703 Social Studies IIM

2/10/2014

Today, Americas government follows the Constitution when governing the country. It is generally seen as a solid, nearly perfect guideline on how to rule America. It also has the rare ability to be changed if a new scenario comes up, but cannot be changed easily, therefore allowing only ideas that are extremely important or believed by most of the members of Congress to be for the better good of America. However, this country was not always run this smoothly. There was a time before the Constitution, when the so-called guideline was not nearly as perfect. This article introduced more new problems than it solved. It damaged the economy severely, and threw the balance of power askew. This article was called the Articles of Confederation, and its problems shall be explained in the following paragraphs. One main problem caused by the document was, according to the article U.S. Information Agency. An Outline of American Government, the fact that states had more power than the federal government itself. The article states that while Congress, theoretically, had the ability to declare war and raise an army, it did not have the power to force any states to help fill the quota for men and/or arms and was forced to resort to pleading. Congress was also forced to look to the states for money, and a state would not be penalized for refusing to grant the necessary money. States alone held the power to pass taxes and tariffs, issue their own currency, and disputes amongst states would have verdicts issued by the Congress, but these verdicts were not always followed. According to the article The Articles of Confederation, the document was written during a time when America was under the control and at war with England. This influenced the delegates from colonies to give more power to the people and limit the central governments

power in order to avoid the issues Americans had with the English government. However, according to the Holt Social Studies Textbook, the government soon found that they would not be able to keep America from chaos if the people had too much power. The states were valuing their personal needs over the needs of the country as a whole, and there was no central government to unify them. Another major problem was that, according to U.S. Information Agency. An Outline of American Government, Americas economy plunged under the Articles of Confederation. This is due to the aforementioned reason: the federal government did not have the power to pass taxes or tariffs. This prevented Congress from paying back debts owed to veteran soldiers of the Revolutionary War and from recovering from the money that was spent in the War. Some states printed large amounts of money that were high in face but low in real purchasing power-in order to pay veteran soldiers and a variety of creditors, and to settle debts between small farmers and large plantations. This cause inflation, as the money was worth less than it was previously, and this caused many people who had lent money to people run away as the people to whom they had lent their money could repay their debt with money worth much less than when they had borrowed. This also led to trade problems. According to the textbook, American trade partners would have to pay a certain amount of money in one state, and another amount in the second. The state with the more expensive price would most likely have less trading and be less successful. One particular colony, Massachusetts, had decided to pay off their war debts by collecting taxes off of the land. This led to many farmers being unable to pay their taxes. Those that could not pay off the taxes were promptly sent to debtors jail/ had their land taken, and the frustration arising from this then led to the famous Shays rebellion. This rebellion, led by Daniel Shays, consisted of farmers and other citizens closing down courts in the

belief that without courts, they could not have their land taken. Many people were arrested because they were fighting against near-impossible taxes, and this led to some people realizing that this government worked even worse than the Britishs. If the country had a strong central government, then a standard mint could be issued and the previously mentioned problems would be solved. A person may say, Well, why couldnt the Americans amend the Articles and fix the problem instead of replacing them? This could not happen due to two chief reasons. The first is that one of the rules in the Articles of Confederation stated that an amendment may only be made if there is a unanimous vote for it. This is according to the article American History: Why did the Articles of Confederation fail? Generally, this is a good thing, right? After all, if all the states agree, then it must be a good amendment. However, some of the colonies did not agree because it would limit their power, not because the amendment was a bad idea. An example of this can be found in the Holt Textbook, and this example is the fact that both Virginia and New York did not sign the Constitution for a long time. The two colonies did not ratify the constitution because, being the largest states, they had a large population and a large amount of power under the Articles of Confederation. The other reason was that, according to the Holt textbook, the delegates from the colonies believed the Articles were beyond repair. The Articles were so poorly written that the only way to help the country was, in the delegates eyes, to scrap the Articles and start all over again. And that is where the Constitution comes in. In conclusion, the Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses. Chiefly, it had given the states too much power and limited the government too much. This was most likely done in order to prevent the colonists from having to suffer the same ordeal that they had suffered under British rule. This is according to the article The Article of Confederation and Perpetual Union

1777 However, as they soon realized, they could not run their government successfully without having some form of strong central government. As stated before, it was soon evident that there were consequences to people having too much power. After the Articles were scrapped, the Constitution was written. This article made sure that the country would not go through the same problems that it did under the Articles of Confederation. It gave equal power between the states and the federal government, and allowed for an official mint to be created, therefore creating a standard monetary unit and solving the trade problem. While the Constitution was not a perfect government (this being evidenced by the later addition of the Bill of Rights), it was a huge step up from the deleterious document known as the Articles of Confederation. Bibliography "Part 1- THE CONSTITUTION: AN ENDURING GOVERNMENT." N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. Kelly, Martin. "Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail." Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail. About.com, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014 "The Articles of Confederation - 1777." The Articles of Confederation - 1777. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. "The Articles of Confederation." The Articles of Confederation. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. Holt Social Studies Textbook