Confederation and Constitution

Confederation and Constitution
After the American Revolution the new nation was in a state of the unknown as a country. A group of representatives from each state had the task of defining the new nation and its government. The first attempt to define the new nation was in a document called the Articles of Confederation. Under the Articles of Confederation the federal government was basically just the Continental Congress. There was no Executive or judicial branch under the federal government as these tasks would be handled by the states. Under the Articles of Confederation the federal government had no power to implement or collect taxes, its only ability to raise money was to ask the states for the money to cover its expenses but it had no authority to make the states give the money to the government. The main purpose of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation was diplomacy, print money, resolve any controversies between states, and coordinate any war efforts.   One other thing the Continental Congress had the power to do was create and maintain a national army. Although the Continental Congress had the power to create an army they could only ask the states to contribute personnel and resources, they did not have the authority to force the states to comply with their request for aid.   Under the Articles of Confederation the states had Sovereign authority and only the state authority could act directly upon the people. Each state would also have one vote in the Continental Congress and would need 9 states to pass any law but would take all thirteen states to make a change to the Articles of Confederation. After the Revolution the new nation had a vast debt from the war that it was unable pay back because it had no ability to raise money other than ask the states. The Continental Congress could not negotiate any commercial treaties to help pay off the debt because they had no power to regulate trade. As the future of the new government was...