The Constitution of the United States is credited as being one of the most solid, practical, and applicable documents of government ever produced. It has served as a foundation for not only the success of its own country but for many others around the world as well. However, the form of government based on this document was entirely unprecedented at the time of its creation; for this reason, the document’s forerunner, the Articles of Confederation, was inevitably far from perfect. In many positive ways, the Constitution was a radical departure from the Articles of Confederation and was produced specifically to mend the flaws of its predecessor.
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation as the document defining the new governmental system for the United States one year after the country signed its Declaration of Independence in 1776. Naturally, the patriots who helped compile the document were also those who helped win the war for independence. After such a release from the injustice of the old English colonial government, the men agreed to proceed carefully in establishing their own system. In this attempt at limiting the system’s power over the people, the resulting Articles of Confederation was far too weak to grant the government adequate control over the old colonies. It did not unite them as the document’s creators had planned. Rather than work to benefit the federal government of the country, it simply left the individual, independent states to govern themselves.
The creators of the Articles of Confederation planned on having only one legislative branch, Congress, to help govern the nation. The main limitations of this branch under the Articles were its inability to levy or collect taxes on the colonies, regulate interstate commerce, and generally supersede the decisions of the states’ own governments. Because of these apparent weaknesses, no centralized governmental power existed that could ensure the fair treatment of the people in the states. As a result, such uprisings as Shays’ Rebellion occurred during which people violently revolted against the unfair treatment exacted by their respective state administrations. This was evidence clear enough to the federal Constitutional Convention (then known as the Annapolis Convention) that the Articles of Confederation was not strong enough to unite the states together under one fair rule.
The five delegates of the Constitutional Convention agreed that a new document of government was necessary for the country’s success. They had learned from the Articles, however, that the country required a much stronger authoritative power. The Convention came up with the Constitution, which formed a government based on three branches with power effectively limited by a system of checks and balances. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution granted the federal government supreme power over the state governments, which then paved the way for fairer laws and more equal treatment of the people throughout the nation. The Constitution, made effective in 1789, allowed the federal government to do just what the Articles had allowed before: declaration of war and peace, maintenance of an army, and coinage of money. What drastically distinguished the Constitution from the Articles, however, were the added legislative powers created to benefit the country in its entirety while still preventing a tyranny to form. Unlike the Articles, the Constitution took the initiative to allow the federal government to tax the people and regulate interstate commerce. It instated a more practical system of passing federal laws and making amendments by requiring only a two-thirds majority vote rather than the Articles’ absurd prerequisite of unanimous approval. It solved a disagreement in representation between large and small states by creating a compromise in the legislative branch of the government: The Senate was to be comprised of two senators from each state, similar to the manner in which the Articles handled the situation, but in accordance to the wishes of the larger states, the number of members allowed in the House of Representatives was to be determined by the state’s population.
By these vast changes to the original Articles of Confederation, the Constitution became the illustrious, well-respected document of government the world knows today.
