Article of confederation
...ost persistent problem faced by both state and national governments. Because legislators at all levels levied taxes only reluctantly, both Congress and the states at first tried to finance the war simply by printing currency"(Norton 177). Congress had trouble passing laws due to the fact that 9 of 13 states had to agree before any laws could be passed. Since there was no executive branch, there was no way to make sure that laws were carried out. There was no judicial system, since there were no courts to interpret the laws or to judge those that broke them. Each state acted like a small, separate nation. Jensen says, "The people of each state saw themselves as citizens of their state as opposed to citizens of an entire nation. The people felt this way due to the great distances between the states and the primitive transportation conditions during that era"(115). The relation between Congress and states was bad. States ignored Congress, which was powerless to enforce cooperation, and it was therefore unable to carry out its duties. Although the Articles of Confederation helped to establish the new nation, it failed in numerous ways. As mentioned above, the main problem was that the states refused to give the national government enough power to work correctly. Eventually the weaknesses of Articles of Confederation lead to the adoption of the U.S Constitution. The inability to regulate abuses among the states drove the need for a new constitution. In the main, the Articles were seen as providing insufficient power to federal government to bind the states into a workable union and to adequately defend the new nation from foreign intervention. The Articles of Confederation was a failure in creating a prosperous and efficacious country that could support itself and its people. Virginia Plan presented by James Madison I am James Madison declare that the Articles of Confederation ought to be so corrected and enlarged as to accomplish the objects proposed by their institution; namely, “common defense, security of liberty and general welfare. Morgan reveals Madison's ideas and says "Resolved therefore that the rights of suffrage in the National Legislature ought to be proportioned to the Quotas of contribution, or to the number of free inhabitants, as the one or the other rule may seem best in different cases"(147). The National Legislature ought to consist of two branches. Wilson then finalizes it and says, "The members of the first branch of the National Legislature ought to be elected by the people of the several States every for the term of; to be of the age of years at least, to receive liberal stipends by which they may be compensated for the devotion of their time to public service; to be ineligible to any office established by a particular State, or under the Authority of the United States, except those peculiarly belonging to the functions of the first branch, during the term of service, and for the space of after its expiration; to be incapable of reelection for the space of after the expiration of their term of service, and to be subject to recall"(114). Farrand concludes Madison's plan and says, "The members of the second branch of the National Legislature ought to be elected by those first , out of proper number of persons nominated by the individual Legislatures, to be of the age of years at least; to hold their offices for a term sufficient to ensure their independenc...