Was it necessary to replace the articles of confederation with the constitution?

Question

Was it necessary to replace the articles of confederation with the constitution? I need to write a giant essay on this beast tonite, any help on what to write will be good. I just need ideas of what to write about, not whore paragraphs, I like to find the information by myself but I'm having problems thinking of what to write about.

Answer 1

Think about the things in the Constitution that are not in the Articles.

1. Common defense. The Continental Army was raised, paid, and supported by the states, not the federal government. This made it awfully hard to wage the war and would probably have led to the USA being picked to pieces during the War of 1812 had it not been fixed.

2. Interstate commerce. The states were imposing tariffs on goods crossing state lines, which essentially put interstate commerce to a halt.

3. Money. The USA had no national currency until the constitution, which again had a chilling effect on business.

If you get the idea that a lot of the impetus behind the constitution was business and finance, you would be right on target.

Answer 2

Nothing is necessary -- it's just a matter of choice.

The question is whether you think it was a good idea or not -- based on the differences in those documents -- and how much the colonies had 'bought into' (accepted) those documents.