us constitution

us constitution

The Articles of Confederation represented the Americans’ reaction to the use of power by a detached, centralized authority. In light of the issue with Britain’s King and parliament, Decentralizers won during the creation of the Articles of Confederation and created a weak, decentralized government. However, as revolution ended and America began to enter the era of building the new nation, numerous flaws of the Articles of Confederation became evident. The lack of crucial powers in the central government and its inability in managing the war effort and rebuilding the shattered economy following the war led to the growth of a series of domestic and foreign problems. Taxed couldn’t be effectively collected from different states by the central government, which put the government into huge debt. Interstate and international trade were disrupted because the absence of a single, uniform, and stable currency. Foreign policies couldn’t be backed with military strength, making America inevitably handicapped in foreign affairs. Just as the handout said, the Republic faced three major crises: humiliation from foreign nations, lack of national economy, and armed violence, all due to the fact that the type of government under the Articles of Confederation was not up to the challenging task of establishing a sound economical system, regulating interstate and international trade, enforcing legislations, or compelling military service. Thus the Constitution was necessary to restructure a new, more powerful government that was able to foster economic growth and maintain the newly won independence. Although the Decentralizers held opposite opinions, this time it was clear that “the republic would die without a strong central government.” The Decentralizers were greatly outnumbered at the Philadelphia Convention and the secrecy of the meeting led to much compromise made by them.
        After reading different interpretations of our founding fathers’ motives in...