Unit 1 Essay Imagine a country where every way you turn your head there’s horror. Different currencies, inflation, debt, just dreadful. Now imagine that same country making a document that changes it all. There's happiness, smiles, and rainbows. Everyone is just very jovial. That’s what the constitution did for the U.S. When the constitution was written in September, 1787 the government was under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was our first national government but, it was terrible. The central government had no power and, the states had all the power. Our country couldn't operate. The constitution saved us for many reasons, some of which, it provided a system of checks and balances, it gave us a national …show more content…
They created a method so that not one person or branch can have too much power. By allowing other and all branches to check one another. Document 5 gives an image showing you 3 balances that are equal to one another; each balances is labeled with the 3 branch names. The constitution gave us a national currency. Under the articles, every state had their own currency, making it had to trade and travel from one state to the other. Inflation was also a problem. Inflation is when too much money is printed and the value of money goes down, meaning every state was printing so much money that their money was practically worthless. Document 2 is an article announcing an all-new plan of government that states the constitution will give you money that's worth something. The constitution gave the government power to control taxes. Before the constitution was created no state had to pay taxes if they didn't want to. And who wants to pay money if they don't have to? This caused our country to have no money, we were broke. Interest on our debt was stacking up causing our debt to multiply everyday. We were drowning. The constitution helped us by allowing the government to control taxes. And allowing the people to know where the taxes are going. Document 1 shows all the problems with the Articles of Confederation. One of them being the articles gave the government no power to collect
The Articles of Confederation was the first federal foundational laws of the United States. It was composed due to the conflicting views of the politicians at the time and the need to unite the States during the war. Its development and resoluteness had a sluggish inception due to some Americans uncertainties of the government’s substantial central power and property demands by States. The Articles of Confederation was finally sanctioned on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles, each States stayed autonomous, with Congress having the final say over disputes. Congress was also given the ability to make accords and agreements, uphold armies and currencies. The Articles of Confederation did best with territorial expansion in the West, thanks to the Ordinances that were written for the Articles and the benefits they had. However, under the Articles, the central government had no power to impose taxes and manage commerce, because of this the government was consistently short of funds. Despite the lack of funding, money was still required for the war effort, and Congress' meantime solution was to print nearly $250 million paper currency, this led to major inflation in the States. This deficit urged legislators to find a solution; the Constitution of 1787. Both the Articles and the Constitution worked to preserve a free government, different from the tyrannical rule they have experienced from the British Parliament. Also, both documents allowed states the power to manage mercantilism,
The Constitution had changes the United States greatly. The document, written in 1788, was a powerful representation of the government back then, and amazingly, it’s still in play today. During the 1700’s, the first political parties formed over disagreements in the government and the constitution. The two parties were the Federalists and Antifederalists. Federalists made up the people who felt that the stronger government was best for the country and supported the Constitution. The federalists had felt as if different “fiscal and monetary policies” were a weakness in the national economy. Also, the Federalists supported banking("Anti-Federalist vs Federalist"). Federalists wanted to fight for stronger governments, managing the country’s debt
The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the
Have you ever wondered what the US would be like if our government was a tyranny? Well, thanks to our founding fathers for creating a strong constitution, we don’t have to worry about that. The constitution was written in 1787 in Philadelphia. The problem was that the existing government that was under the Articles Of Confederation wasn’t very successful. Therefore, the fifty-five delegates representing twelve out of the thirteen states came together to tweak our constitution to create a strong government without allowing one person, or group of people to have too much power. The framers used the Constitution to protect against Tyranny in three ways federalism, separation of powers, and
A constitution is a written document that sets forth the fundamental rules by which a society is governed. Throughout the course of history the United States has lived under two Constitutions since the British-American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. First in line was the Articles of Confederation (1789-1789) followed by the Constitution of United States of America (1789-present). The Articles of Confederation was the first formal written Constitution of America that specified how the national government was to operate. Unfortunately, the Articles did not last long. Under the words of the Article’s power was limited; Congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. Also the articles stated
The ratification of the US Constitution in 1787 sparked a ferocious and spiteful debate between two large groups of people, those who supported the ratification and those who did not. Both sides were very passionate about their ideas yet they were so divergent, as one believed that the ratification could create a more powerful, unified country, while others worried about the government gaining perhaps too much control. The supporters and opponents equally had various strong reasons in their beliefs regarding the ratification of the US Constitution, the most common for the supporters being that the current government was heading badly, and a ratification would fix all the mistakes made originally and set the course for a successful government. On the other hand, the biggest concern for the opponents was that the ratification would give the government too much power, and there would be no controlling force to keep the government in its place.
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States. They were written during the revolutionary war to create a more unified government, and to establish what the national government could and could not do. The Articles let each state keep “sovereignty, freedom, and independence,” and created a very weak central government. For example, Congress could not regulate commerce or impose taxes. The impact that the Articles of Confederation had on federalism for the next few years was: the federal government had very few powers, and most of the authority remained in control of each individual state.
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are two very important guidelines of government that shaped the political minds of the Americans. Mainly because these guidelines limited, or expanded the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The Articles of Confederation were a series of laws that gave more power to the state government than the federal government. As a result, the federal government could not enforce laws or levy taxes. After Shay’s Rebellion, the Founding Fathers realized that a change was necessary. So the Constitution was created. The most important change of the Constitution was that the majority of power was then shifted into the hands of the federal or central government. This allowed the federal
We needed a new Constitution badly for our foundling of a nation. The pressure of everything falling apart weighed heavily on the founders in that day, something had to be done to save America from disassembling after our triumphant separation from England. The Articles of Confederation simply weren’t working. Originally, the purpose of the Articles was to give as much power to the states as possible while still uniting them (text 48). The biggest problem was that thought the federal government could recommend and create policies, they could not enforce them, specifically if the states refused them. (text 48) Furthermore, the government was weak, with no real leadership and additionally, could not freely gather revenue from the states and suffered from this. (text 49) What finally pushed our country over the edge was Shays’ Rebellion, a protest of farmers led by Daniel Shays when they demanded change after being heavily taxed to recompense for the wartimes cost, but the government had no response, leading to an attack on state militia. (text 49) So thus, a Constitutional Convention was convened. Plenty disagreed, and these people were called the Anti-Federalists, and believed the document gave the government too
This was the first written document of the newly formed central government that provided written rules that documented how it was organized as well as its purpose. During the life span of this document, from 1781 to 1788, allowed Congress to have say over the printing of money, issues between states, diplomacy, as well as coordinating of any war effort. Since Congress had no authority to raise money through taxation, it relied on the states for funding issues as well as fund the ongoing War of Independence. The article also allowed central government to conduct foreign affairs and create treaties with other nations. Congress deemed that the Articles of Confederation needed to be amended to make a stronger national government, but would require all states to consent so none of the purposed amendments received approval. Congress did establish control over land outside the thirteen states and this is what lead to a stronger national government as well as the Constitution.
“The Constitution devotes the national domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare and to liberty” (Maier 154). This quote, stated by William Henry Seward, displays the strength and stability that the Constitution had over the nation, and the liberty and justice it supplied for all of its citizens. Although the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation have similarities, they have many differences, which proved that the Articles of Confederation were a weaker document in comparison. It can be said that the Articles were the “rough draft” to the final living document, which significantly influenced and “ruled” our government, as it still does today.
The failure of the Articles of Confederation help the founders to create a more stable government system with the Constitution. The flaws in the Articles helped them make changes that made the new system very effective. Under the Constitution, Congress had a right to levy taxes (Feldmeth). This fixed the problem of the government always running short on funds because they could only request taxes from the government. They were also able to raise an army to deal with threats, something they were not able to do under the Articles. States are more evenly represented under the Constitution instead of being
Okay, so we know that the article of Confederation just wasn’t cutting it and we needed something to help us out a little more with our way of running the country. Well that is where the new constitution comes in. The Constitution not only breaks down our role with the government it made our relationship better. Now that we have amendments we have more defined freedom to express our roles as American citizens. Even though we took a lot of principles from England and analyzed the way they ran their country we still do not want to be under British rule again so that is why James Madison and others went back to work on giving us a better way of life and a new constitution. Now instead of us all having to struggle within our own state we can work
The Articles of Confederation left the taxation up to the states and were unable to collect taxes to help the nation’s debt. The nation had inquired a lot of debt because of the war (Schultz, p116). This all changed with the new Constitution. The Constitution states “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States” (Roland, 2011). This gave the U.S. Government the right to collect taxes and it helped with the debt incurred from wars.
The Articles of Confederation was the first drafted and documented constitution of the United States. Under these laws and articles, the states remained dominant and independent with Congress serving as the last resort to make variations. This document also gave Congress the right to create treaties and allies, maintain armed forces and coined money. Although Congress had much authority to make vital decisions, the central government lacked the ability to standardize commerce and levy taxes. These inabilities to maintain a constant flow of power and dominance ultimately led to the 1787 Constitutional Convention to draft a new set of federal laws and provisions.