Question

2. Based on the excerpt, explain what role the key provisions in the Articles of Confederation played in the debate over state sovereignty vs. strong national government.

Answer 1

Explanation:

The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, on November 15, 1777, but the states did not ratify them until March 1, 1781. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. Once peace removed the rationale of wartime necessity the weaknesses of the 1777 Articles of Confederation became increasingly apparent. Divisions among the states and even local rebellions threatened to destroy the fruits of the Revolution. Nationalists, led by James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Wilson, almost immediately began working toward strengthening the federal government. They turned a series of regional commercial conferences into a national constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787. This constitutional convention laid the foundation for what would later be established as THE U.S. CONSTITUTION OF WE THE PEOPLE.