Why did the framers feel the need to replace the Articles of Confederation?
Articles of Confederation were the first attempt of the framers to create a powerful government with an ability to provide individual liberty as well as a national safety.
They wanted to build a new government with the power to maintain public order, provide prosperity, and secure the nation’s independence. They wanted to create a government with the ability of management of the assets of the country and fulfillment of its pledges, as well as its external and diplomatic relations with its neighbors.
The Articles of Confederation primary purpose was to limit the power of the central government. In order to do that, it created an executive branch – Congress. It had a little influence, because the execution of laws was left to the individual states. Although legislative branch had its responsibilities like – declare war and make peace, coin or borrow money, regulate trade, etc. it had no power over a national taxation, no power to regulate commerce or trade among the states, or create national armed forces. Moreover there were no executive or judicial branches to support Congress’s will whenever it was needed, which was a primary necessity in an effective government.
The government couldn’t govern effectively because of a general lack of power to force states to honor national obligations as well as because of an economic debt and political conflicts between the colonies and England, and among the competing groups inside the colonies. This special concern for the countries international position plus the domestic turmoil after the Revolutionary War led the framers to consider a new version of the Articles, meaning the Constitution.