repeat the same thing we revolted and fought for, independence, and a will for a perfect government without an exceeding amount of power. and we can't let the same thing happen again