Articles Of Confederation

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Articles Of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation, active from March 1, 1781, to June 21, 1788 was
the first constitution established in the New World. The articles were drafted
by the British colonists in order to help unify the 13 colonies under a common
government. This document expressed the form of government the early Americans
used until June 21, 1788 when the present constitution was drafted. The articles
came out of a need for the colonies to unite after being freed from British
rule, and in this need, the articles were effective in putting into words the
colonists’ desire to establish a centralized government. Unfortunately,
through the colonists’ desires to establish a centralized government that was
nothing like that of the government imposed on them in England by the King, a
central government without sufficient power to govern effectively was created.
Along with this major weakness, many other weaknesses followed. The
government’s lack of power rendered it unable to regulate trade and levy taxes
to the colonies. Finally, a unanimous approval was required to pass laws,
leaving the ability to change or to pass laws at the mercy of one state when all
twelve other states agreed. First of all, the governments inability to regulate
trade was a huge problem. The states, without any government regulation, were
free to set their own taxes on goods. There was not a set tax on certain goods;
taxes on the same goods were different in every state. This inflated state of
taxes, fluctuating from state to state, made interstate commerce very expensive.
Tariff wars resulted when one state would raise its taxes after getting mad at
other states for having high taxes on goods. As a result, interstate commerce
almost completely diminished as tax inflation became too high for trade to
flourish. Interstate commerce was furthermore hampered by the existence of
different currencies in every state. Trade became very tough and risky because
the value of dollars fluctuated exponentially with the increase in tax. In other
words, the value of monetary units was determined by the tax rates in every
individual state. Another major weakness to come as a result of not being
granted a sufficient amount of power to be able to effectively govern over the
states was that the government had no powers of enforcement. Because of this,
each state had to defend itself. The new nation was unable to repel the
encroachments of the British on the borders set by the Page 2 T...

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