Strengths and Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

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.

Though the articles did account for a President, he did hardly more than preside over the Congress, there was no power in the Presidency. The Constitution on the other hand gave power to the executive branch headed by the President to choose the Cabinet and be another check to the judiciary and legislature. The Amending document was changed as well between the two, before 13 out of 13 colonies were needed to amend an article, while later 2/3 of both houses of Congress as well as ¾ of State legislature or National Convention were needed. The representation of the States was drastically changed, under the articles each State received one vote regardless of size, in the Constitution the upper house (Senate) has two votes from each state and the lower house would be based upon population.

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

During the time of the Revolutionary War, the American Colonies were upset about the England’s tyrannical rule and exploitation through harsh taxes. Eventually, the colonists revolted and split from England. They wrote the Declaration of Independence and created a new government whose outlines were written in the Articles of Confederation. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had an overall negative impact, as it created a weak central government, a poor financial system, and inadequate militias. There are more disadvantages than advantages to this document.

The Constitution and the Articles of Confederation are the same in ways, but they are also, both different. Both of them founded our Government systems, but only one system still remains today. Both systems have their flaws, but also have their advantages. Without the Articles, there would be no Constitution, and the United States would be under the control of a tyrant. The Articles lead us to war, and separated us from Great Britain and now are our own country.

The Articles of Confederation were the United State’s first constitution that was drafted in 1776 and set in motion a year later. The Articles of Confederation also known as “The Aoc”, ran the US government successful through the time of the American Revolution. However, the Aoc didn’t permit the national government with the power to levy taxes or regulate commerce, as a result of that all efforts at national cohesion was disheartened. So during the summer of 1787 they decided to create the “Supreme law of the land”, The Constitution. The constitution did everything the Aoc couldn’t do, it established more laws and provided increased federal authority while protecting the basic rights of it’s citizens.

The Articles of Confederation became the first guiding principles of the original thirteen states. However, the weaknesses embedded in the articles became obvious, outweighing its positive impact and they were ratified in 1781. George Washington sated that the articles were "little more than a shadow without the substance."1 They limited the central government’s ability to work smoothly and adversely affected the economy. Lack of power left the government in dismay and they sought a fix to their problems without becoming a tyrannical monarchy. The founding fathers believed that replacing the articles with The Constitution was the best way to give the central government enough power to carry out its tasks. In 1787 delegates from all 13 states met in Pennsylvania to begin amending the articles. This process revealed many of the similarities and differences that were contained within The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution.

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.

For instance, they were both written with the same intentions of creating new country of freedom for many people. It also contains the same ideals of government that the Articles had, just in a different format. Also, both central governments had the right to raise an army and build up a navy. However, this seems to be where more differences start to appear. One glaring difference between the two is that the Articles made the states seem like a friendly cooperation while the Constitution firmly defined the unity of the states. Also, the Constitution resolved the problems that the central government had when referring to levying taxes and controlling trade. Another importance between the two is the number of Congress votes each state had. During the time of the Articles of Confederation, there was only one congressional vote per state. On the other hand, after the Constitution was put in place, each state had one vote per delegate elected into Congress. On a final note, while many of the ideals behind the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution were the same, the two documents were different in many ways and created two very distinct forms of

“In November 1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the United States first written constitution.”(Ginsberg, et. al. 2014: 35). The Articles of Confederation played a big role in the drafting of the United States’ new constitution. The articles were our United States’ first written governing document. The Articles of Confederation solved some problems by creating at least a minimal amount of government at the time, but it also created some problem for our country because we did not have enough government. As time went on, the Founding Fathers found the issues with the Articles of Confederation, sought ways to solve those issues, and created the Constitution as a lasting governing document.

The Articles of Confederation were, like our Constitution, a legal document that laid the framework for Federal government. When the Congress and the States passed the Constitution and ratified it, they did in fact repeal the Articles by officially adopting the Constitution as its replacement for that framework. Articles of Confederation, 1777–1781. The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain.

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 simple difference between the Articles of Confederation and US Constitution is that the articles were not strong enough to hold our young nation together. The articles operated the US as separate states. Under the articles, it was very difficult to pass laws since the requirement of 9 out of the 13 states ' approval was needed for ratification. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The members of the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787 in

“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.

If you try to compare the Articles with the new Constitution, you realize that the former was full of drawbacks, while the latter had answers to all these drawbacks. The Articles was subjected to severe criticism for the very fact that it centralized all the powers in the hands of state government, and left the national government with no major powers at all. As opposed to the unicameral system which was facilitated by the Articles of Confederation, the US Constitution introduced the bicameral system of governance, which was divided into the upper house and lower house. Yet another difference between the two was pertaining to the number of votes each state had. While the Articles had a provision of one vote for every single state irrespective of its size, the US Constitution had the provision of one vote per representative or senator.