Week 3, Question 1

7/1/2014

Read Ch 9- 11 (75-101) and answer the following questions/statements:

What were some achievements of the Congress under the Articles? What shortcomings did many Founders see in the Articles? What arguments could you have made in support of the Articles?

31 Comments

Lucy

7/4/2014 05:57:18 am

Under the Articles of confederation Congress had many achievements. Such as successfully waging war against Great Brittan, negotiating the Treaty of Paris, passing the Northwest Ordinance, and persuading the states to recognize each others laws and marriage. As well as securing safe travel for citizens and the return of criminals on the run.
Although there were some problems with the National Government. For example, Congress did not have any money and it did not have the power to raise money, it had no power over the state governments or their citizens, it could not make the states live up to trade agreements with other nations, it had no power to regulate trade among the states, and citizens thought that their property rights were threatened.
Even with it's short comings, the Articles of Confederation helped to bring the states together and pave the way for the constitution.

Devyn

7/7/2014 04:24:46 am

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was able to achieve many things. A few things were, waging the war against Britain for Independence, and ending the American Revolution with a peace treaty. A few flaws that were recognized were, Congress didn't have money, nor did they have the power to raise it. They did not have the power to tax the citizens. Another flaw is, Congress couldn't control the state government, or the citizens. Those governments were independent. Although they had shortcomings and flaws, having these Articles were better than nothing. There now was a platform for the Constitution to stand on, a good government wouldn't be a foreign concept.

Clara

7/8/2014 11:51:40 pm

The Articles of Confederation organized our national government to be weak, so there wasn’t too much power. The national government was basically Congress. They could pass laws but there was not enforcement power.

Though the national government was week at the time, it achieved: 1) successfully waging war against Britain, 2) it negotiated the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War, 3) it required states to recognized the laws of other states, and 4) it passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 allowing new territory to govern itself and apply for statehood.

The national government was weak. The Articles didn’t allow for the Congress to raise money through taxation. The States made donations to congress but weren’t required. Congress had no power over the states or citizens. They did not have the power to make the states live up to the agreements without nations. They did not have the power to regulate the agreements between the states. And they did not have the power to protect citizens’ rights when threatened by their states.

lucy

7/14/2014 06:14:08 am

I agree with Devyn that the articles of confederation basically were the rough draft for the constitution.

Lucy

7/14/2014 06:16:24 am

I agree with Clara that the Articles of Confederation gave little to no power to the national government, Congress.

Claire

7/14/2014 07:11:20 am

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress achieved many things. One thing Congress achieved was created a peace treaty to end the American Revolution. Congress also got each state to recognize the laws of other states. One thing that meant was citizens could travel freely between states. Those are just a few of the achievements Congress made under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation also created some problems. Many of these problems are because the Congress had little to no power over the states. Some problems were: Congress didn't have money or the power to raise money, Congress didn't have power to regulate the trade among the states, and citizens thought their property rights were threatened. Even though the Articles of Confederation had some problems, it was still a good thing to have. It gave the government a stepping stone to the Constitution. It also helped them figure out what things they liked about it and they wanted to keep and what they needed to change.

Claire

7/14/2014 07:18:31 am

I agree with Lucy. I agree that even with it's short comings, the Articles of Confederation helped bring the states together. Before the Articles, it was every state for itself. People couldn't travel between states freely and each state had it's own personal constitution. The Articles of Confederation changed that and brought the states closer together and made us a better country.

Claire

7/14/2014 07:22:39 am

I agree with Devyn. Having the Articles of Confederation was better than having nothing at all. Each state had it's own constitution and it's own government. The Articles were the only thing up until that point that all of the states followed. I also agree that the Articles were important for creating the Constitution. It was the platform to having a better constitution.

Devyn

7/15/2014 12:09:52 am

I agree with Claire. The states had to recognize that they each had their own set of laws. Congress achieved that. Even though Congress had to real power over the states, they ensure that they were at least communicating by acknowledging the laws of the others.

Devyn

7/15/2014 12:11:08 am

I agree with Clara. The government was very weak. They didn't have the power to raise money through taxation, which would have been very helpful. Without money, a government can't do much for the people.

Clara

7/16/2014 12:41:52 am

I agree with Lucy that the Articles help bring the states together.

Clara

7/16/2014 12:48:11 am

I agree with Lucy, Devyn and Claire, that Articles were like a starting point for the Constitution. Without the Articles for a rough draft, we would not have successfully started a war with Great Britain, and eventually end it with the Treaty of Paris.

Gabriella

7/22/2014 06:16:03 am

The Articles of Confederation, while definitely flawed, did actually benefit the colonies. While congress functioned under the articles, many things were accomplished. The majority of the American Revolutionary War was fought and won under the Articles, because of the Treaty of Paris. It also united the states to some degree, or at least established some respect of other states' laws. And finally, it passed the Northwest Ordinance. Which gave Northwestern settlers the right to organize their own government and to make a request to become a state. It also gave certain rights to the settlers, such as public education and freedom of religion, it also forbade slavery.

Gabriella

7/22/2014 06:49:14 am

While there were some accomplishments that happened under the Articles, there were too many problems for it to function properly. Congress had no money, and it lacked the Authority to get it. Congress could only beg for it from the states, and few provided it. Without money, the government officials could not be paid, and congress had no money to use on public funding. The biggest problem with the government was that they had no power over almost anything. The states regarded their laws they passed like friendly suggestions, and some states flat out refused to follow anything they opposed. Trade was a huge problem in this respect, both internal and foreign. Congress could not make the states keep up their end of the deal with other countries. Some citizens would refuse to pay for imported goods, as a result, foreign countries would not trade with the US. Even between states, state's taxes made trade near impossible. Bottom line, congress had no power to regulate or control the states in many important ways. Another big problem was factions. Certain factions formed the majority in congress. The factions formed laws that took members of the faction out of debt, and others that took property from people who had been loyalists.

Although they were not useful for the long term, the articles were definitely a good thing for the United States to have. By trial and error, they helped us to realize what government needs to look like, and the downside of having one branch be more powerful than the others.

Sarah

7/22/2014 09:13:59 am

Achievements that were made under the Articles of Confederation is waging the Revolutionary war for independence, negotiated the Treaty of Paris, provided each state to recognize laws of other states, and passed Northwest Ordinance. However the Articles are not flawless. Problems included the Congress not having enough money and power, trading issues for the states and other nations by both Congress and citizens and property rights being threatened. Even though the Articles are not flawless, it did help to begin to bind the thirteen states into one nation.

Sarah

7/22/2014 09:43:32 am

I agree with Lucy, the Articles did help bring the states together

Sarah

7/22/2014 09:46:54 am

I agree with Claire, the Articles may have not have worked, but it did help the Founders know what worked and didn't work for the Constitution.

Makayla

7/23/2014 01:20:38 pm

The Articles of Confederation created our first national government. The Articles allowed Congress to achieve many substantial things. For example, successfully waging war against Great Britain, negotiating the Treaty of Paris, and passing the NorthWest Ordinance. The Articles also had flaws. Congress had no power to tax, because of this, Congress did not have any money. Congress also did not have the power to raise money. Congress had no power over the state governments or their citizens, because of this, state governments and individual citizens often ignored the laws passed by Congress. Lastly, many citizens believed the states were not protecting their property rights. Regardless of the fact that The Articles were flawed, they created a platform for the Constitution. Also, it allowed Congress to see what worked and what didn't work.

Jordan

7/30/2014 12:02:06 am

The national government was rsponsible for many important achievments under the articlkes of confederation. One of the achievements was that it provided that each state recognize the laws of the other states. Another one was that it negotiated the peace treaty. This peace treaty was known as the Treaty of Paris. Although they had achievements they also had shortcomings or problems uunder the articles of confederation. One of the problems was that Congress did not have any money and was not able to raise money because they didn't have any power. What the meant by raise money was basically tax people. So all they could do was ask the states to pay an amount of money to support the government. But technically they couldn't force the states to pay the amount of money that the other states were paying so all the states got into a big arguement about paying an amount to help the government. Although the articles had some problems it was good to have because it was good to see what worked and what didnt work.

Jordan

7/30/2014 12:07:11 am

I agree with Sarah. Even though the articles had problems,it did help form the thirteen states into one nation.

Jordan

7/30/2014 12:09:58 am

I agree with Gabriella. Even though the articles were not that useful, they helped us see what we needed our government to look like, and the downside of having one branch have more power and "rule over" the other branches.

Luke

7/30/2014 03:13:25 am

Under the Articles of confederation Congress had many achievements. Such as passing the Northwest Ordinance and waging the war witch Great Britain. But with theese achievement came a few flaws, Congress had no money, and they didn't have the power to raise money because of this Congress had no power over the states government or theire citizens. Overall the Articles formed the constitution and gave them and idea of how to run a government.

Justin

8/2/2014 04:04:40 am

Some of the achievements were that the congress waged the war for independence against Great Britain, negotiated the Treaty of Paris to end the Revolutionary War, and passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The bad things were that Congress didn't have power to raise money when they were struggling with money, They didn't have power over state governments or the citizens, and citizens thought their property right was jeopardize. An arguement to support the Articles is that it helped end the war, and pass many laws.

Noah

8/3/2014 07:41:28 am

Some of the achievements of Congress under the Articles of Confederation were 1) they won the Revolutionary War, 2) they created the Treaty of Paris, 3) they made it where each state had their own laws, and also had to follow a higher law, and they passed the Northwest Ordinance.

Some of the shortcomings that the Founders saw were 1) Congress had no money and had now way to raise money, 2) Congress had no power over the state governments, 3) Congress could not make the states live up to their agreements, and 4) Congress had no power to regulate trade among the states.

I would have argued that the Articles would create a more unified nation and an unified nation means a stronger nation especially when it comes to war and other major problems.

Elijah S.

8/3/2014 07:46:01 am

Under the Articles the Congress accomplished many things. A few were waging war on Great Britain, negotiating the Treaty of Paris to successfully end the Revolutionary War, last but not last, passing the Northwest Ordinance. There were many problems however. For one, the Founders faced the problem that people were scared of a strong national government. Americans believed that the British took away their rights. They thought any national government would do that. Another was that Congress did not have any money and it did not have the power to raise money. A third flaw was that Congress had no power over the state governments or their citizens.

Elijah S.

8/3/2014 07:47:39 am

I agree with Lucy that the Articles helped bring the states together.

Elijah S.

8/3/2014 07:50:57 am

I agree with Claire, although the Articles didn't work, they helped decide what to put into the constitution and what not to put in.

Sophia

8/3/2014 08:13:52 am

The Articles of Confederation waged the war for independence from Britain, allowed the government to establish the peace treaty and establish the law that each state had to recognize the laws of the other states. It also passed the Northwestern Ordinance. This allowed the northwestern people to form their own governments and ask to be admitted into the states. If they were admitted they would have the same rights as the colonists. It also provided public education and forbade slavery. The colonists were very afraid of giving the government too much power, so they settled on creating a weak central government. There were many issues with the articles of confederation. The government was very weak; they had little control over the states. They could not directly tax the states, but instead ask for them to donate money to the government. The government was depending on the state governments to enforce the laws that were passed. They could not control or regulate any of the states' trade agreements with other countries. Groups of colonists felt that their rights were not being adequately protected by their government, and they wanted a stronger government to protect their rights better. Arguments that could be made in the Articles' favor would be that the members of Congress didn't have enough power over the people to unfairly tax or possibly impose unjust laws on the colonists.

Chelsea

8/3/2014 11:11:12 am

07/07/2014 11:24am

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was able to achieve many things. A few things were, waging the war against Britain for Independence, and ending the American Revolution with a peace treaty.

The national government was weak. The Articles didn’t allow for the Congress to raise money through taxation. The States made donations to congress but weren’t required. Congress had no power over the states or citizens.

The articles did help the nation come together and stronger. Which even though it wasn't at its best was still great at the time.

Ali

8/3/2014 11:33:02 am

The Articles of Confederation were used to unify the separate states into a nation. With the articles in place they accomplished several things. The government recognized that each sate should be aware the laws in other sates. This helped better unify the sates. The Northwest ordinance was also passed. There were also several problems while establishing the the Articles. they had to figure what type of government would be best for the nation. Also agreeing was difficult with many different opinions and views. The founders were not sure how the people would react to a national government. They predicted many people would be afraid of it. They also tried to determine how sates would be represented in a national government. The articles were not perfect and did not solve every problem but the put the nation on track to becoming more unified.

Aiden

8/4/2014 09:27:54 am

I think one of the biggest accomplishments under The Articles Of Confederation was that they won independence over Great Britain. They had British colonies in America, while still under British rule. There suddenly became an excess of taxes and the colonists were tired of it. They sought to gain there independence from Great Britain; which was a risky move, since Britain had one of the strongest militaries in the world. Even though the Articles were good for the colonists at THAT TIME, doesn't mean that those ideas were meant to last forever. They had to make a stronger government that would work out for more people. I feel like the Founders made the right call, because the Articles weren't as strong as our government is today. Sure, government has changed since the founders' time, but it is stronger than the Articles.

Week 3, Question 1

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