There were many reasons as to why the Articles lasted just a short few years. The purpose of these articles were to limit the power of the central government and boost that of the state governments. The intent of this system was to prevent another monarchy like that of Britain because, after all, that is the reason the pilgrims sailed across the ocean in 1620.
A major issue of the Articles was that congress was not allowed to tax citizens. Basically, there was no way of creating revenue which in turn disabled the government to invest money. Another issue that was addressed in the Constitution is that each state was given one electoral vote, no matter the size. This made the smaller states happy, but the larger states saw several issues with this system. States were not proportionally represented in Congress.
Not to mention, we did not even have a national guard! This problem arose during Shays' rebellion, when Shays and his fellow farmers rebelled without any militant reaction from the government!
These were the main problems with the Articles that were addressed and fixed, for the most part, in the constitution.
Very good blog. I enjoyed reading it a lot. You have a very interesting take on it !
ReplyDeleteThis was a great blog, you used great vocabulary and a lot of information.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of referencing to the pilgrims but it makes a very well educated point. The larger states definitely had problems with the electoral votes I would have to agree
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