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Articles Of Confederation And Constitution DBQ

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Articles Of Confederation And Constitution DBQ
The United State’s independence wasn’t the end of their problems; they still faced the challenge of forming their government. They formed a plan of government called the Articles of Confederation, but the plan quickly started to crumble. So, around ten years later, the government gathered a conference to revise the Articles and compromise to change their government. The result being the Constitution, the form of government that is still being used today. In 1781, the U.S. government ratified their first plan of government, the Articles of
Confederation, which instructed that the states have most power, leaving a weak central government. The Articles were created to ensure “ a firm league of friendship in which each state retained ‘its sovereignty, freedom, and independence’”. But since the beginning, not every state agreed. As stated in the comic “Rough Sailing Ahead?”(Document 2), the articles had a lot of problems since the beginning, since the central government was so weak. The Articles of Confederation’s two major problems were: there was no national court system and the federal government could not collect taxes. There was no national court system is the
United States, so the states could choose to apply or to ignore the laws passed by the government and could even create new ones to apply for each individual state. This lead to disputes over the states, and the people felt as though the states power was tyrannical. The
Federal government could not check for overpower, could not defend the people or intervene if corrupt. George Washington states this on his letter to James Madison (Document 1) “If there exists no power to check them, what security has a man for life, liberty, or property?”
Taxation was affecting the Articles of Confederation a lot. Although the foreign trade was increasing, the States were facing economic troubles. The Federal government was broke due to the Revolutionary War, but could not raise money due to the

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