Articles Of Confederation: The First Constitution Of The United States

The Articles of Confederation was first written in 1777. It was passed by the Confederation of Congress. Congress decided that they needed a firm government to organize the states as a whole. At least that was their primary goal. Since each state had separates rules. The Articles of Confederation was later ratified by each state in 1781. It was “America’s first federal constitution” (Keene 138). The confederation had a few strengths but many weaknesses. The nation faced many economic and political issues that lead people to controversy.

On November, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which was the first constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation provided for a national government much like the one already in place before independence. Its powers expanded to give it authority to conduct wars and foreign relations and to appropriate, borrow and issue money (McGraw-Hill 2015). However, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. It did not have the power to regulate trade or levy taxes directly on the people.

The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that the united states ever put into force, and is the only one they ever wrote besides the constitution. The articles was created due to a need for the United States to unite during the american revolution, and was basically a loosely bound union of states, so it was obvious that this was essentially just to semi-unite the states in order to fight the british, and they would form a more stable form of government after the fact, which they did when they wrote the constitution. I will now list the provisions of the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.

Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation; this was the first constitution for the United States, on November, 1777. However, approval of the Articles of Confederation by all thirteen states did not occur until March, 1781. The Articles created a loose fellowship of sovereign states and a poor central government, leaving most of the power with the states governments. A need for a better Federal government became a stronger focus, thus led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The current United States Constitution replaced the Articles on March 4, 1789.

In 1781, the thirteen independent states of America had been bound together by the Articles of Confederation. Under this document, the Continental Congress had successfully waged war, made alliances, secured loans, negotiated peace with Great Britain, and passed the Northwest Ordinance. This document served as the foundation for the United States Constitution, which was ratified in 1787. This ratification process took place over 200 years ago. Since that time, most modern-day Americans have assumed that this great document had always been honored and respected by everyone. On the contrary, the Constitution set off months of fierce and often bitter debate after it was written and submitted to the states for ratification. Creating a new

The Articles of Confederation was the original constitution of the U.S. which was ratified in 1781. It was later replaced with the U.S. Constitution in 1789. The history of the Constitutional Convention involved people like James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, George Mason, and many more. The Framers of the Constitution were delegates, and helped draft the Constitution of the United States. The debates for this Constitution changing from the Articles of Confederation, took place from May to September

Transitioning from the Articles of Confederation to the U.S. Constitution was anything but flawless. When the Founding Fathers signed the Constitution in 1787, the document could still not go into affect until it was ratified by nine of the thirteen states. There were two conflicting sides to this debate, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. These groups were primarily concerned with one major issue: whether or not to include the Bill of Rights.

The Articles of Confederation, Adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777, for all practical purposes was the United States’ first Constitution. Created to establish a bond between the newly formed states, “...the Articles purposely established a "constitution" that vested the largest share of power to the individual states” (Early America). This ensured that the government did not have the majority of power. “...the Articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws...allowing the states retained their "sovereignty, freedom and independence” (Early

The Articles of Confederation was the formal charter of the government of the United States that was the first binding document outlining its independence from Great Britain. As tensions grew between the United States and Great Britain, a war was inevitable with the people of America growing tired of the British rule and wanting independence, the Revolutionary War was the next step in trying to free itself from British tyranny. The Articles of Confederation was fully ratified in 1781 after the Revolutionary War and seemed to be more interested in stability rather than liberty. The Articles of Confederation was the first document outlining a national government that wrote into law the unplanned arrangements of the continental congress and was

“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.

After the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States still had a major task ahead of them. They had to form a new government that would satisfy the demands of the people and ensure the success of their nation. The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that was proposed and put into effect. This attempt at creating a system that protected the people form a strong central government ultimately failed but was an important step in the development of the current government system. The weaknesses presented by the Articles of Confederation helped lead to reforms that made the Constitution successful. Both the Articles and the Constitution demonstrate the struggles that the colonists went through with the British and

Rules would be the new topic of discussion at the end of the American Revolution amongst the newly formed Free states that won their independence from Britain. One huge question loomed over the Free states, how could they conduct a civilized way of living without another ruler such as the king of Britain here in America? There needed to be some sort of system that would generate a control to create a unified country. States were acting and conducting business as if each state was its own country and this left the America vulnerable on many fronts. Some of the main issues that surfaced were; How to divide powers between local and national governments? Which laws should be made, and by whom and who would enforce them? I will address some of the differences between the Constitution and The Articles of Confederation.

It all started after the Declaration of Independence during the time America was busy fighting the Revolutionary War, when Congress realized that they needed to form a plan to move forward and unite the thirteen states as a nation.

With the United States new found independence from Great Britain, its founding fathers realize from their historical experiences that a document of law needed to be crafted and established to preserve its new found independence, while maintaining order. However, the first document crafted by the founding fathers, the Articles of Confederation, did preserve the country new found independence but it did not maintain order. The Articles of Confederation described by many founding fathers to be a document that was crafted to satisfy needs of every state for its ratification, even when the document did not present a responsible democracy. The Articles of Confederation granted all national powers to the congress; however, it allowed each state