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Pros And Cons Of The Articles Of Confederation

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The Articles of Confederation, first adopted in 1781, represented the former colonist’s first attempt to establish a new government after the Revolutionary War. Some of the problems Americans faced after the Revolutionary War were problems with governmental debt that remained when the war was over. Soon Americans started to find disadvantages to the Articles of Confederation, which they considered changes that could possibly improve the economic strengths of the nation, allowing the composition of trade barriers among the states would discourage specialization and lower voluntary trade. The lack of dependable source of revenues for the central government would make it strenuous for the newer nation to defend themselves from attack, which is …show more content…

The Indians were ready to resume trade. The French had not joined the British as the American Indians had hoped. The outcome of the French and Indian War affected all three powers. The American Indians were faced with British rulers who were not going to stop the flow of settlers into the Ohio River Valley and other native lands. The Ohio River Valley Indians eventually loss their land. To keep their traditional lifestyle they moved further west. The task of creating a new government was not easily accomplished. Disputes among the delegates nearly ended the Convention on several occasions. For example, delegates from the large and more populous states disagreed with those from the small states about representation in the national legislature. The larger states favored the Virginia Plan, under which population would determine the number of representatives a state could send to the legislature. The smaller states supported theNew Jersey Plan, which proposed that all the states would have an equal number of representatives. The Connecticut delegates suggested a compromise that settled the problem. Their plan provided for equal representation in the Senate, along with representation in proportion to population in the House of Representatives. This proposal became known as the Connecticut Compromise or the Great …show more content…

The delegates from the Northern states wanted Congress to have the power to forbid the foreign slave trade and eventually to abolish slavery. Most Southern delegates did not wish Congress to have this power. A compromise decided that Congress would not be allowed to regulate the foreign slave trade until 1808. Another compromise involved the question of how to count slaves in determining the number of congressmen a state could have. Slaves were not considered citizens, and so the Convention agreed that only three-fifths of them could be

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