 |
Главная Случайная страница Контакты | Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! | |
Articles of Confederation
|
|
When peace came, the United States was not one unified nation as it is today. Each new state had its own government and was organized very much like independent nation. Each made its own laws and handled all of its internal affairs. During the war, the states had agreed to work together by sending representatives to a national congress patterned after the “Congress of Delegates” that conducted the war with England. After the war was won, the Congress would handle only problems and needs that the individual states could not handle alone. It would raise money to pay off debts of the war, establish a money system and deal with foreign nations in making treaties. The agreement that set up this plan of cooperation was called The Articles of Confederation.
The Articles of Confederation failed because the states did not cooperate with the Congress needed or with each other. When the Congress had to raise money to pay the national army or to pay debts owned to France and other nations, some states refused to contribute. The Congress had given no authority to force any state to do anything. It could not tax any citizen. Only the state in which a citizen lived could do that.
Many Americans worried about the future. How could they win the respect of other nations if the states did not pay their debts? How could they improve the country by building roads or canals if the states would not work together? They believed that the Congress needed more power.
The Congress asked each state to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia, the city where the Declaration of Independence had been signed, to discuss the changes which would be necessary to strengthen the Articles of Confederation.
The smallest state, Rhode Island, refused, but delegates from the other 12 states participated. The meeting, later known as the Constitutional Convention, began in May of 1787. George Washington, the military hero of the War of Independence, was the presiding officer. Fifty-four other men were present. Some wanted a strong, new government. Some did not.
Дата публикования: 2015-02-18; Прочитано: 628 | Нарушение авторского права страницы | Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!
