Welcome back one and all! I hope you had a restful and rejuvenating Christmas Break. I know I did.
Let's reset the scene, shall we? After years of salutary neglect, the British rulers in England are imposing their will (and their taxes, troops etc) on the colonies. Infuriated (especially those in New England where the taxes hurt the most), the colonists begin to fight back. The War for Independence begins in April 1775 and ends with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
While the fighting is taking place, certain men known as the Continental Congress begin to devise a plan for self-government. What good is it to gain our freedom yet have no plan to take care of each other? Most people think the Constitution, which is still used to, came first but that is not so. Agreed upon in Congress in 1777 and ratified in 1781 (making it the law of the land), The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first governing body in America. While it was a step in the right direction, the document left much to be desired and was eventually scrapped for the Constitution.
For this week's blog, you need to visit this site. There are three main parts to this site: background info, the actual words of the AoC and brief biographies of the "forgotten" confederation presidents. You need to read each section carefully (this may take you a while) and then answer the following questions in the comments section.
-What were some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles?
-Overall was the AoC a good plan or a waste of time?
-What did you learn, that you didn't know before, about America's "first presidents"?
This article was very helpful and gave lots of insight to things i had no clue about. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses. One was its inability to regulate trade and levy taxes. The States did not always work well with the government. Congress could not force the States to do some things. A strength is that the Articles of Confederation gave limited power to the central government. Congress could only arbitrate disputes between states. I think the Articles of Confederation was a big waste of time. It sounded good, but obviously didn't do as well as some thought it would. I learned that the Presidents had many other important possisions other than being President. For example, JOhn Jay was the Secretary of State and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Many of our first presidents were religious men. Their religion was a huge part of their life and effected how they made descisions.
ReplyDelete(157) sorry!
ReplyDeleteEven though this article was quite lengthy, it did give thorough information which was helpful in understanding what the point of the Articles of Confederation was for. The good thing about the Articles of Confederation was that it helped America learn how to form their own government. They had little experience with creating a self-government that would be effective, so this was like a "practice." A very big weakness to this document was that it was almost like Congress had no power. Congress couldn't really make the colonies do anything. The states didn't care about the government and basically ignored them. Another important weakness was that Congress couldn't regulate trade or levy taxes. I think that this document was pretty much a waste of time. Although this was their first time forming a government, the little power Congress had affected the country in a negative way. I think it's weird to think that there were other "presidents" before George Washington. In fact, I didn't even know that until I read this. I learned that many of the presidents already had very powerful standings, like being vice presidents of states, governors, and other jobs. I thought Elias Boudinot was interesting because even though he was president, he didn't sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles, or even the Constitution. I think it would be an honor to be the head of an important group of men that changed America. {238}
ReplyDeleteSince America was going to become independent they needed a form of government so they decided to write the Articals of Confederation. The articals did a good job in making sure one person didn't have too much power, but I don't think it gave the Congress enough power. The Congress really had no control over anything the states were doing. It couldn't even give taxes to the people. Overall it didn't do anything to help the people in America, but I didn't think it was a total waste of time.It showed them the mistakes so they could change them and make the country better. For the "first presidents" I learned a lot about them. I thought it was interesting how they pretty much worked themselves to the top. I thought it was also interesting that Arthur St. Clair wasn't even born in America. Even through this artical was very long it told me alot of stuff I didn't know.(161)
ReplyDeleteMany people think that after the Declaration of Independence came the Constitution, and they completely leave the Articles of Confederation out of the picture. I honestly don’t think I ever knew such a document existed before I read this and our history book. Even though it isn’t mentioned much, the Articles of Confederation were important. Many things in the Articles were carried over into the Constitution. Under the Articles, Congress could raise armed forces, declare war, and do a few other things. The big problem with the document was that Congress had the POWER to do things but couldn’t FORCE the states to comply. They also had VERY limited power. They couldn’t tax the colonies so many debts weren’t paid off. The states basically just kept operating almost like separate little countries, not all as one. I don’t think that the Articles were a complete waste of time, but they certainly don’t deserve being called a good plan. I thought they were kind of like training wheels. You can’t learn to ride a bike without training wheels at first, and the Constitution couldn’t have been written without the Articles first. I never knew there were “presidents” before George Washington. A lot of the names mentioned I hadn’t ever heard of. I thought Arthur St. Clair was pretty interesting. He wasn’t even born and raised in America and had a high position during his life. {234}
ReplyDelete~1DirectionNiall4eve:)~
This article gave a lot of information to help me understand the Articles of Confederation. I learned a lot from this article, even though it took a while. The Articles of Confederation helped America learn how to form their government. That was a good thing! A big weakness was that Congress could not regulate trade or levy taxes. Another big weakness about the Articles of Confederation was that Congress did not have a lot of power. Congress could not make the colonies do anything because the colonies did not care about the government. I think the Articles of Confederation was a big waste of time. It did not do anything for the people in America and Congress had a little bit of power. I thought the “first presidents” was pretty interesting. I learned a lot of stuff. Like that there were presidents before George Washington. Thomas Mifflin first served as George Washington’s aide-de-camp at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and when that was over he became the President of the United States. Another president I found interesting was Elias Boudinot. He did not sign the Declaration, the Articles, or the Constitution. He was well respected. (197)
ReplyDeleteThis article had a ton of facts and information that taught me some stuff. Some of the weaknesses of the Articles were that the National Government couldn't force the states to obey its laws. They didn't have the power to tax. Congress lacked strong leadership. There was no army or navy. Each state could make there own paper money. I think that the Articles of Confederation were a waste of time. I didn’t know that many of our presidents were religious. One interesting man was Henry Middleton. He only served for five days. He had five sons and seven daughters. I think it is cool that there were other presidents before George Washington.(113)
ReplyDeleteThe predecesor of the US Constitution, the Articles of Confederation was the first atempt to make a self-ruled government in the colonies. This set of rules set on our way as a nation first stating that the colonies were states and unified into the United States of America. The articles stated that they would protect each other and return any criminals that escaped into another state to the origional state's judicial system. At the time, the states were more seperated that they should have been. The US Congress also had so little power that it couldn't solve the problems the new nation had. It couldn't tax the states enough to pay off its dept from the Revolutionary War. Congress tried to print more money, but the money soon lost its value. They also tried to borrow money to pay off the dept. This only raised the dept higher or kept it the same. Finally, arrangements to change the Articles of Confederation were made and the end result was the US Constitution. One of the forgotten presidents was Cyrus Griffin. He was a protege of Washington and it was during his term that the Constitution was rattified, finalized, and went into effect.(303)
ReplyDeleteI knew that the Articles of Confederation were a set of rules but I didn’t know how they looked. To me they looked like the Constitution. It was good because it united our nation under one set of rules. The bad thing was the rules were not the best. I think that the government needed more power than it had. It was reduced to too little because of the fear of the founding fathers. The Government couldn’t do much of anything that would have been good for the country. I feel that they were just a waste of time and unneeded. I never knew that there were president before George Washington. It is cool how many of then we know about but never knew they were presidents.(127)
ReplyDeleteI thought the Articles of Confederation were very interesting and had many facts. I didn’t think the Articles of Confederation was a waste of time because it helped set up the Constitution and the system of government used today. The Articles had many weaknesses: it didn’t have an army or navy, and couldn’t force the states to do anything. Congress had all this power but couldn’t enforce any of it on the states. I’m glad this article included that there were presidents before George Washington because that is a little-known fact about our nation’s history. I don’t think many people know that because John Hancock was president during the signing of the Declaration of Independence he had to be the first to sign.(123)
ReplyDeleteThe Articles were very seemed very thorough for the first organization of the American government. They seemed to have given it their best shot considering it was the first time making government laws. I couldn’t see anyone doing much better on their first try as a free country; most reasoning is they have never done this before and copying other country’s government isn’t always a good idea. It was more of a test run. Like the first time riding you bike without training wheels. It won’t be perfect the first time and you will most likely fall. The Convention learned from the mistakes they made in the AoC and they fixed it. No one is perfect and it would have been a miracle if the made a perfect government the first go around. So, I think that the AoC was NO waste of time and in affect it helped form the Constitution. The article had its bad side too. It gave the states way too much power. And because of that it was pointless to have a president. The states wouldn’t have done what the government had told them to do anyway. For example, in the Treaty of Paris 1783, it stated that the Americans agreed to repay the British merchants their money. Some Americans refused to do so, but the leaders in government thought it was good idea to pay them back. The Americans refused and what did the government do? Nothing at all. Maybe if the Americans actually paid them like they agree they would, the British might leave the American ports like they promised and that could have eliminated the war of 1812. I liked the “presidents”. The one that really interested me was Richard Henry Lee. I liked him because he wasn’t afraid to say what he thought. He blatantly denounced the practice of slavery in the House of Burgesses. I didn’t know that he was the great uncle of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. I never thought of putting them in the same bloodline. (341)
ReplyDeleteFirst I am going to give some strengths. One is that it gave the baby country a solid government and also gave them experience in writing such things which lead to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 which lead to the U.S. government. Next, it gave the country more independence because before the states were struggling with such. Sadly, there were some weaknesses such as lack of money because the government had no power to levy taxes and the stronger states sometimes refused to pay which lead for high national debt. It also lead to weak army protection from Spain and Britain because the government could not afford an army. To answer the second question I think it was a good idea although it was weak, it gave the baby country something instead of nothing. For the third question I learned a lot. There were much more people involved than I thought and people who were involved were more important than I though. (162)
ReplyDeleterude
DeleteThat is a matter of opinion and you're wrong, im just saying..about the 1D thing
DeleteThe articles were an important part of the reason our small country stayed together. The articles did establish a way to deal with foreign affairs and declaring war. It was weak because it came the federal government no power to tax. Without taxation how was the country going to make any revenue. That’s why the continentals became virtually worthless. Without any money the U.S. Could not pay off the revolutionary war soldiers. The weaknesses of the articles almost lead to the downfall of our nation. The articles are worth something to our history. Because it’s the document that almost ended America
ReplyDelete(101)
Even though the Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses, I think it was a very good attempt at the first laws for America. It did very many good things for America. First, it led to the Constitution and it also led to the first U.S. Government. Limited power to the central government was too a good thing. It also had many weaknesses though. These included: the inability to regulate trade and levy taxes. The states were not forced to give the government money that it needed. The government then could not pay off the war debt. The Articles were absolutely not a complete waste of time. They help lead to many other important events in American government history. It is very cool to see many other people who were "presidents" and some never signed anything, or fought.
ReplyDelete(152)
DeleteAll of this information was very interesting to me and it was things that i didn't know. Anyway, I think that the biggest problem/weakness was that they didn't give congress enough power. This created problems and conflict. But, in all fairness this was their first try, and seemed to me sort of like a rough draft. Even though it wasn't that great, it did have some pros including not giving a lot of power to the central government. I think that the AoC wasn't a very good idea, but the idea of it was. They did their best and were trying to help, but weren't very successful. I thought that the "presidents" were very interesting and I thought that Arthur St, Clair was especially interesting. I had no idea that there were presidents before George washington! How come no one told me this?(144)
ReplyDeleteThe Articles had many weaknesses, it took away power from the central, but it didn’t give congress that much power. Its strengths were that it restricted the states from many things they had before. The states could have engaged in a war among themselves. I think that the Articles were a good thing because it set a boundary for the beginning of America. Some of the ideas that it had are still in us today. It was the first document we had for government that set laws and power between states and federal government. Most of the names of the presidents of congress I have never heard before. They each did so much when they were the president. (118)
ReplyDeleteThe Articles of Confederation is undoubtedly one of the most important documents in US History. This helped to settle claims to western lands. Perhaps the most important thing the Articles of Confederation accomplished was that it provided America with experience in governing themselves through a written document. Although it seemed a good idea at the time, giving the states all the power proved to be an unsuccessful way of governing them. The biggest weakness was its inability to regulate trade and levy taxes. The problem with giving the states all the power was that most times if the states didn’t like the laws Congress passed they would just ignore them. The states sometimes even refused to pay the government which led to debt. This being said the government couldn’t pay off debt that had accumulated throughout the war which included paying the soldiers that fought and citizens who provided supplies. Overall the Congress had so little power and the states had so much that the Congress was unable to carry out their duties. I think that the Articles of Confederation was a good plan for the government, but overall was carried out ineffectively by giving the states all of the power and none to the Congress. Our “first presidents” seemed to be very great men. They helped to shape our government the way it is today. I thought it was interesting that they were all very religious, and used religion to make decisions while creating our government. I also learned that there were presidents before George Washington which is very surprising to me!
ReplyDelete[263]
The Articles of Confederation had both strengths and weaknesses. I think the biggest weakness was the congress’s inability to levy taxes. The United States were in A LOT of debt after the Revolutionary War with Britain. The congress still had to pay back soldiers and other foreign countries that they borrowed money from. Being unable to levy the taxes really hurt the country more, put us in more financial debt and stirred up rebellion, as the Americans were not very pleased with them. Another weakness was their inability to regulate trade, which at the time was one of the biggest sources of income. Overall, I do think that making the Articles of Confederation was a good idea, though. If nothing else, it was almost a practice document for the Constitution. Almost like the congress was doing their homework and working things out and just seeing what they know to do. Then, the constitution was the test, seeing if they can put what they know to good use. The “first presidents” section was interesting. Instead of just the main things that these historians accomplished in life that we always hear about, this section tells us about the little things they did as well, leading up to the main things, that are sometimes forgotten, but may have actually changed the result of a more important thing if it hadn’t have happened. Personally, I think some of those people need more credit, even for the insignificant things. Some of those things are what made our nation what it is today. (257)
ReplyDeleteI honestly feel that the colonies were desperate for a plan of government and were too focused on giving the states more power than the federal government. Also at the same time, the states were not able to pass a law without approval of the other states. THe weak central government made it to where congress could tax the states to pay off debt and it also made it difficult to control trade in the colonies. Even wise, congress couldn't MAKE the states follow the terms made in the Treaty of Paris, which sparked a fire with Britain again. The Articles of Confederation also were preventing the congress from paying the soldiers their pay from serving in the Continental Army. I did find it interesting that many people served as president before George Washington, so technically, Peyton Rudolph was the first president of the free colonies. Anyway, to sum things up; The articles of Confederation were a failure and a waste of time. (163)
ReplyDelete