The Articles of Confederation - Essay Example

The Articles of Confederation The full of the Articles of Confederation is The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. But its common and with which it is most often known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was the initial document which governed the constitution of the United States of America. The final draft within the Articles of Confederation was written in the year 1777. This was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in the same year at York, Pennsylvania. A lot of debate took place when the Articles of Confederation were being finalized which suggests that a lot of thought process went in the way of the Articles of Confederation’s completion. The Articles of Confederation served as the actual system of government which was used by the Congress till the time it became de jure by final sanction in the year 1781. It was then that the Congress became the Congress of the Confederation at that time. The Articles of Confederation basically prescribed the rules that went in the different operations of the US Confederation. What these Articles of Confederation did were to plan different issues like the aspects of discussing war and ordering the army to go ahead with the attack processes, negotiating different matters pertaining to diplomatic agreements and the like as well as resolving the problems that came in the way of the western territories and this indeed was a huge issue if seen in the proper contexts. Also what the Articles of Confederation did was to undertake proper measures which could understand the borrowing aspects related with the inside and outside of US that were taking place. There were some criticisms as well which came in the way of the Articles of Confederation. One such was that the critics raised different viewpoints in the wake of the creation of a mighty central state as it was thought of to be lacking a taxing authority and related basis. Thus the role of the federal government in such a situation is to ask for more and more funds from the different states. Then there was another ambiguity in the form of a concern that the one-state, one-vote aspect was somewhat mind-boggling to state the least and it created problems for the Articles of Confederation’s basis by all measures and means. There needed to be a change within the relevant basis so that the Articles of Confederation could be thought of as being pretty easier and less ambiguous than anything else. The larger states were requested to offer more than what the smaller states had to give at the end of the day. However a point of concern was that only a single vote was reserved for the larger states which were a perplexing situation if seen from the proper perspectives and this needed to be rectified so that a more equal basis could be established within the Articles of Confederation. This could have been solved if the votes were divided amongst the smaller states by creating more states than were present at the time and this could have successfully resolved the very problem in the bud all said and done. Thus these articles created a unanimous defense confederation which basically looked at managing the American Revolutionary War and what this did was to replace the Articles of Confederation soon after when the same were taken over by the United States Constitution on 21st June, 1788. The authors of the Articles of Confederation are the Continental Congress while they are the signatories of the said Articles as well. The basic purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to prepare the Constitution for the United States which was later replaced by the US Constitution itself. As far as the ratification of the Articles of Confederation is concerned, the Congress started to move for the same in the year 1777. The document failed to become effective until the ratification process was made complete by all the 13 colonies which were present at the time. Delaware was the first state to ratify it on 5th February, 1778. The same process continued for a considerable period of time before getting stalled by the decline of a number of states in order to rescind their claims which they had over the lands in the West. Similarly, Maryland was the last state as it literally backed out of giving into the demand of going along with New York and Virginia as the two had agreed to concede their respective claims in the Ohio River Valley. Maryland’s ratification process was completed in the year 1781. The Articles of Confederation had certain summaries within them with respect to these articles that need a little understanding here. For the duration of this paper, these articles would be studied in a shallow manner so that a basic comprehension could be derived from what actually the Articles of Confederation in reality are. One needs to pinpoint the difference between the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution – no matter prepared by more or less the same group of people. The differences were quite apparent between the two and the same raises a point or two since the Articles of Confederation was ratified first and the US Constitution was implemented much after the Articles of Confederation was in the first place. The original Articles of Confederation was comprised of five pages yet it contained 13 different articles as well as a conclusion and a section for signatories. The 13 articles discussed the points related with establishment of the name of confederation as “the United States of America” and termed the same as a “perpetual union”. Also there was mention of the assertion the precedence had over the different states as concerns the confederation government. This means that each state was allowed to maintain its sovereignty, independence and a sense of freedom for its inhabitants and they were allowed to exercise their own legitimate power, jurisdiction and the individual rights. There was the aspect of allocation of one vote in the Congress of the Confederation towards the respective states. The freedom of movement was established within the Articles of Confederation and it allowed for anyone to pass through the states in a free and fair manner. However this excluded the fugitives, paupers and vagabonds as they came directly under the watchful eyes of the justice regimes. Within the Articles of Confederation, the central government was given the right to conduct foreign associations as well as the power to declare war in tough circumstances and situations. Thus the central government was given the might to defend its own self in the best manner possible and if seen apart from the Articles of Confederation this was a clever move since it manifested all the powers and authority within the central government and thus made the central government answerable to the people, the different legislative authorities and the like from time to time. As concerns to the Army itself, there was a ruling within the Articles of Confederation that the Army would work for the betterment of the state and it would raise the aspects related with common defense. What this meant was the factor that colonels and different ranks from the military would be named by the state legislature authorities. When it came to expenditures which needed to be incurred by the state, the same would be raised by the state legislatures and were proportional to the property values of each of these states. Thus it created a sense of belonging between the states and more accountability seemed to be set in place all said and done. The Articles of Confederation also did play its part in defining the rights of the central government as mentioned before. It also authorized the Congress to act as a last line of legislation and a court for the disputes that would occur between the different states from time to time. The Articles of Confederation also defined a Committee of the States which had its role to be a government in the event of Congress not being in a session. Thus the Articles of Confederation looked at all the relevant loopholes that could have occurred from time to time within the different states as well as the central government and not to forget the Congress itself. There were different mechanisms which discussed the very basis related with the working methodologies of these bodies and discussed the finer aspects linked with their smooth functioning and the like. The Articles of Confederation made it mandatory to have nine states to approve the admission as concerns to a new state entering into the fold of the confederacy. This was a wise move since the Articles of Confederation had foreseen the interest of the different states as well as countries which could come and decide to join in. In the end, the Articles of Confederation declared that the said document was final and the articles within it were perpetual and they could be altered by the permission granted to it by the Congress whereby the ratification process for the same had to come from the different legislative authorities of the respective states. It was in May 1786 that the revision and replacement of the Articles of Confederation was proposed. It was put into action by Charles Pinckney who hailed from South Carolina and his proposal was that the Congress needed to make wholesale changes to the Articles of Confederation itself. He thought it was about time to amend the document and the articles needed to present more value for the stakeholders rather than the other way round. The changes which were asked for included granting the Congress the much needed power and authority over issues that comprised of foreign as well as domestic commerce as well as the amendments that asked for different measures in the wake of the collection of money from the various state treasuries on the part of the Congress. However what this meant was that the Congress needed unanimous approvals from the members but on the same count a lot of differing perspectives was arrived upon and thus the whole matter was scrapped as a consensus on this issue could not be reached. Thus the revision and replacement of the Articles of Confederation was not an easy process to undertake and it required huge favors from the members within the Congress since a lot of these members were quite skeptical of the end results. More so, a sense of pessimism and a defeatist attitude was witnessed within the Congress whilst taking this decision. By the year 1790, the Articles of Confederation were in effect as by then each of the member states had ratified the new Constitution. There are a number of reasons that have been given by the historians for the need to have a new Constitution and the replacement of the Articles of Confederation was deemed a necessity. Among these reasons included the subject of financial weakness of the Articles of Confederation as well as the different procedures and structures in the name of institutions which came directly under the auspices of the Congress. Then there was the matter pertaining to the propensity to split the same along a number of different sections so to speak. Thus by all counts, the Articles of Confederation provided a direction for the central government to make different pathways so that the states could be run in a more adequate manner. The Articles of Confederation asked for the states to liaise with each other and gave them significance in the wake of declaration of war which if seen from a broad perspective is a very significant aspect. All said and done, the Articles of Confederation led to the thinking mindset which indeed paved the way for the chalking up of the US Constitution at a later point in time. It provided the Congress to learn from its mistakes and embed the finer points which it had missed whilst drawing up the Articles of Confederation. A lot of plus points were thus credited on the shoulders of the Articles of Confederation in the end. Bibliography Jensen, Merrill. The New Nation: A History of the United States during the Confederation, 1781-1789, Vintage Books, 1950 Johnson, Calvin H. The Dubious Enumerated Power Doctrine, Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 22, 2005 Risley, Ford. The Confederate Press Association: Cooperative News Reporting of the War, Civil War History, Vol. 47, 2001 Anderson, Gordon L. The Formation of the United States, World and I, Vol. 20, January 2005 Mcdonald, Forrest. To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: The Making of the Consitution - the Infant American Nation Weathered Tremendous Obstacles in Order to Form a Constitutional Union, World and I, Vol. 18, February 2003 Word Count: 2,018 Read More