Hist/110

Articles of Confederation vs. The Constitution

Larry Bowen

HIST/110

June 6, 2012

SARAH FARENICK

Articles of Confederation vs. the Constitution

Keep in mind the Articles of Confederation was the first of it kind for the United States. The Articles of Confederation was formally written on July 9, 1778 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Articles of Confederation,, 2009). America had only been independent for 3 years and was made up of the 13 colonies, which amounted to nine states. America was fresh and the states were still fearful that having one central government authority; powers would be abused. The Articles were a sort of written plan for state governments but because of the simplicity of them and it being the first set of plans, once it was in place a few problems needed to be addressed. Under the Articles of Confederation the Government was not able to regulate trade and levy taxes (Articles of Confederation,, 2009). When the Constitution was written the government was given that right. The Articles had one chamber or House. This caused problems because there were no checks and balances in place. The Articles did not provide a judicial system and congress did not have the power to enforce laws. The states had to create interpret and enforce the law. This was problematic especially when dealing with separate states that did not see the law the same way. The Articles of Confederation required a unanimous vote to make changes whereas the United States Constitution requires a 2/3 congresses and ¾ house vote to make amendments (Articles of Confederation,, 2009). House is represented by population the senate is equal to all other states.

The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776 to King George, pointing out all the problems the colonists had with Brittan (Schultz, 2011). The colonist’s believed it needed to address all the reasons it wanted to e recognized as a “New land” a “Sovereign land.” This made for a great template for the United States to...