Week 2 Discussion on the Articles of Confederation.

Obehi Stanley

YesterdayMay 13 at 11:07am

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                                Week 2 Discussion on the Articles of Confederation.

Good day class,

According to the American founding documents, American Declaration of Independence was in 1776 and at the time America had only 13 States. Corbett et al (2023) mentioned that a status of independence meant restructuring the Government which led to the formation of the Articles of Confederation in 1777. The two issues with the Article were that it gave each state power and autonomy in governing itself and this limited the power of the Central government to implement laws on the states because the states were reluctant to relinquish some of its powers to the central government.  Also, the citizens of each state had a strong allegiance to themselves and viewed people from other states as rivals and this led to constant hostility between the states. These reasons laid friendship between the states as the foundation for the Article of Confederation.

During the Federation government, the Nation was faced with different Issues. The Revolutionary war brought with it tones of problems, Corbett et al (2023) noted that some of these problems were; high levels of inflation due to too much circulation of currency, high levels of unemployment, farmers unable to pay taxes and debts, constant disputes over ownership of Western lands e.g Pennsylvania and Ohio that the State of Connecticut was laying claim to. Purcell (2016) mentioned that due to this economic hardship, the National Congress was unable to raise revenue from the states to run the economy and finance the debts from war. Urgent interventions had to be implemented to revamp the economy and save the nation from financial doom.

Purcell (2016) noted that the above unstable conditions in the economy prompted many prominent figures including George Washington to call for a national convention to reinvent the Articles of Confederation. Purcell (2016) noted that 55 delegates from 12 states and delegates from Philadelphia attended this convention, these delegates were people from different works of life representing different sectors of the economy with George Washington presiding over the deliberations. The convention was held in Philadelphia and was finalized in 1787.  This ratification remains what is today known as the United States Constitution. The constitution addressed issues such as election of the president to office, war laws, trade laws, upholding of local and foreign civil and criminal laws against individuals and the government, number, and appointment of each state’s delegates to congress amongst other issues.  The general goal of the convention was to create an environment that fostered peace, friendship, and co-operation between the states. Corbett et al (2023) noted that this Constitution made provisions that gave the National government more constitutional power over the States.