The Adoption of a New Constitution in the United States

HISTORY ESSAY 1
History Essay
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HISTORY ESSAY 2
1.
The adoption of a new constitution in the United States became a difficult task and this
was because the steps towards finding the solutions to the challenges associated with the articles
of confederation required many discussions between the anti-federalists and the federalists. It is
believed that the articles of confederation had led to the creation of certain problems and this,
therefore, prevented the country from being run well including the sharing of power between the
confederation congress and the states (Maggs, 2017).
In a comparison of the two documents, the articles of confederation provided each of the
states with one voting right and this was irrespective of the size of the states. The other thing was
that the Congress was never granted the power to levy taxes on individuals and this, therefore,
prevented the ability of the nation to pay for the national debt which amounted to about $75
million. The Congress and the state were compelled to print their own money leading to inflation
and financial crisis. The value of the dollars therefore depreciated leading to depression which
was as a result of revolutionary (Morone & Kersh, 2016). Additionally, the articles of
confederation also resulted in the absence of a national court system and an executive branch
which was tasked with the passing of a variety of law acts in the Congress. The articles also did
not acknowledge the sovereignty of the nation but it instead recognized the sovereignty of the
particular states. Therefore there was no national army since it was not catered for in the article
of confederation.
The introduction of the new constitution resulted in various changes whose key
objectives were to empower the central government and thus develop the national army. With the
new constitution, the national government was allowed to impose taxes on the citizens and hence
there was adequate money to pay for the national debts. Additionally, the new constitution was

HISTORY ESSAY 3
considered as the supreme law of the land and it, therefore, identified the sovereignty of the
people and this was unlike with the articles of confederation which only recognized the
sovereignty of the states (Halberstam, 2018).
Strengths of Articles of Confederation
 It made both war and peace
 It resulted in the establishment of Congress
 It led to the printing of money in the economy
 It also brought various states together
 It had the capacity to raise a navy and an army to protect the states.
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
The articles of confederation had certain weaknesses and they included,
 Absence of a national courts system
 It never granted the Congress the power to levy taxes on individuals
 The states were only given one vote in the Congress and this was irrespective of their size
 A unanimous vote was required to make amendments to the articles of confederation
 It did not grant the Congress the authority to control the interstate and foreign commerce
The article of Confederation in most of the scenario was unable to solve some of the
problems within the states. For example, there was the case of Shays' Rebellion in 1786 which
entailed a protest due to the rising debt and economic crisis which the articles of confederation
were unable to sort out.