Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union

From the years 1781 to 1789, the United States’ government operated under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. While this document successfully created a model for admitting new territories, under the Northwest Ordinance, allowed national expansion westward, and set up a basic national government, it still had more weaknesses than strengths. ACPU proved to be unable to properly allow the United States to grow as a county due to its poorly constructed plan for government. As time went on, it became obvious that ACPU was actively harming the nation, by restricting the national government’s power, requiring that amendments to ACPU to pass with the unanimous vote, not allowing Congress to impose taxes on the states and allowing states to individually make treaties with foreign nations while restricting Congress’s foreign policy abilities.

The nation could not move forward politically under ACPU, first and foremost, because it heavily restricted the capabilities of the national government and granted far too much power to the state governments. Each state operated as its own country, since each printed its own money, ran its own military and occasionally even went so far as to make agreements with foreign nations. These individual powers meant that the national government did not have the control necessary to run the newborn country. Congress did not have the ability to regulate interstate or foreign trade or impose taxes on the states. It was powerless to reinforce any legislation it actually passed and this led to bickering between the states. This reflected how scared some Americans, known as antifederalists, were of a strong national government. The general population expressed feelings of insecurity towards Congress and did not have faith in it (Doc G). It was commonly feared that giving it too much power would lead to a situation similar to the one they had with England. For this reason, many antifederalists supported making amendments to the Articles of Confederation, instead of replacing it entirely (Doc H).

However, another political problem that faces the nation was the fact that all changes proposed to amend ACPU needed to be met with unanimous approval to be accepted as law and that laws required a 9/13 majority to pass in Congress. At this point in time, it was difficult to get the states to see eye to eye, let alone have all the states agree on the same issue. This became most apparent when the Rhode Island assembly constantly voted ‘nay’ for the amendment that would have allowed Congress to have the ability to impose tariffs as a form of revenue (Doc A). Another example of the effects of these requirements was before the Articles of Confederation, when the state of Maryland refused to ratify it. Maryland only decided to approve ACPU in 1781 when Virginia and New York agreed to cede their claims to land in the Ohio Valley, about three years after the idea had originally been proposed (Doc E). While