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Articles of Confederation Time Line 1777 1781 March October 1783 1786 1787 April May Congress approves the Articles of Confederation; Articles of Confederation ratifi ed by all states British surrender at Yorktown Treaty of Paris Shays’s Rebellion “Vices of the Political System of the United States” Constitutional Convention The Articles of Confederation Shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Congress appointed a committee to begin work on a national constitution. The committee members produced the Articles of Confederation, which were debated and amended over the next year and a half before being passed in November 1777. It took until 1781 for the Articles of Confederation to be ratified by all thirteen states. The Articles of Confederation were a very poor attempt at developing a working plan for a central government. First, they left far too much power with the states. Second, they did not create a national executive or a judicial branch. Third, they did not give Congress the power to collect taxes. All national governments must collect taxes; they are a necessary source of revenue that a nation must use to pay for services such as an army. This was especially crucial for the fledgling United States because it was at war at the time the articles were written. Unable to force the states to help pay for the costs of the Revolution, Congress found itself with a huge war debt when the Revolution was over. When states belatedly began raising taxes to help pay the debt, the people rebelled, believing that Congress was just the British Parliament all over again. Political leaders such as James Madison and George Washington began speaking out against the articles, urging that Congress try again and this time create a stronger central government, one that had real authority to administer the states. By 1787, it was clear that this was essential if the new nation were going to succeed. The State Governments and the Articles of Confederation The State Governments The individual states—formerly colonies—began establishing new state governments in 1776, as soon as the United States declared its independence from Britain. By 1780, eleven of the thirteen United States had written constitutions; the other two, Connecticut and Rhode Island, had revised their royal charters. The state governments relied on freely elected representative forms of government, in which adult men voted for their leaders. Each state had a governor and a legislative assembly. Most early state constitutions gave much more power to the legislature than to the governor; they were determined to make the new system truly representative of the voters’ needs. In Colonial times, the governor had usually represented the interests of the British Crown, while the legislative assemblies were locally elected and represented the colonists’ interests. This history of opposing interests led the Americans to distrust the notion of a strong executive. State governors and legislators were popularly elected, although voting was still a privilege rather than a right. Women, slaves, and American Indians could not vote. Each state established slightly different age and income requirements for male voters. Free African-American men could vote in most states, if they met the qualifications of age and property ownership. State constitutions guaranteed freedom of religion to all varieties of Christians; some extended this freedom to anyone who professed a belief in the Judeo-Christian God. Many of the leaders of the new state governments had been strongly influenced by the thinkers of the European Enlightenment and feared the influence of religion on the state. Many also recognized that the United States was already a land of religious plurality, where Quakers, Anglicans, Protestants of all kinds, Jews, Catholics, and others all had to live and work side by side. It made sense to ensure that no American citizen could be penalized for worshipping God according to the dictates of his or her conscience. The National Government and the Articles of Confederation The National Government As the state governments began to take shape, Congress turned its attention to designing a national government. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania was put in charge of the committee to draft a plan for this new government. Congress adopted Dickinson’s plan, the Articles of Confederation, on November 15, 1777. The Articles of Confederation did not create a modern nation-state; they created a loosely knit association of thirteen sovereign powers that were guaranteed their independence and freedom. The Articles of Confederation echoed the same fear of a strong central government that had made each state constitution limit the powers of the governor. Legislative Powers The national legislative body was to be called the Congress. Congress had the power to borrow and coin money, set a standard for a national currency, set and carry out foreign policy, control affairs between the United States and the American Indians, and settle any disputes between or among states. Congress could not require states to contribute money to the central government, nor to provide recruits for the U.S. armed forces. The Articles of Confederation stated that expenses related to the army and to fighting wars would be paid from the national treasury, but that it would be up to the states to decide how to raise the money. Each state was to receive one vote in Congress, regardless of the size of the state’s population. Delegates to Congress were to be elected annually, and each state would have between two and seven representatives. Congress agreed to admit Canada into the United States if it wished to be admitted, and stipulated that if any other colony wished to join the United States, at least nine of the thirteen states would have to agree. This chart shows the major provisions of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation Article I Article II Article III Establishes “United States of America” as the name of the country. Each state is to remain independent. All powers not expressly given to Congress remain with the states. The states agree to assist one another if any one of them is attacked. Citizens may travel freely from one state to another. If a Article criminal fl ees one state and is found in another, the second state will send him home for trial. Each state shall give full IV faith and credit to the laws of the rest. Voters will elect two to seven representatives to Congress each Article year. Congress will meet each year on the fi rst Monday of November. Each state shall have one vote in Congress. V Freedom of speech and debate in Congress is absolute. Only Congress has the power to set foreign policy, make Article treaties, conduct war, or maintain a standing army in times of peace. Each state shall maintain a militia and a proper quantity VI of weapons. Article State legislatures shall appoint military commanders. VII Article Congress will fund war expenses from a national treasury; each state shall decide how to raise money for its share. VIII Only Congress has the power to determine peace and war. Congress will settle all disputes between or among states. Article Congress has the sole power to fi x weights and measures and IX to coin money. A majority vote of the delegates is necessary for any congressional action. Article Congress can take no legislative action without the agreement of at least nine delegates. X Canada may join the United States if it approves the Articles Article of Confederation. No other territory can join the United States XI except by vote of nine states. Article The United States agrees to pay all debts it contracts. XII Article Every state agrees to be bound by the authority of Congress. The union of the states is to be perpetual. XIII Executive and Judicial Powers The Articles of Confederation did not provide for a president or any other chief executive of the new government. Nor did they provide for any national court. The reasons for this were twofold. First, past experience of British rule made the Americans believe that no monarch, or any other head of state, would understand the individual needs of the states or of the people. Second, the states did not entirely trust or agree with one another; they preferred to rule over themselves, rather than answering to elected officials from other states. For example, no Georgian would want to be ruled by someone from Massachusetts; each state was too different from the others in too many ways. Those that were geographically farther apart, of course, had less in common than did neighboring states like North and South Carolina. Ratification Congress agreed that ratification of the Articles of Confederation must be unanimous. The major obstacle in the way of ratification was the disputed land between the settled coastal areas of the states and the Mississippi River. In fact, this land was claimed by Britain, and could not belong to any of the states unless they won the Revolutionary War, but the states proceeded on the assumption of a victory. Various states laid rival claims to some parcels of land; those that claimed no land were concerned about the expansion of the rest. The Maryland legislature flatly refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation unless some of the other states gave up their rights to the disputed land. Virginia and New York, the states that held the most land, set an example by giving up their claims. By 1781, other states had followed suit, and in March of that year, Maryland became the final state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. Effects of the Articles of Confederation The Northwest Ordinance Congress immediately took steps to resolve the problem of the disputed land in the west. The Land Ordinance of 1785 marked off all the land east of the Mississippi into townships and put up 640-acre lots in the townships for sale, at the minimum price of $1 per acre. One section of each township was reserved for a public schoolhouse. The Land Ordinance of 1787, commonly called the North- west Ordinance, established the rules for governing the Northwest Territory. This map shows the borders of the states as of 1787, including the western lands each state claimed. The Northwest Territory includes the present-day states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Congress believed that the Northwest Territory would eventually be settled and that the settlers would want to join the United States. Therefore, it established a process by which this would happen. First, the territory should be divided into three to five smaller parcels of land. Second, Congress would appoint a governor, a secretary, and three judges for each territory. Third, when the population of a territory reached 5,000, voters would elect a legislature and send a nonvoting delegate to Congress. Fourth, a territory would become eligible for statehood when the population reached 60,000. The territory would draft a state constitution; upon congressional approval of the constitution by a Yea vote of nine or more states, the territory would become a state. The Northwest Ordinance also guaranteed civil rights in the territories and banned slavery. Opposition to slavery had been growing among the northern delegates, who were uncomfortably aware of the irony of declaring their own independence while denying it to the African-American population. However, the southerners refused to give up the system of free labor that had brought them so much prosperity, and the Articles of Confederation gave Congress no power to do anything about it. The Northwest Ordinance stated that escaped slaves seeking sanctuary in the territories must be returned to their owners. The Economy It quickly became apparent that the Articles of Confederation were not a sufficiently strong basis for a national government. Because Congress had no power over the states, it could accomplish very little. Any new legislation it wanted to pass required the support of nine states, and delegates within a state often could not agree on how to cast their vote, let alone agreeing with delegates from other states. Because Congress had given itself no power to tax the states or the people, it had great difficulty conducting the Revolutionary War. The troops often went without food, necessary supplies, and new boots and uniforms because there was no way for Congress to purchase these items. States frequently put off paying their share of these expenses into the national treasury, and Congress had no leverage to make them pay more or pay more promptly. George Washington and the other military commanders were probably more acutely aware than anyone of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, since they saw the evidence of these weaknesses every day in their struggles on the battlefield. During the war, the United States accumulated a substantial debt. After the war ended, Congress had no means of raising taxes to pay the debt. Congress printed and began to circulate paper money, but merchants refused to accept it, claiming that it had no value. Unemployment rose and business activity fell off, causing an economic depression in 1784. Britain had closed some of its markets to American imports, then flooded the United States with inexpensive goods. American merchants could not compete with British prices and quickly began to lose money. The desperate economic situation led to Shays’s Rebellion. Daniel Shays was a farmer and a Revolutionary War captain. When Massachusetts began raising taxes on land to help the economy recover, and seized land for nonpayment of taxes, Shays and others rebelled. They shut down debtor courts and marched on Springfield, intending to seize an arsenal of weapons stored there. The governor of Massachusetts called out the militia to stop them. When the fighting began in late January 1787, four of Shays’s men were killed. By the end of February, the rebellion had been put down, and political leaders realized that the United States needed a stronger central government. Foreign Policy The Articles of Confederation made no provision for a foreign office, making it impossible to force Britain to fulfill its obligations as described in the Treaty of Paris. Congress could also do nothing to prevent the continuing impressment of American sailors into service on British warships. James Madison of Virginia published his opinions in “Vices of the Political System of the United States” in April 1787. First, Madison argued that the states had failed to comply with reasonable constitutional demands for taxes. Second, some states had trespassed on one another’s rights. Third, individual states had entered into agreements with Indians in defiance of the Articles of Confederation. Fourth, the national economic depression made it clear that the states would not voluntarily work together in defense of their common interests. Madison’s clear, declarative statements and specific examples impressed many readers. George Washington, who had had every opportunity to observe the concrete results of Congress’s impotence during the war, agreed with Madison, writing, “I predict the worst consequences from a half-starved, limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step.” Madison’s arguments, and those of his supporters, convinced the leaders that they would have to try again. In May 1787, delegates from all the colonies except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia to write the U.S. Constitution.