Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was the first

constitution of the United States of America. The Articles

of Confederation were first drafted by the Continental

Congress in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1777. This first

draft was prepared by a man named John Dickinson in 1776.

The Articles were then ratified in 1781. The cause for the

changes to be made was due to state jealousies and

widespread distrust of the central authority. This jealousy

then led to the emasculation of the document.

As adopted, the articles provided only for a "firm

league of friendship" in which each of the 13 states

expressly held "its sovereignty, freedom, and independence."

The People of each state were given equal privileges and

rights, freedom of movement was guaranteed, and procedures

for the trials of accused criminals were outlined. The

articles established a national legislature called the

Congress, consisting of two to seven delegates from each

state; each state had one vote, according to its size or

population. No executive or judicial branches were provided

for. Congress was charged with responsibility for

conducting foreign relations, declaring war or peace,

maintaining an army and navy, settling boundary disputes,

establishing and maintaining a postal service, and various

lesser functions. Some of these responsibilities were

shared with the states, and in one way or another Congress

was dependent upon the cooperation of the states for

carrying out any of them.

Four visible weaknesses of the articles, apart from

those of organization, made it impossible for Congress to

execute its constitutional duties. These were analyzed in

numbers 15-22 of The FEDERALIST, the political essays in

which Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay argued

the case for the U.S. CONSTITUTION of 1787. The first

weakness was that Congress could legislate only for states,

not for individuals; because of this it could not enforce

legislation. Second, Congress had no power to tax. Instead,

it was to assess its expenses and divide those among the

states on the basis of the value of land. States were then

to tax their own citizens to raise the money for these

expenses and turn the proceeds over to Congress. They could

not be forced to do so, and in practice they rarely met

their obligations. Third, Congress lacked the power to

control commerce--without its power to conduct foreign

relations was not necessary, since most treaties except

those of peace were concerned mainly with trade. The fourth

weakness ensured the demise of the Confederation by making

it too difficult to correct the first three. Amendments

could have corrected any of the weaknesses, but amendments

required approval by all 13 state legislatures. None of the

several amendments that were proposed met that requirement.

On the days from September 11, 1786 to September

14,