The Articles of Confederation, the first Constitution of America made by delegates from thirteen states to create the first government, possessed several strengths and weaknesses. As General Washington finally defeated the British troops on October 19, 1781, colonists living in America feared exceeding power controlled by the central government since they did not wish to produce a second “British Parliament,” which put heavy tariffs and enforcements on them. As a result, they voted to give states overwhelming power compared to Congress. States maintained almost full sovereignty—They could coin the currency, collect their taxes, form trade networks, and establish loosely regulated relationships with each other. Politics remained in small republics, which favored delegates in each state—It worked like benign neglect under British rule. 

Nevertheless, the weak Congress created in the AOC had limited authority, including borrowing money, settling disputes, and regulating the national weight measures. Its inability to levy taxes led to unpaid debts and salaries in the Revolutionary War, and both soldiers' riots and the states’ abuse of power led to a crash in the economy. 

During the mid-1780s, America entered the “critical period” mainly because of the federal government’s lack of coercive power, and society faced several severe crises during that era. Firstly, America fell into an economic depression and chaos. While the federal government required the states to pay five million dollars in debts of war, it only collected 422,000 dollars —not even one-tenth of the total, leading to revolts and mutiny of soldiers demanding their pay and the loss of credit in the “Continental” that was issued to cover the salaries of soldiers. When states issued their currency and laws concerning it, the tyranny of one group over the other provoked another source of disorder. For example, the majority(the farmers) controlled the legislatures in Rhode Island, so they printed so much currency that it hyperinflated and depreciated eighty-four percent. They(The debtors) even issued laws that compelled the creditors to accept the devalued currency. On the other hand, the minority controlled the legislatures in Massachusetts, so they put heavy taxes on farmers, which caused the Shay’s Rebellion. In these two cases, both the tyranny of majority and minority yielded instability inside each state. 

Secondly, America failed to regulate its diplomacy and trade. The United States could not coerce the Treaty of Paris by kicking out the British from the continent. Moreover, states like New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut put heavy interstate taxes on each other, which violated the AOC of the “League of Unity and Friendship.” This situation provided benefits for the trade of foreign powers since they could negotiate a lower tariff with each state, and the states entered a “trade war” between themselves for not creating a uniform standard. However, Congress did nothing to regulate it since it had no coercive power. 

James Madison provided several diagnoses of the United States’s situation by reading books concerning diplomacy for thousands of years. He first pointed out that the Confederate models of government struggled to implement their explicit authority included in the AOC since it lacked coercive federal power to oversee the activity of the states. Then Madison illustrated his fear of tyranny of the majority, which had occurred in Rhode Island and had ruined the balance of economic relationships and social norms. Ultimately, he depicted the need to enlarge the sphere of politics from the state level to the national level since representatives inside one state could formulate a unanimous plan quickly by sharing identical interests. 

Relying on the issues Madison mentioned, he provided his “Virginia Plan” to fix them. Firstly, he wished to give the new national government uniform power on domestic and foreign commerce to establish trade and customs since controversies on national trade policy interfered with the influx of money and decreased American exports. Moreover, the new plan created the judicial and executive branches, which put the Constitution as the highest priority, followed by federal and state laws. All these designs built a robust federal government that followed the Constitution and had supremacy over the states. However, Madison did not want limitless power, so he recommended a new bicameral legislature in which each state selected two senators to the upper house and sent proportionally elected representatives to the lower house. In such a manner, the creditor(minority) controlled the upper house while the majority(the debtor) controlled the lower house—an avoidance of tyranny of the majority and small republic. 

Madison’s “Federal Negative” granted constitutional authority to the US Congress to veto any law passed at the state level. The total federal negative vetoed any laws that Congress considered improper, whereas the limited federal negative vetoed any unconstitutional laws. Madison kept pulling up this topic for discussion. He asserted that limited federal negative was insufficient to control constitutional states’ policies that contrasted the interest at the national level. On the other hand, total federal negative allowed Congress to eliminate any potential threats of division since it judged any ambiguous cases and decided whether they violated the Constitution. As a result, the states would limit themselves not to transgress the “line,” and chaos during the critical period should never happen again. 

When the majority of people inside the states supported one law, it overwhelmed the minority group who had distinct voices. These laws typically harmed the rights of minorities and created different factions inside one state. However, when the total federal negative was applied, the federal government controlling the veto power could vote down these laws to preserve everyone’s opinion and maintain political balance inside the state. Thus, federal negative prevented a “tyranny of the majority” from occurring.