Confederation and Constitution
The Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781, and provided a fairly rudimentary framework for the governance of the new country. But the Articles left the U.S. mainly as a collection of states, with powers concentrated primarily at the state level. The central government's power was severely limited, and one of the results of this was a push for a stronger central government to strengthen the union. The Constitution of 1787 came out of that push. This paper will examine these two documents, noting strengths and weaknesses of each.
Articles of Confederation
The Articles framed the union as a "mutual friendship" among the states, but left the states with a high degree of sovereignty. Article 3 noted that warfare/national defense was one of the main points of central government, where the states would defend each other from external attacks. The Articles governed issues such as interstate commerce and trade, in addition to military matters.
There were several weak points in the Articles, however. For example, Article 4 noted that "the free inhabitants of each of these states...shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other state." This in theory extends the rights of all free people to all states, but those conditions did not work in the slave states, for example, which continued to violate this article for many decades to come. The status of Native Americans was not given any mention at all, whether they were considered free or what their status might be within the Union, whether living in one of the states or otherwise. The central government was granted power of Indians' Affairs, however, which more or less created a rather parochial relationship with the native population.
Western expansion was actually not mentioned directly in the Articles. Article 11 notes that "Canada acceding to this confederation...shall be admitted into...this Union, but no other colony shall be admitted...(unless) agreed to be nine...
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