I am Pierce Butler, one of the founding fathers. I born in County Carlow, Ireland in 1788. I went to Philadelphia to represent South Carolina at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. I’m going to write about my point of view of some topics of the constitutional. The Articles of Confederation have strengths and weakness. I am going to start with the strengths. The first strength and the important one is having thirteen colonies united under one government that make these colonies a strong country together. Another strength is given the departments a specific defined roles for various parties to run the country more effectively. The Articles of Confederation inspired the coordination and cooperation between different states, so that’s also one of the strength of the Articles of Confederation. “It allowed the Central Government to sign treaties and peace deals with other countries giving rise to a stable neighborhood. The peace treaty with England was one such deal.” (Web) Having a stable country is most important thing to have a strong new country, and to have a stable country it should be peace between the states. And that is what the Article of Confederation accomplished. Finally, the population got increased to more than 60000 as big untied country and that could increase the economy of the country too because more people means more tax.
As we have strengths of the confederation, we also have weaknesses. First of all voting, to have one vote to each state is big
The articles had some strength, such as it was the first written agreement and first constitution of USA, they also gave Congress the power to deal with foreign affairs and authority to declare war, and make peace, and sign treaties, Congress has also power to manage Native Indian affairs. The articles of confederation encouraged organization and
The Articles of Confederation confirmed the weak decentralized system which was already in operation. The Articles did not make it clear that the Congress was to be a real government. It was therefore, an uncertain central government. Many people felt that the colonists should just try to set up a new confederation
While the Articles of Confederation unified the American colonies for the first time, the individual states had a hard time allowing a central government to solely control their territory. Due to fear of an all powerful monarchy like the one they had experienced in England the colonies were wary of allowing a central government certain powers. These certain powers included control of commerce, ability to tax, and even the ability to act directly upon individual citizens of a state. While the Articles provided a loose confederation to unify the new country, they were only a temporary solution due to their obvious weaknesses in several areas. The Articles of Confederation were essentially
The Articles of Confederation is a document which was created prior to the United States Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The Articles of Confederation had strengths and weaknesses just like any other official doctrine created for the foundation of the United States. Some of those weaknesses lead to fights within many states, which made people rethink the efficiency of the document and the rights recorded within it. One of the weaknesses it that Congress had no power to tax the people, or the goods that they produced. Some people may think that it is a good thing, but without the ability to tax, the United States was in debt to the countries it had borrowed money from to fund the American Revolution. One piece of
he Articles of Confederation created a government that gave the states too much power. The former colonies were afraid to make a government as strong as England's Parliament.The states had more power than the Federal Government. The Congress created by the Articles could not Enforce Treaties and couldn't collect taxes from the states. Not being able to collect taxes made it difficult to pay the soldiers when they were fighting in the Revolutionary War. Other weaknesses of the government created under the Articles deal with the states having more power than the Federal Government. There were no Federal Courts or Executive. States didn't have to follow or enforce Federal Laws. States even made their own money. The money would caused problems
The feebleness of Congress was a major weakness of the Articles of Confederation. When the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777, they created a “loose confederation” of states (Pageant, 181). This meant that each state was independent and sovereign, linked by Congress only to deal with common problems and foreign affairs. Congress was meant to be part of a united central power of the government, but due to the abuse suffered from the king, the states so limited the powers of the central government to the point of powerlessness.
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.
The articles of confederation was a good form of government, it lead many positive impacts on the thirteen colonies. "This document officially established the government of the union of the thirteen states". The confederation had unified the thirteen colonies which made them stronger to fight the British. Furthermore, the article of confederation had prohibited slavery this was a great step to bring slavery to an end. Therefore, the article of confederation had allowed the states to defend each other and work together. "The union as a "league of friendship" where the states will help to protect each other from attacks". Overall, the article of confederation had helped the colonies in many way, uniting them and bringing peace.
The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.
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 served as the written article that established the parts of the nationwide government of the United States after it acknowledged freedom from Great Britain. It made a weak government that frequently, but not completely, avoided each individual state from leading their own foreign diplomacy.
One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.
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
There were two main achievements, “ (I) the Articles established the United States as a government of law that placed limited on governments authority, and (2) the Articles created a national citizenship, which gave equal rights to qualifying members. There would be no titles or codification of classes in America” (Schultz 116). However, there were three main weaknesses that stood out. First, the inability to raise funds because the new nation was badly in debt and taxes couldn’t be levied because of the Articles of Confederation. This then made it hard to find a creditor, which then made it an immediate disaster and leaded to trouble for the new nation. Second, the need for unanimity to make changes was one of the weaknesses under the Articles. In 1781, a nation bank was asked to help the national debt and facilitate credit. Because of this, a system of reserves was created by the capitol. This then put a 5 percent tax on all imported goods. Each state had to approve of these happenings under the Articles of Confederation, unfortunately Rhode Island didn’t agree on this taxation. This then forced the bill to die, and the plans were unable to be cleared. The last weakness of the Articles was the lack of authority over international trade. The commerce between states suffered because there was no centralized authority. Each state had its own form of currency and taxes it was hard to trade goods over their state
Fellow Founding Fathers, I am Robert Morris and I am a financier. My most interesting accomplishment was the fact that I was able to finance the revolution. Considering the fact that I am an entrepreneur, it was only logical that I use my money and put it to good use. I continued to support our army by smuggling gunpowder and providing it to Washington's army. Also, I was a part of the Continental Congress for three years. While I was a Pennsylvania delegate, I signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution.