4 Comments

• Norm Jones says:

  October 30, 2009 at 3:03 am

  Hello there,

  The spirit of the American Revolution was to rid the people of a government imposing its will on the people. That government, of course, was the King of England. When the founders of the country took on the task of setting up a government in here, they did not establish a strong federal government. To have done so, would have gone against the sentiments that lead to the revolutions. They just threw off one strong central government and did not want to substitute with another. Therefore, under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government was weak and the local governments of the states were strong.

  Through the years that American operated under the Articles of Confederation, various concerns arose. The federal government could not collect taxes and had to rely on the states to contribute to the expense of operating the federal government. The critics of the Articles of Confederation, commonly called the Federalists, believed that a stronger federal government was needed to control the overall economy of the nation and provide a common defense. The economic issues included the power to create tariffs to protect new industries in America and to give grants of land.

  A convention was convened to make changes to the Articles of Confederation. However, instead of amending the Articles, the convention wrote a new Constitution. It is that Constitution which was subsequently adopted to replace the Articles.

  Good luck,
• Tony says:

  October 30, 2009 at 3:03 am

  You are not ALONE !
• Amelia says:

  October 30, 2009 at 3:03 am

  Between 1776 and 1789, the United States became an independent country, creating and ratifying its new constitution, and establishing the federal government. In an attempt to gain autonomous status within the British Empire, American Revolutionaries implemented nonviolent means of protest which quickly grew into a political revolution followed by a war for independence to defend it. The Americans eventually won the war, declaring the United States a sovereign nation in the interim. After thirteen years of relatively loose Confederation, the U.S. government, fearing foreign invasion and domestic insurrection, replaced the governing Articles of Confederation to strengthen the federal government’s powers of defense and taxation with the Constitution of the United States in 1789, still in effect today.
• atlladyleo says:

  October 30, 2009 at 3:03 am

  basically, the Articles were the first plan of government for the newly formed United States of America following the Revolutionary war. I am thinking that the idea that it "reflected the spirit of the Revolution" in that it established the US as a free and self-governing entity, free of British Rule.
  However, since the United states did NOT want a strong central government that depressed the rights of its people, and feared opression, much of the Article’s laws allowed for an imbalance of power between the Federal government and the State government. Therefore, since this constitution made it difficult for the Federal government to raise an army, collect taxes, and other such functions that would keep the government running as a whole. Another criticism of the Articles was that they did not strike the right balance between large and small states in the legislative decision making process.
  The weakness of the Articles in establishing an effective unifying government was underscored by the threat of internal conflict both within and between the states, especially after Shays’ Rebellion threatened to topple the state government of Massachusetts.

  After 13 years, because of this weak government, representatives met in pennsylvania, called the Continental Congress. originally, they met to revise (change) the Articles, but realized that a new form of government was needed.
  Then, the Constitution was written in 1788. it completely replaced the Articles with a new form of republic government which allowed for a Balance of power between people, states and country. Thus the 3 branches of government were created and power was shared amongst the branches known as "Checks And Balances".

  Additionally, the most critical part of the Constitution was the establishment of The Bill of Rights, which guaranteed individual citizens rights to protect them from the potential opression of the Central goverment; rights such as freedom speech, rights to due process and rights to own property.

  Hope this information helps

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