The Articles Of Confederation: The First Constitution Of The United States
The Articles of Confederation, drafted by John Dickinson, was adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1977, and is considered to be the first constitution of the United States. However, it was not fully ratified by all thirteen states until March 1, 1781. These articles allowed the states to assume most of the governmental power.
Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several flaws. First, it placed all governing power in a single legislature. This meant there was no separation of powers, but rather a "committee of the states" which allowed one representative from each of the thirteen states to be seated. The Continental Congress did still have some powers under the Articles of Confederation such as: the power to declare war and make peace; the power to make international treaties; the power to control Indian affairs in the West; the power to establish a currency; and the power to create and maintain a postal service. …show more content…
The states maintained the rights to levy taxes and regulate commerce. This lead to another issue because these two rights were how states made money and if they did not make money during time of war there would not be enough money generated to fund the fight and the federal government could do nothing about this because the state had more power.
It would seem that there were three major flaws with the Articles of Confederation: the inability to raise funds; the need for unanimity to make changes; and the lack of authority over internal trade.
Unfortunately, after the American Revolution, the new nation was left in debt and since the Articles stated that Congress could not levy taxes the debt was not paid off and funds could not be raised for the American army. This left a serious issue for the new
Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several flaws. First, it placed all governing power in a single legislature. This meant there was no separation of powers, but rather a "committee of the states" which allowed one representative from each of the thirteen states to be seated. The Continental Congress did still have some powers under the Articles of Confederation such as: the power to declare war and make peace; the power to make international treaties; the power to control Indian affairs in the West; the power to establish a currency; and the power to create and maintain a postal service. …show more content…
The states maintained the rights to levy taxes and regulate commerce. This lead to another issue because these two rights were how states made money and if they did not make money during time of war there would not be enough money generated to fund the fight and the federal government could do nothing about this because the state had more power.
It would seem that there were three major flaws with the Articles of Confederation: the inability to raise funds; the need for unanimity to make changes; and the lack of authority over internal trade.
Unfortunately, after the American Revolution, the new nation was left in debt and since the Articles stated that Congress could not levy taxes the debt was not paid off and funds could not be raised for the American army. This left a serious issue for the new