Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

After the Revolution of 1776, America had to transition itself from thirteen disjointed colonies to one unified nation. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation was drafted and submitted for the states’ approval. Out of thirteen states, only eight ratified the plan for a national government by 1778, while nearly three more years passed before the last state approved the Articles (Soomo Publications, 2015). Although the Articles of Confederation provided a system for the Continental Congress to direct the Revolutionary War, Congress felt the need for a stronger union with enough power to defeat Great Britain. The belief that a constitutional order must be fitting to its republican character was met with the fear of a central authority (HistoryEd, 2009). Such a fear may have potentially devastated the ability to adequately serve a considerable union like the United States. In response to this fear, Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton published essays in hopes of swaying the public opinion in favor of ratifying the Constitution. The Federalist Papers are a collection of eighty-five articles written by Hamilton, as well as James Madison and John Jay, promoted ratifying the Constitution in hopes of creating a resilient, centralized government (Lutz, 1990). After months of deliberation at the Constitutional Convention in Pennsylvania, a Constitution was ratified and agreed upon by the states.
The Constitution of the United States addresses the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation because it established the federal treasury, it is a product of careful consideration, and it compromises with the wants of anti-federalist