The American Revolution brought an extended number of changes that people demanded, and they are noted in two extremely important documents known as the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. These documents managed to mobilize and organize the thirteen colonies and may be considered the first successful steps of the U.S. on their way to becoming a united and independent country. Despite the equal importance of these documents, there are several differences between them, and the purpose of this paper is to outline them.
The Differences Between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
These differences were based on the ways the documents codified the law and defined the government. First of all, the Articles of Confederation stated that there was a single chamber in the parliament, while the Constitution divided it into two chambers (Wright and Locke). Further, the voting power provided by the two documents was also different. The Articles gave each state a single vote, and the Constitution decided that all legislative representatives had a vote in the parliament (Wright and Locke). Additionally, the distribution of power also differed: the former document divided it among all unions, while the latter gave the power to the central authority.
The Constitution’s Authors’ Interests
The authors of the Constitution had their own interests, including lust for power, and tried to follow them when writing the document. Since the distribution of power between the unions appeared to be ineffective, the creators of the Constitution, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other politicians, decided to address this issue and create the central authority. Additionally, it would give some of the authors the possibility of becoming a part of the government. For example, James Madison became the fourth U.S. President.
Work Cited
Wright, Ben, and Joseph L. Locke, editors. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook. Stanford University Press, 2019.