Articles of Confederation: Failure or Achievement
It has always been said over and over that the Articles of Confederation were considered to be a failure. Such as having a weak government, no standing army, or simply have no control of anything. They were the first constitution for the United States that was ratified in 1781. The purpose of the constitution was to establish a government well a weak one to declare their independence from Great Britain. Since they formed a weak central government most of their power went to the state government, and congress was the one left to make the decisions.
Articles of Confederation are known to be a failure due to wanting to have a weak government. Due to them having one they couldn’t make things happen or had any control over what was going on. I do believe the good things that they accomplished outweigh the bad. So, it’s confusing on why the articles of confederation were considered to be a failure when they have accomplishments. I wonder if it’s because they had a weak government, and consider to be a failure?
One of the main reasons why the articles of confederation was an ineffective form of government was because their government had no power, and they wanted a weak one. They also had no judicial branch or actual courts, and the amendments were required unanimous votes. Their government was powerless and couldn’t support anything that the laws had required to be passed down. They also had issues with trading and financing. The Shays’ Rebellion had a downfall because they did not have a standing army, and articles that didn’t support what they needed.
Even though they might have failed, they did manage to accomplish a few things. For instance, the government was able to declare its independence from the British. They were able to sign treaties, have wars, and make peace with Congress. One of their other achievements which involved the Northwest Ordinance was several incidents occurred, such as slavery. Everyone was able to have their own government and manage to abolish slavery which I feel it was one of their greatest accomplishments. I feel like they were able to achieve these accomplishments by having Congress's approval.
As the Articles of Confederation had accomplishments, they may have played a long-term. One of their accomplishments that involved the Northwest Ordinance had several events that took place such as slavery. There was a line that was drawn between the Ohio River that separated free and slave states. More events started happening such as the American Civil War, then we had the Civil Rights Movement that ended segregation and voting rights. All those events occurred just for us to be able to live the way we do today.
So, the question I asked, in the beginning, was if the Articles of Confederation were considered to be a failure due to them having a weak government? In my opinion, that’s kind of hard to answer because even though them having a weak government they still manage to make accomplishments. They were still able to make changes for the government by having approval, signing treaties, making sure certain citizens had their rights and privileges, and taxes. Even though they might be considered to be a failure, there was still success brought out through the documents.
