Articles of Confederation
Introduction
The Articles of Confederation was drafted by thirteen of the states in the US, in the year 1776 and acted as the very first constitution in America. This was the period when the country was fighting for independence from Britain, and therefore these states came together to be at the forefront of fighting for independence. The articles trace their formality from the resolution Richard Henry Lee presented to the Congress in the year 1775. After much revision from July 1776 to November 1777, the article was then drafted. The period before the ratification, however, took very long. Almost three and a half years, because of the interruption by wars and mostly because many countries were reluctant to sign the agreement. They had just declared their fight against the British rule and did not want to be under another central government. They were also unsure of the amount of power that each state would be allocated. It was however not until early 1781 that it was ratified after Maryland became the last country to sign the agreement. The article was then promulgated later that year on March 1st, 1981 (Chandler, 2010).
The main agenda of the article was to promote the sovereignty and independence of the thirteen-member states. The states, therefore, directed all the business-related activities, diplomacy issues, war, and territorial aspects, and gave little power to the Continental Congress. Unfortunately, during the 1780s, the weakness of the federal government formed from the constitution was evident. They were therefore very many campaigns to make changes in the constitution. Some of the leaders at the forefront of the reformation were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison (Edling, 2013). The push for the constitution’s reformation led to the Constitution Convention in Philadelphia where the leaders found out that changing some of the aspects of the constitution would lead to the disorientation of other parts. It was then decided the Articles of Confederation would be completely done away with and a new one would be put in place. In 1787, the new constitution that is still in effect till date was drafted. It was then ratified in 1789. The new constitution provided a stronger form of government making it one of the longest-serving constitutions in the world.
All in all, the articles of Confederation demonstrate how laborious it was for America to build a functional system of government that would remain resilient over the years. The lessons learned from the characteristics of the Articles of Confederation enabled the development of the US constitution that manages to give power to the national government but still allocates some power to the state governments.
The nature of the articles of Confederation
The Article of Confederation and Perpetual Union gave the utmost power to the thirteen states. This is unlike the American Constitution that gives power to the central government. The introduction, for example, began by stating that the article was for the undersigned members of the states. Furthermore, article two of the confederation outlines that each state is given the mandate to govern themselves. The third article also shows the purpose of the constitution, to unite the member states for enhancement of their defense, security, and general welfare. These, therefore, means that the primary focus of this type of constitution ensured the sovereignty of the independent states before any other thing.
The article of Confederation also emphasized for the reciprocity among the member states. Article four of the Confederation stated that each state would freely allow members and goods free entry and exit into the different countries. Members of the country were, therefore, free to own property and reside in each of the member states. The countries were also allowed to extradite people found guilty of crimes such as treason, any act of felony, or generally any high levels of a misdemeanor. This, however, came to be changed in the new constitution.
The Article of Confederation had a unicameral form of the legislature (Massicotte, 2010). This, therefore, meant that there was only one house of legislation, that is, the Congress. This is unlike the new constitution which is bicameral and therefore has two houses for the discussion of the country’s important rules and regulations, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Article five of this constitution stated that the members of Congress would be selected by each country every year. Each country also had the allowance of having at least two delegates in the Congress but no more than seven members. The state also had the power to replace any of the delegates they found unfit for the job and were also left to decide the number of delegates they chose to represent them. The delegates were also given the right of freedom for speech by making protected them from impeachment or trial because of their speech. The Britain government had dissolved some of the assemblies of the state because of expressing their negative opinions towards the royal government, the Article of Confederation, therefore, wanted to the delegates an open platform to give their ideas without the fear of their speech being used against them in future.
The weakness of the Article of Confederation
The denial of economic, military, and devolved powers to the Article of Confederation eventually weakened it that soon made it dysfunctional.
Firstly, the constitution was denied economic power that led to its weakening. It did not have a strong executive power to control taxation and trade in the states. The mandate to levy taxes was given primarily to each state. The national government used to seek finances from the states of which many of them ignored (Coleman, 2008). Underfunding therefore led to the decline in its efficiency. Limited resources to the US government meant that it was unable to pay off its debts. Many creditors thus shied away from lending the country with the fear that it will never be repaid. Moreover, the article was unable to impose tariffs on imported goods and oversee the between the states. American producers were hence never protected from the competition from foreign goods. The US economy, therefore, began to decline while the Article of Confederation was in place.
In line with the denial of the economic power to the Continental Congress was Shay’s Rebellion that highlighted the weakness of the article of Confederation (Smith, 2008). In 1786, the farmers of West Massachusetts were caught up in heavy debts that had been imposed by the Massachusetts government to enable it to pay the debts from the Revolution. The farmers were also veterans that had fought for the national government against Britain during the Revolution. The Continental Congress had assured the farmers of their payment but then was unable to because of the insufficient funds that they had. The farmers, led by Daniel Shay formed a rebellion against the central government for not heading to their promise of paying for their services which made them unable to pay off their debts. Most of the farmers were even imprisoned and others lost their lands from the heavy debts. The state’s military sympathized with the farmers and therefore did not arrest the rebels. Massachusetts government thus turned to the national government for aid but they did not receive any. The national government’s inability to pay the veterans’ services or to calm down the rebellious groups highlighted the inefficiency of the Article of Confederation.
The former constitution also denied the national government military power that led to its weakening. Although the central government had the mandate to declare war and peace, much of the military power was left to the independent state. This was also in the fear of having another central government, like the British government, that would dictate and suppress the citizens’ freedom (Smith, 1948). The little military power given to the central government meant that it depended on the stated to provide soldiers whenever there was a war, and because the states had more power, their refusal to abide by what the national government meant its inadequacy to provide defense.
The unicameral form of legislature that the article advocated for also denied the government the power of equal representation led to a dictatorial form of government and formed a system that was inefficient in passing bills (Massicotte, 2010). The unequal representation was brought about by the unequal delegation in the Congress that made larger states lag in resource distribution. Having one chamber for the dissemination of all the laws also made the form of government dictatorial. The Congress, for example, dictated how the states would relate with one another and basically how they would handle their external affairs. In addition to this, the unicameral legislature did not allow for the proper discussion of bills before being passed as laws. The chamber had a lot to handle and hence there was little consideration given to every matter discussed. The chamber was eventually overloaded and was unable to handle all the matters involving the productivity of the states. The allocation of a lot of responsibilities to the unicameral legislature, therefore, made it inefficient and weakened it.
Forces that Contributed to Nationalism in 1780
The need to create a federal system of the government that the citizens of America identified with was one of the factors that also contributed to the drafting and ratification of the US constitution. The country had also faced great economic depression during the time of the Article of Confederation. There was consequently a demand in a stronger federal form of government that would adequately address every challenge that the national government was facing at the time.
The aim to create a system of legislation that would adequately deal with the matters in the states’ land also led to the acceptance of the US constitution. The new constitution has the bicameral system that distributes power to the Congress and the House of Representatives making dissemination of laws easier. The two houses also have a fair representation of every state meaning that each state is in a position to present its demands to the central government. More matters concerning the country are also discussed with the help of the two chambers.
Conclusion
The Article of Confederation aimed to link states as separate entities with limited mutual benefits. It thus caused very many dysfunctions in the national government that weakened it and led to its redundancy. The US Constitution then came by to address the challenges of the Article of Confederation and to also unite the citizens of the different states as of America.
References
Chandler, R. C. (2010). Public Administration Under The Article Of Confederation. Public Administration Quarterly, 433-450.
Edling, M. M. (2003). A Revolution in Favor of Government:: Origins of the US Constitution and the Making of the American State. Oxford University Press.
Massicotte, L. (2010). Legislative unicameralism: a global survey and a few case studies. Journal of Legislative Studies, 7(1), 151-170.
Coleman, L. B. (2008). Americans’ exuberance for achieving inde-pendence in 1783 dissolved into gloom and frustration by 1785 as the economy of the new nation sank into depression. During the middle years of the 1780s, slumping exports, falling prices for agricultural products, lower wages, and stagnant industries caused widespread hardship, indebted-ness, and, eventually, armed protests. In his classic portrait, The Critical Period of American History 1783–. Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History: A Reference Guide to the Nation’s Most Catastrophic Events, 1782.
Smith, J. (1948). The Depression of 1785 and Daniel Shays’ Rebellion. The William and Mary College Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History, 77-94.