Pros And Cons Of The Continental Congress

Before the U.S. Constitution there was the Articles of Confederation. The document could declare war, negotiate treaties, and control foreign affairs. It couldn’t enforce laws, tax, and raise its own army. What the Articles Of Confederation lacked was a strong central government. Alexander Hamilton called for a constitutional convention in 1786, and it took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787.

The Articles of Confederation, the first governing document in American history, only allowed for one branch of government, Congress, which could lead to one group of people having all of the power, possibly not allowing for representation of all of the social classes. This upper class tyranny was exactly the problem that the colonists had fled from in England, and they were afraid that these issues would continue to plague them in America. This fear led to a very weak central government, whose extremely limited power stunted the development of our young nation. Later, when writing the Northwest Ordinances, Jefferson proposed the idea of having three branches of government, and a system of checks and balances between the three to ensure

Week 6 Review Questions 1. How did the limited central government created by the Articles of Confederation reflect the issues behind the Revolution and fears for individual liberties? The limited central government represented more of a peace treaty between that states than a blueprint for a powerful nation. It was created to maintain national coordination during the Revolution, but not much more; The States still held most of the power. The only powers the national government held were those essential to the Revolution such as declaring war, conducting foreign affairs, and making treaties with other governments (Foner 249).

What would happen if the original thirteen colonies never united? What if each state only looked for themselves in a loosely united federation? This chaos is what caused the farmer Daniel Shays to start his rebellion against Massachusetts in 1786. Only three years earlier, the newly created United States of America had won the Revolutionary War. In order to govern the states, the Continental Congress, the only federal assembly governing the US, drafted the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation had too weak of a central government. An example would be Shay’s Rebellion, a group of farmers attacked and shut down the courts, but the Articles didn’t allow them to get an army to

The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations. The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency. 7. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies.

Federally issued paper currency was rendered worthless as there was no way to regulate interstate commerce and the law-making process was nearly impossible seeing as it required two-thirds of state votes. All of the aforementioned nonsense called for a particularly bitter nation, and this lack of fondness towards the government led to an equally problematic and especially violent country, most notably in Shays ' Rebellion of 1776. Enter the supreme law of the land, otherwise known as the United States Constitution. In 1788, this document officially replaced the Articles of Confederation, and is still currently the basis for all American law. Its goal was to make the nation more republic-like, while also maintaining peaceful relations between states.

The first constitution of the United States, the Article of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. However, the Articles were not finally ratified by all thirteen states until March 1, 1781. There were numerous downfall in the Articles of Confederation due to the weak central government under the Articles of Confederation. In February 21, 1787, the Congress approved a plan to hold a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation to address the need for a stronger federal government.

Shay’s rebellion was a crisis happened in 1780s at rural areas of central and western Massachusetts. At that time, many farmers were bonded to high debt when they started new farm, because of the local government did not handle the economic crisis well, there was no pro-debtor laws (i.e. forgiving debt and print more paper money). They already sent letters to the elected leaders, however, they only getting ignored by the state government, also the national government could not do anything because they had no power under the Articles of Confederation, which had many weaknesses, such as; (1) The national government did not have power to tax, (2) Congress did not have power to forces the states to obey the laws, (3) There was no system of national courts, (4) Congress could declare war and raise army, however it could not force the state

With the victory against England the newly independent Americans earned an official claim to America and needed to establish a written plan of government for the new states. The Americans sought to implement some form of sovereignty without total power or any influences of monarchy. In 1777, the congressmen generated the Articles of Confederation, defining the union as a “loose confederation of states” existing mainly to “foster a common defense” (Roark 190). However, the Articles of Confederation had many flaws and imperfections. Because it provoked too many conflicts, the Articles of Confederation resulted in failure and was ultimately overturned by an improved document of government, the Constitution.

Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.

The Whiskey Rebellion occurred due to the tax imposed upon whiskey, the growing need to pay off war debts, and the urge to levy government power. The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 occurred mainly throughout West Pennsylvania. The wealthy believed the tax was good for the society, while the laborers believed the government was being too harsh. Farmers rebelled against the tax that Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of State, placed upon whiskey.

First, the Articles did not allow for the national government to collect taxes from the states or from the citizens, this starved the national government of vital funds it required to survive and function, the Articles provided no way for the national government to regulate commerce amongst the States. Because the states were so fragmented under the Articles, the already anemic central government could not speak to other nations with a cohesive voice, and any amendments to the Articles required the unanimous approval of all 13 states which solidified that no changes would ever be ratified; thus creating a fixed and never improving government. In addition, another downfall of the Articles was its lack of leadership and accountability within the national government, which was made obvious during Shay’s Rebellion in 1786 (Shea, Green, Smith 52). During the 1780s, due to the influx of imports, the United States experienced an economic depression. Farmers were hit the hardest because of the drastic drop in the value of their crops compared to previous years.

After the United States declared independence from Great Britain. The Article of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. After a year of reflection, it was submitted to the states for ratification in 1777. It was not approved until 1781. After weak years with the Article of Confederation, in 1789 the Constitution was adopted.

Redmond Peiro Ms. Smith Maryland State Constitution Paper 9 February, 2016 In the months preceding the American Revolution, a convention was held in Annapolis between a number of Maryland’s most powerful men in which to discuss the development of a new government. In addition to this, they sent representatives to the Continental Congress to finalize pre-war preparations. On July 3, 1776 the convention agreed that a new group was to be created to draw up their first state constitution as the old ad hoc government structure was considered inadequate. “That all government of right originates from the people, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole.”