Reasons For The Flaws Of The Framers

Evolution of Taxation in the Constitution – The Articles of Confederation The first constitution of the United States was actually The Articles of Confederation, which were ratified on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were a wartime attempt to bring the states together under federal authority. There are several key elements that were missing from the Articles of Confederation, which led to the need for the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

There are also a lot of flaws when it came the The Articles of Confederation. For example, if they had agreed to the Article the Congress could not draft troops, the states had to contribute men for war. Another thing

While under the Articles of Confederation, the government deemed to be unfit for the newfound, thriving country. In order to keep this nation thriving, our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. Originally, the Constitution was to only replace the Articles of Confederation. However, its amendments portrayed the struggles of once stolen rights and gave the nation a push in the right direction for their federal government. Therefore, the Constitution was a story of America’s rough past that molded the nation into this remarkable society.

Without taxes, the federal government was unable to raise or maintain a standing military. This inability to provide for the common defense caused individual states to increase their militaries and a lack of trust became evident between the government and each of the thirteen states. Since Congress couldn't raise money through taxes or control/regulate trade its only revenue was through essentially asking for donations. This left the New American Republic unable to pay back its debt to France or any other national debt. However, with a federal constitution congress would be able to regulate commerce and levy taxes.

Congress couldn't demand charges or direct trade. Due to far reaching trepidation of a solid focal government at the time they were composed and solid loyalties among Americans to their own state rather than any national government amid the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation intentionally kept the national government as frail as would be prudent and the states as free as could be allowed. This prompted numerous issues that wound up noticeably evident once the Articles produced results. The shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation would rapidly prompt issues that the Founding Fathers acknowledged would not be fixable under the present type of government. These incorporated the accompanying: 1.

The problems that related to the federal government by the Articles were that they had no ability to levy taxes and had limited sources of credit (Schultz). This debt was but one of three problems they faced, another of which being the lack of unanimity to make any type of changes. Without a leader within the group, the issue of internal trade also became a weakness of the Articles' laws. One example is that each state had their own form of money which inhibited the trade system between them and discouraged regional projects for development which stunted

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.

The period between the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781 and the drafting of the new Constitution in 1787 was one of weakness, dissension and turmoil. Under the Articles of Confederation, no provisions were made for an executive branch to enforce the laws nor for a national court system to interpret them. A legislative Congress was the sole organ of the national government, but it had no power to force the states to do anything against their will. It could declare war and raise an army, but it could not force any state to meet its assigned quota for troops or for the arms and equipment needed to support them. It looked to the states for the income needed to finance its activities, but it could not punish a state for not contributing its share of the federal budget.

The United States of America as they stand today are a result of the evolution of the frameworks our founding fathers set in to place long ago. Among them were the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia and New Jersey plans, the Federalist Papers, and the Constitution. Beginning with the original frame work for the government of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, established in 1781, formed a firm league of friendship among the states, instead of a government for the people (Dye, Gaddie 66). The United States fared well under the Articles of Confederation. With success in gaining independence from Great Britain, gaining France as an ally and establishing a viable peace.

This proved to be difficult since the federal government could not levy taxes and therefore had to resort to begging and pleading with the state to submit their share of the taxes that they collected in order to provide the mutual defense and costs associated in paying off the debts of war. The federal government had no power to enforce the collection of taxes. One of the major changes in the current Constitution was the ability of the federal government to collect taxes and enforce the collection of taxes. The ability to collect and enforce collection of taxes was a better institutional design cause the government could provide services to its citizens without many free loading citizens and states.

They were weak because they had no courts, no executive branch, no power to levy taxes, and no power to govern the government. “The Articles of Confederation failed because they did not give Congress and the national government enough power. The new United States just fought a war to end what they considered tyrannical rule of a strong government that overpowered local government and the leaders of the U.S. feared a powerful central government. ”(Tilva1) Many disputes took place during this time which resulted in the expulsion of many revolts, mobs, and protests.

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.

As the Article 4 states, “Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.” The responsibility of the entire branch of jurisdiction was given to the states and no system of courts existed on the national level. The states could ignore any national law they disagreed with and the Congress could no nothing because it possessed no means of enforcing the law. The Articles also failed to appoint a single person as the head of the executive branch, which, consequently, meant that there was no single person that would be suitable to act as the chief diplomat of the nation. This put America at a disadvantage as they had little to no means for conducting any foreign affairs.

Some of the issues that the United States had to deal with under the Articles of Confederation were: there was an inability to raise funds, the need for unanimity to make necessary changes, and the lack of authority over internal trade; thus, causing the Articles of Confederation to fail miserably in meeting the needs of the new nation. To begin with, the inability to raise funds was a primary weakness of the Articles of Confederation. As it stands, the Articles stipulated that Congress could not levy taxes. This was an unfortunate challenge for a new nation who was in debt as a result of the war.

had major issues that lead to exposure of problems through, what could have been, dangerous events like Shay’s Rebellion. Although crushed before it could do substantial damage to the country, this group of 300 men exposed some serious problems with the A of C. Some of these include the government not having a standing army, and the fact the the national government couldn’t levy taxes. Under the Articles, the states had these powers under the idea that a weak Federal government was best. One of the first privileges discussed was shown in Document 1 (letter from James Madison to George Washington). It is stated that “the national government should be armed with positive and complete authority in all cases which require uniformity; such as the regulation of trade, including the right of taxing both exports and imports, the fixing of terms and forms of naturalization….”