It was on this day in 1777 that the Articles of Confederation, the first American constitution, was sent to the 13 states for consideration. It didn’t last a decade, for some obvious reasons. The Articles formed a war-time confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government. The document made official some of the procedures used by the Congress to conduct business, but many of the delegates realized the Articles had limitations. Here is a quick list of the problems that occurred, and how these issues led to our current Constitution. 1. The states didn’t act immediately. It took until February 1779 for 12 states to approve the document. Maryland held out until March 1781, after it settled a land argument with Virginia. 2. The central government was designed to be very, very weak. The Articles established “the United States of America” as a perpetual union formed to defend the states as a group, but it provided few central powers beyond that. But it didn’t have an executive official or judicial branch. 3. The Articles Congress only had one chamber and each state had one vote. This reinforced the power of the states to operate independently from the central government, even when that wasn’t in the nation’s best interests. 4. Congress needed 9 of 13 states to pass any laws. Requiring this high supermajority made it very difficult to pass any legislation that would affect all 13 states. 5. The document was practically impossible to amend. The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783. 6. The central government couldn’t collect taxes to fund its operations. The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. Lacking funds, the central government couldn’t maintain an effective military or back its own paper currency. 7. States were able to conduct their own foreign policies. Technically, that role fell to the central government, but the Confederation government didn’t have the physical ability to enforce that power, since it lacked domestic and international powers and standing. 8. States had their own money systems. There wasn’t a common currency in the Confederation era. The central government and the states each had separate money, which made trade between the states, and other countries, extremely difficult. 9. The Confederation government couldn’t help settle Revolutionary War-era debts. The central government and the states owed huge debts to European countries and investors. Without the power to tax, and with no power to make trade between the states and other countries viable, the United States was in an economic mess by 1787. 10. Shays’ rebellion – the final straw. A tax protest by western Massachusetts farmers in 1786 and 1787 showed the central government couldn’t put down an internal rebellion. It had to rely on a state militia sponsored by private Boston business people. With no money, the central government couldn't act to protect the "perpetual union." These events alarmed Founders like George Washington, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to the point where delegates from five states met at Annapolis, Maryland in September 1786 to discuss changing the Articles of Confederation. The group included Madison, Hamilton and John Dickinson, and it recommended that a meeting of all 13 states be held the following May in Philadelphia. The Confederation Congress agreed and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 effectively ended the era of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation established the first governmental structure unifying the 13 colonies that had fought in the American Revolution. This document created the structure for the confederation of these newly minted 13 states. After many attempts by several delegates to the Continental Congress, a draft by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania was the basis for the final document, which was adopted in 1777. The Articles went into effect on March 1, 1781, after each of the 13 states had ratified them. The Articles of Confederation lasted until March 4, 1789, when they were replaced by the U.S. Constitution. They had lasted for just eight years. Weak National GovernmentIn response to widespread antipathy toward a strong central government, the Articles of Confederation kept national government weak and allowed for the states to be as independent as possible. But almost soon as the Articles took effect, problems with this approach became apparent. Strong States, Weak Central GovernmentThe purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to create a confederation of states whereby each state retained "its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right...not...expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled." Every state was as independent as possible within the central government of the United States, which was only responsible for the common defense, the security of liberties, and the general welfare. Congress could make treaties with foreign nations, declare war, maintain an army and navy, establish a postal service, manage Indigenous affairs, and coin money. But Congress could not levy taxes or regulate commerce. Because of widespread fear of a strong central government at the time they were written and strong loyalties among Americans to their own state as opposed to any national government during the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation purposely kept the national government as weak as possible and the states as independent as possible. However, this led to many of the problems that became apparent once the Articles took effect. AchievementsDespite their significant weaknesses, under the Articles of Confederation the new United States won the American Revolution against the British and secured its independence; successfully negotiated an end to the Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris in 1783; and established the national departments of foreign affairs, war, marine, and treasury. The Continental Congress also made a treaty with France in 1778, after the Articles of Confederation had been adopted by the Congress but before they had been ratified by all the states. WeaknessesThe weaknesses of the Articles would quickly lead to problems that the Founding Fathers realized would not be fixable under the current form of government. Many of these issues were brought up during the Annapolis convention of 1786. These included:
Under the Articles of Confederation, each state viewed its own sovereignty and power as paramount to the national good. This led to frequent arguments between the states. In addition, the states would not willingly give money to financially support the national government. The national government was powerless to enforce any acts that Congress passed. Further, some states began to make separate agreements with foreign governments. Almost every state had its own military, called a militia. Each state printed its own money. This, along with issues with trade, meant that there was no stable national economy. In 1786, Shays' Rebellion occurred in western Massachusetts as a protest against rising debt and economic chaos. However, the national government was unable to gather a combined military force among the states to help put down the rebellion, making clear a serious weakness in the structure of the Articles. Gathering of the Philadelphia ConventionAs the economic and military weaknesses became apparent, especially after Shays' Rebellion, Americans began asking for changes to the Articles. Their hope was to create a stronger national government. Initially, some states met to deal with their trade and economic problems together. However, as more states became interested in changing the Articles, and as national feeling strengthened, a meeting was set in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. This became the Constitutional Convention. The gathered delegates realized that changes would not work, and instead, the entire Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced with a new U.S. Constitution that would dictate the structure of the national government. |
Why were the articles of confederation weak
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