Citizen Advocates for Constitutional Principles

Constitutional Gems - # 749 - 12-03-2007

The First American Constitution

Our first national Constitution was called the "Articles of Confederation." After the signing of the Declaration of Independence it was another five years before our first constitution came to be "in force" in 1781 though it was submitted to the states in 1777.

The Articles of Confederation were drawn up during the last years of the Revolutionary War at a time the very survival of the new nation was far from certain. As an emergency action it had some very serious flaws that convinced Washington, Madison and many others that there was a great need for another Constitutional Convention to remove the flaws. Some of the flaws were as follows:

• it only recognized state sovereignty;
• the national government lacked power to enforce compliance with national laws;
• there was no power to collect taxes;
• no power to control trade;
• and a weak executive.

These weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were largely intentional, resulting from a fear of the powers that the British government was able to exercise.

(Contributed by George Sweeney

Send us your comments about issues in this newsletter.

Do you have a question regarding the Constitution?

This is always a free subscription! We guarantee our subscription list is never shared with any third party. Ever!

Did you miss an issue of Gems. Find it at CACP.info
To unsubscribe click here.

© 2007 - Citizen Advocates for Constitutional Principles, Inc.

To contact webmaster.