The Articles of Confederation of November 15, 1777 were accepted by Congress, but were not ratified by all the states until March 1, 1781, Maryland was the last state to ratify them ratify. The Articles were a humble attempt to form a national government by a new country trying to unite. The Articles of Confederation, however, intended that the states should hold the majority of power. The Articles' government was very weak, but this was done on purpose, because after finally gaining independence from Britain, they feared that a strong central government would lead to the empowerment of another monarchy. Alexander Hamilton called for a convention to be held in Massachusetts to advise Congress to “surrender the Constitution.” Several issues arose that led to the drafting of a new Constitution in 1787. The Constitution called for a more united government with more power. The Constitution was supported by two major politicians: George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, who called themselves Federalists. In this essay, we will review the major conflicts and distinctions between the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. The first conflict between the Articles and the Constitution concerned how they constituted the legislature. Congress was created as a single legislature under the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution, in turn, creates a bicameral legislature, consisting of an upper house called the Senate and a lower house called the House of Representatives. The Virginia Plan called for a two-house legislature and was proposed by James Madison, but Edmund Randolph proposed a new national government with executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Supporters of the Virginia Plan later realized... middle of paper ...... that Franklin was at the helm of the "Great Compromise", which led to slaves being counted as 3/5 d 'a person under the 3/5 compromise. Additionally, in the section on taxes, I explained how William Patterson of New Jersey actually wanted to reform the confederacy, but not all states agreed with reform. Along with the two major conflicts between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, there were many distinctions. Most of the distinctions were between state and federal government. The Articles were based on the belief of a state-led government and the Constitution was based on a federal government. The second distinction mentioned concerns the distribution of power within government. The third was the Bill of Rights which was voted by the people to be enshrined in the Constitution. Today, our government is not perfect, but it was decided by the people, for the people.