Articles of Confederation vs. the Constitution
Articles of Confederation and How It Eventually Led to the Creation and Writing of the U.S. Constitution
When our founding fathers wrote the articles of confederation on November 15, 1777, they feared that the United States would become like other countries and that the people would not have their god given rights. The Articles of Confederation where good in the sense that it gave the congress power to make an army, declare war, sign treaties and some other powers; but it did not allow congress to enforce the treaties, there was no national court system or currency of any kind. The Articles of Confederation was very flawed. They gave the individual states more power than the nation as a whole.
On August 29, 1786 there was an uprising in Massachusetts. This uprising was called Shay’s Rebellion. Led by Daniel Shays, this rebellion was caused by direct taxes, economic problems and the farmer’s inability to pay their debt because the paper money was basically worthless. (Rick Brainard pg. 1) Shay’s Rebellion forced the government to realize they needed a stronger federal government to have a successful country. The need for a stronger government led to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It took from May 25th to September 17th 1787 to write. James Madison is considered the father of the Constitution but other people helped him. When writing the Constitution, they did not want the federal government to have too much power, but enough to get the job done. So, they created popular sovereignty, federalism, and separation of powers system. This way, the government was led by the people, for the people.
The Constitution fixed all the flaws of the Articles of Confederation and added more powers to the national government and the individual states. They set terms for how long people could serve in office, a number for how many people could represent, and gave the national government the power to make laws, print money, set taxes and other new things. The
When our founding fathers wrote the articles of confederation on November 15, 1777, they feared that the United States would become like other countries and that the people would not have their god given rights. The Articles of Confederation where good in the sense that it gave the congress power to make an army, declare war, sign treaties and some other powers; but it did not allow congress to enforce the treaties, there was no national court system or currency of any kind. The Articles of Confederation was very flawed. They gave the individual states more power than the nation as a whole.
On August 29, 1786 there was an uprising in Massachusetts. This uprising was called Shay’s Rebellion. Led by Daniel Shays, this rebellion was caused by direct taxes, economic problems and the farmer’s inability to pay their debt because the paper money was basically worthless. (Rick Brainard pg. 1) Shay’s Rebellion forced the government to realize they needed a stronger federal government to have a successful country. The need for a stronger government led to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It took from May 25th to September 17th 1787 to write. James Madison is considered the father of the Constitution but other people helped him. When writing the Constitution, they did not want the federal government to have too much power, but enough to get the job done. So, they created popular sovereignty, federalism, and separation of powers system. This way, the government was led by the people, for the people.
The Constitution fixed all the flaws of the Articles of Confederation and added more powers to the national government and the individual states. They set terms for how long people could serve in office, a number for how many people could represent, and gave the national government the power to make laws, print money, set taxes and other new things. The
Bibliography: Brainard, Rick. “Shay’s Rebellion.” http://www.history1700s.com/articles/article1120.shtml. Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. “Explorations, Who wrote the Constitution?” http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/constitution/constitution_menu.cfm (2012) Mount, Steve. "Comparing the Articles and the Constitution. " http://www.usconstitution.net/constconart.html. 27 Feb. 2011. Norris. “Constitution 101 PowerPoint.” civics.sites.unc.edu/files/2012/04/PrinciplesofUSConstitutionPPT.pdf (2012)