CON - Articles of Confederation (Lesson)
Articles of Confederation
It’s the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia…
At Independence Hall (formerly known as the Pennsylvania State House) sit a number of our country’s founding fathers; George Washington, James Madison…
The windows are shut, the heavy drapes are closed to maintain the secret…
The government of the United States is failing.
How could this have happened?
Strengths
The Articles of Confederation’s central strength was two main acts: the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These two legislative measures helped open the West to migration, increased support for public education and prohibited slavery in those territories that would one day be added as new states to the union. Following the 1783 Treaty of Paris, officials in the new United States government established under the Articles of Confederation hoped to decrease war debt by selling off newly acquired lands.
Many states tried to claim western lands as their own. The federal government decided to claim the land, sell the land to pay off war debt and help establish public schools. The Land Ordinance of 1785 divided the land up, sold off the land and provided that a portion the proceeds would be reserved for the establishment of public schools. The Land Ordinance signaled that the United States government not only allowed western expansion, but encouraged it. As such, the laws and oversight of the federal government would follow with settlement in the West.
The territory north and west of the Ohio River Valley was called the Northwest Territory. In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance was established to determine the process of how new territories would be admitted as new states. An important measure of the Northwest Ordinance was its ban of slavery in the region. The Northwest Ordinance provided for legal oversight and authority by the United States government which previously did not exist. Once a territory reached 5,000 adult males, they could establish a local assembly. Then, once the territory’s population reached 60,000, the territory could apply to Congress for formal statehood. Under this agreement, Ohio became the first state to join the union and the 17th state.
Weaknesses
The Articles of Confederation are best known for their weaknesses. Following the American Revolution, colonists feared a strong central authority that would resemble the power of a monarch. As such, the Articles of Confederation placed the strength of power in that of the states and not a central government. The most notable weaknesses which led many citizens to call for reform included a weak federal government was unable to:
- collect taxes
- regulate a national economy
- secure the new nation from foreign entanglement.
The Articles of Confederation provided for a unicameral (only one house) Congress. Each state was represented by a number of delegates but limited to only one vote per state. It would take a nine of thirteen majority to pass any legislation. While the Congress could pass legislation, there were no other branches of government to enforce the legislation. The lack of enforcement was a major flaw in the new government. States, in essence, could simply ignore federal legislation and pursue their own best interests.
With the lack of a functioning central authority or infrastructure, Congress struggled to impose and collect taxes. Taxes, a contentious issue during colonial and revolutionary times, were important to establish and maintain state and federal authority. Taxes also helped to provide for necessary infrastructure to promote and strengthen the fledgling nation’s economy. The Articles of Confederation provided that citizens would pay taxes to their individual states. The federal government, however, could not force the state governments to provide taxes to the Confederation as a whole. Along with its inability to collect taxes, the federal government could not create a national currency or regulate national commerce.
Shays' Rebellion
In 1786, Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran, led hundreds of farmers who disagreed with the taxation policies that caused debts among citizens following the American Revolutionary War. Shays led his men to capture and take weapons from a federal arsenal (a place to store weapons and ammunition) in western Massachusetts. Shaysites, as his followers were known, shut down the courts to prevent the judges from taking the farmers’ homes and farms (their livelihoods) for failure to pay extraordinarily high taxes earmarked to pay the state’s war debts.
Ultimately the rebellion was put down by a state militia and not a federal army. Based on the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the inability for states to unanimously agree to amend the document, and the disorder exposed by Shays’ Rebellion, many influential men in Massachusetts and other states looked to make changes in the Articles of Confederation. A convention in Philadelphia was called to have a Constitutional Convention to make changes to the existing document.
Review
Click on each of the icons below to learn more about the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
LAND ORDINANCE DIAGRAM BY ISOMORPHISM3000 [CC BY-SA 3.0], FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
NORTHWEST TERRITORY MAP BY HOTSTREETS [CC-BY-SA-3.0], VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
PYLE, HOWARD (1853-1911), (1884-01) SHAYS'S MOB IN POSSESSION OF A COURT-HOUSE. RETRIEVED FROM THE DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA, HTTP://DIGITALCOLLECTIONS.NYPL.ORG Links to an external site.