The Articles of Confederation were salvageable

My opponent mentions that it was tried but consensus could not be reached. I will continue to argue though that what was in there was acceptable and if at a later date they wanted to amend they might all agree to amend it then.Even if a consensus could not be reached the states were under no obligation to stay a part of it and could leave any time as they were only in a “league of friendship” anyway. The articles already established that the congress of the central government could declare war. Jefferson said of Shays rebellion that “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing” and that the “ tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”. Especially since this uprising was citizens in response to the Government. [1] It had been the original intent of Jefferson and others that citizens could and should defend themselves against an oppressive government. Yes Jefferson did praise certain parts of the Constitution but as a whole he saw it as he thought it was disappointing and wished it could be fixed. Jefferson also asked what country had gone so long with only 1 rebellion. All this from the source my opponent posted. Sure speculation on what Jefferson would have done could only be speculation but based on what he said we can have a good idea. I bring up Switzerland as an example of how Confederacy works. My opponent wants to know why creating a larger Federal Government is a bad thing. For that let us look at some quotes from some of the founders: Thomas Jefferson has so many I will list a few: "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”[2] Some of the others had some things to say as well “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”- James Madison [3] “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” Patrick Henry [4] It is true however that James Madison and Patrick Henry did support the Constitution, but never intended it to be a document that granted the Federal Government ultimate power. The Anti-Federalists wrote their won response to the Federalist papers, criticizing them and the attempt to scrap the articles. [5] I want to address my opponent’s other points Each state had one vote in Congress regardless of size. This would be akin to California getting the exact same representation as Oregon. Even though California's population is exponentially larger. We have this problem today, in fact even worse with the winner take all system in the Electoral College in 48 out of 50 states (Maine and Nebraska being the exceptions). True the Constitution tried to solve the problem my opponent brought up by having the lower house be proportional and as a compromise having every state have 2 Senators. As for the articles though, it would be like saying China should get more Ambassadors to the UN than France proportional to its size. Congress could not tax. No revenue, no government. Congress could not tax but states could. If the Federal Government was needed for something the states would be the source of funding. Congress could not regulate commerce. Yes but why is that a bad thing? No executive branch to carry out acts Congress passed. Again I point to Switzerland. They have a title of president but it is merely a presiding member that rotates and has no real duties above the other members. They are not the head of state. [6] No national court system. That is sort of true, however there was a system for dealing with disputes between the states. Laws required 9/13 states to pass in Congress. I don’t see the problem here; laws shouldn’t be super easy to pass. I thank my opponent for his arguments and look forward to the next round. 1 http://www.earlyamerica.com.... 2 http://www.federalbudget.com... 3http://www.pappasontaxes.com... 4 http://redwhitebluenews.com... 5 http://www.utulsa.edu... 6 http://en.wikipedia.org...