Constition

Essay by badandy986High School, 12th gradeA+, February 2004

download word file, 4 pages 3.4 1 reviews

Unit II Question I

Throughout the United Sates short life as an established nation, it has accomplished many things. One of the biggest accomplishments is the Constitution of the United States, which was created on the errors taken on by the Articles of Confederation.

After the U.S declared its independence from Britain, the colonists had to establish a government .The Articles of Confederation was created to make hope for a fair government. Because of the fear that resulted from the colonial experience under the centralized government of Great Britain, the committee had been careful to give the states as much independence as possible, while also clearly stating the limited functions of the federal government. Yet, several years would pass and many revisions would occur before the Articles were finally adopted. The Articles had many flaws: such as the central government was made up of delegates chosen by the states, while it could conduct foreign affairs, make treaties, declare war, maintain an army and a navy, create money, and establish post offices.

It was severely limited in its powers. To raise money by collecting taxes; it had no control over foreign commerce; it could pass laws but could not force the states to comply with them. Thus, the government was dependent on the willingness of the various states to carry out its measures, and often the states refused to cooperate. Farmers had problems with the Articles giving the states too much power, The farmers' response was primarily political, a demand for the printing of fiat money, which would cause inflation and therefore reduce the debt burden on the farmers. Other demands centered around demanding that debtor courts, which enforced many of the credit schemes at the time, be staffed by elected rather than appointed officials. These efforts were resisted and stymied...