AP U.S. Government and Politics · Lesson 2

From the Articles to the Constitution

Know Know it

The Articles of Confederation (in force 1781 to 1789) created a loose league of states. There was a one-chamber Congress in which each state had one vote. There was no national executive and no national court system.

Congress could not tax; it could only ask the states for money. It could not regulate trade among the states. Major laws needed 9 of the 13 states, and changing the Articles needed all 13. Shays' Rebellion (1786 to 1787), an uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers, convinced many leaders that the national government was too weak.

At the Constitutional Convention (1787), delegates settled key disputes by compromise. The Great Compromise made a House based on population and a Senate with two members per state. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three-fifths of enslaved people for House seats and direct taxes. The Electoral College settled how to choose the President.

Ratification needed 9 of the 13 state conventions. Federalists backed the Constitution; in Federalist No. 10, Madison argued that a large republic controls the harm of factions. Anti-Federalists, in essays such as Brutus No. 1, warned that the national government would swallow the states. The promise of a Bill of Rights, added in 1791, helped win ratification.

Trap Weak does not mean absent

The Articles did set up a national Congress, which could declare war and make treaties. The problem was what it lacked: the power to tax, to regulate trade among the states and to enforce its laws, plus no executive or national courts.

Worked example Easy

Under the Articles of Confederation, how did the national government raise money?

  1. By collecting an income tax from each citizen
  2. By placing tariffs on trade between the states
  3. By selling land grants to foreign kings
  4. By asking the states, which could refuseAnswer

How to solve it

  1. Recall the key weakness: Congress had no power to tax.
  2. Without a tax power, it could only ask the states for funds.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Congress had no power to tax individuals, so an income tax on citizens was not possible.
  • B. Incorrect. Congress could not regulate or tax trade between the states under the Articles.
  • C. Incorrect. Selling land grants to foreign kings was never a revenue source and would have made no sense for a new republic.
  • D. Correct. Congress could only request money from the states, and states often paid little or nothing.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, compare

A strong explanation pairs a problem with its fix. Name a weakness of the Articles, then name the part of the Constitution that answered it and say how. For the ratification debate, compare what each side feared: Federalists feared a weak, divided nation; Anti-Federalists feared a distant, too-powerful national government.

Worked example Medium

Small-state delegates feared that seats based only on population would let large states run Congress. How did the Great Compromise answer this fear?

  1. It counted three-fifths of enslaved people when assigning seats
  2. It gave every state the same number of senatorsAnswer
  3. It let each state cast a single vote in the House
  4. It required unanimous consent for every new law

How to solve it

  1. Identify the fear: large states controlling Congress.
  2. The fix had two parts: a House by population and a Senate with two seats per state.
  3. The equal Senate is the part that protected small states.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Counting three-fifths of enslaved people settled a North-South dispute, not the large-state versus small-state dispute.
  • B. Correct. Equal Senate seats gave small states the same voice as large ones in one chamber, while the House followed population.
  • C. Incorrect. One vote per state in the House would have dropped population entirely, and the House is based on population.
  • D. Incorrect. Requiring unanimous consent for laws was not part of the compromise; the Constitution uses majority votes.

Explain Your turn

Name one weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Then name the part of the Constitution that dealt with it, and say what that part allows the national government to do.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Names a real weakness of the Articles of Confederation
  • Names a part of the Constitution that deals with that weakness and says what it allows

Model answer

One weakness of the Articles was that Congress had no power to tax, so it could only ask the states for money. The Constitution dealt with this in Article I, which lets Congress lay and collect taxes, so the national government can raise its own money to pay debts and an army.

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