From 1781 Essay

From 1781 to 1789, the most critical era in the nation's development. Rebelling against royal authority, the collection of American colonies, now become a group of American states, had to develop a new government. This government was the Articles of Confederation, a basic constitution, which was ratified by all the states in 1781 before the Revolutionary War ended. The Articles were totally inadequate, providing the U.S. with an ineffective government.

In basic structure, the Articles of Confederation were relatively simple. Since US statesmen had little trust in the unfair judges and monarchs of Britain, the Articles provided for no judiciary or executive branch. The body of government was the Congress, comprising delegates from the thirteen states. Congress was a weak body, again reflecting the US's fear of monarchs as well as the independent heritage possessed by the separate colonies. Amendments could be made only by unanimous consent of all thirteen states and even national laws required a two-thirds majority. From 1781 to 1789 the U.S. had a very weak control government with individual states finding it easy to block legislation.

The foreign and domestic policy of the Articles, one sees their total inadequacy as a constitution. Since individual states held their own interest above that of the new nation, they sought to block much legislation that did not favor them directly. Only in one area did the Congress try to convince a unified policy from the states, the area of land reform. The major landholding states like Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, did surrender their western lands to the Congress.The letter from the Rhode Island Assembly to Congress Nov. 30, 1782 shows one major problem of the Confederation government that it could not institute a uniform tariff. Because no tariff would be favorable to 2/3 of the states, this was opposed by Rhode Island and probably the other state of commerce, it was impossible to make a national tariff. The Rhode Island letter also reveals a distrust in the appointed officers of Congress to surrender any power to Congress.This explains why a Congressional legislation was never made.

Congress did not have the power to tax the individual states, as indicated in the letter from Virginia man Joseph Jones to George Washington Feb. 27, 1783. Congress could ask for but not demand money.This weakness had many consequences.