Articles Of Confederation Essay
After emerging victorious from the Revolutionary War, the states were governed under the Articles of Confederation. Despite their newly acquired freedom, all was not well in the states. The states were plagued by crippling debt from the war, disputes over claims to unsettled western land, and many other issues that stemmed from the government formed by the Articles of Confederation. It was so bad that when a proposal for a convention to address these issues with the Articles was created, all but one state agreed to attend. The Articles weren’t completely useless, for though it was the Articles of confederation that were under review at this convention, its political principals and goals were integral in helping the colonies establish the government
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In following the opening lines of the declaration of independence, the articles of confederation were formed with the principles of men being “equal,” thus all being entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the assumed sovereignty that comes with those entitlements, and that all governments should derive their power from the “consent of the governed.” These notions are explicitly seen in Article 2, which states “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled” and in Article 5 which addresses the manner in which citizens and states are represented when congress assembles. The article details this as representation by delegates who were annually appointed by the states, an appointment which could be recalled at any time of the state’s choosing. Articles 2 and 5 also show a decentralized government in which states had most of the power, and this theme is all over the Articles of Confederation. However, it was this decentralized government that led to the issues that called for the constitutional convention. There was no central power to arbitrate the land disputes the states had, there was no uniformity in state currency, and no power to enforce the payment of the debt incurred
In following the opening lines of the declaration of independence, the articles of confederation were formed with the principles of men being “equal,” thus all being entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the assumed sovereignty that comes with those entitlements, and that all governments should derive their power from the “consent of the governed.” These notions are explicitly seen in Article 2, which states “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled” and in Article 5 which addresses the manner in which citizens and states are represented when congress assembles. The article details this as representation by delegates who were annually appointed by the states, an appointment which could be recalled at any time of the state’s choosing. Articles 2 and 5 also show a decentralized government in which states had most of the power, and this theme is all over the Articles of Confederation. However, it was this decentralized government that led to the issues that called for the constitutional convention. There was no central power to arbitrate the land disputes the states had, there was no uniformity in state currency, and no power to enforce the payment of the debt incurred