The Founding Fathers initially implemented the Articles of Confederation in midst of the Revolutionary War. At the time, the nation was a collection of independent states combining forces fighting for independence from Great Britain. The Founding Fathers, however, soon came to the realization that despite the fact that the United States was now a free country, thirteen independent states would be vulnerable to threats of upheaval from within. Thus, they adopted the Articles of Confederation.
However, the Articles were in fact very much flawed. Due to past experience with Great Britain, the thirteen colonies adopted a constitution with limited powers. Each state regulated its own commerce without regard to the other states. For instance, Pennsylvania might pass a law to protect its own economy that had a consequence of preventing trade between Virginia and New York. Moreover, the issue of congress being unable to raise the money to pay for the services it was obligated to provide was beginning to become a growing concern for the Founding Fathers.
Furthermore, one of the crucial fears the Founding Fathers faced was
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Shay's Rebellion, the most prominent act of defiance toward federal authority, was a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers throughout the states of New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Massachusetts against state and local governments of tax collections. Due to bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes farmers faced the possibility of losing their farms. Although unsuccessful, the rebellion led by Daniel Shay, a former captain in the Continental army, alarmed politicians and ultimately called for a revision or replacement of the Articles of
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
Under the articles, many states ignored requests to pay taxes. Not requiring states to pay taxes is an obvious flaw. Another problem with the Articles also has to do with money. Congress did not have the power to make a currency for the states, so each state had to print its own. Having
er, the Articles placed the power in the hands of the state, which led to economic troubles; but it also led to leadership shortfall. The fact that there was no independent judiciary, no leader of foreign affairs, and an inability to deal with internal and external threats made, caused a lot of problems for America. Finally, the Articles of Confederation was ineffective in making a set of rules that made legislating under this structure inefficient. Each state had one vote, therefore, states with a large population or small population had the same weight in voting in Congress. It also took nine votes out of thirteen to approve legislation.
Therefore, because there was no executive branch to carry out the laws, Shays rebellion lasted for a year. But with the new U.S constitution with an executive branch, they were able to shut down the whiskey rebellion. In 1791 by the federal government, farmers in the western counties of Pennsylvania engaged in a series of attacks on excise agents. President Washington issued a proclamation, calling out the militia and ordering the disaffected westerners to return to their homes. Washington's order mobilized an army of approximately 13,000.
The Articles of Confederation, written in 1776, were the foundation to a war-based government. At the time of the drafting this was deemed necessary, but years later, it became a burden on the States. A few select men were tasked with the editing of the Articles, to make them more sustainable to the 'modern' times of 1787. However, those men chose to drop the Articles of Confederation completely in favor of a new, improved Constitution.
Not everything is done correct the first time around. Surprisingly, this is also true for America’s national government. The Articles of Confederation was the constitution of the United States for the first few years of its existence, however, it had many flaws that jeopardized said existence. These flaws included but are not limited to the fact that the national government didn't have the power to tax the states, it couldn't enforce its own laws, but rather only create them, no national currency, however each state had its own currency, a national army could be put in place, and the same goes for a national court. The voting process for each state was also an issue since each state only received one vote which was not fair to
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 Articles of Confederation were created for the basic rights of citizens. The Constitution was needed so it could establish fundamental laws. There were a lot of people that participated to create the U.S Constitution. During the Second Continental Congress in 1776, there was a draft by a committee headed by John Dickinson, a statesman. The revised draft, adopted by the Continental Congress on Nov. 15, 1777, called for a government that theoretically possessed many powers but was actually subordinate to the states.
The Articles required nine out of the thirteen states’ approval in creating new laws and agreement from all states to make changes in the Articles. Taking into account the differences between them, gaining approval from all thirteen states was a challenge. For one, states had drastically different needs depending on their location. Northern states were more industrial and relied on commerce and businesses such as fishing. Hence, they favored giving Congress more power to control trade.
This required only five states to strong arm the rest of them, preventing legislation from being passed. Using this constitution, it was extremely easy to be blocked into a position of stagnation. The economy also faltered as a result of the Articles of Confederation. Due to the low central government, there was no way to regulate trade. This caused an extremely low amount of continuity from state to
One of the main issues was the power of the national government and the bill of rights. Colonists were terrified of a tyranny after the strict ruling of the King therefore many of them revolted against the idea of having a national government. Federalists were those who wanted a strong national government while Anti-Federalists fought greatly against a new government to rule over them. This power struggle lasted the whole convention, and the powers of the national government and our rights are still a major topic in the birth of
In need of help, the farmers sought aid from the government, which seemed to be ignored, eventually leading to intense frustration and erupting in violence. A group of farmers in Massachusetts lead by Daniel Shays, growing to nearly 2,500, rallied to demand change, but ultimately ended with the violent clash between the group and the state militia (Shea, Green, Smith 52). Shay’s Rebellion highlighted the gaping flaws of the Articles and in the months following, lead to a meeting to revise the Articles, known as the Constitutional Convention. “In late May 1787, some 55 delegates from every state except Rhode Island came together at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia for the purpose of proposing changes to the Articles of Confederation. Congress … did not expect that the Articles
Shay’s Rebellions follow the Revolutionary war and how the US fell into a economic crisis, There were a lot of tension due to farmers losing their property to to debt collectors. In January 1787, him and his force were sent to a federal armory at Springfield but it failed due the artillery fire and how it lead to 4 people being killed and 20 people being wounded. Rebellion doesn’t always end up peaceful and it can also show no improvement at.
Additionally, lack of internal trade was another weakness of the Article of Confederation. The Articles did not address a policy on commerce and trade. As a result, each state had its own currency and varying rates of inflation. Furthermore, attempts to rectify the problem was met with resistance for nearly five
The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the thirteen original states of the United States that served as the first constitution. The Articles had first been introduced by Richard Henry Lee in the Second Continental Congress. Although the Articles of Confederation has made its contributions throughout history, the Articles, however, did not last very long and had been proven inadequate from the very start. I agree with this statement based on the examples and analysis of the Constitution I will soon provide. The Articles of Confederation were written during a time when the American people feared a strong national government.