1.4 - Challenges of the Articles of Confederation

Structure and Philosophy

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union created the first U.S. government.

The Second Continental Congress approved the Articles in 1777, but they didn't take effect until 1781, when Maryland became the last state to ratify. They lasted until the Constitution replaced them in 1789.

What "confederation" means: the states would stay united as friends, joining together mainly to handle a few shared issues, like fighting the British. (Fun fact: Article 11 actually invited Canada to join if it wanted to.)

State sovereignty: each state kept the right to rule itself and could even act against decisions made by the federal government.

Article II says it directly: "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence," along with every power not "expressly delegated" to Congress.

Why the government was so weak: the states had just fought a war to escape a strong central government that trampled their rights, so they intentionally built a weak one this time.

Structure of the Federal Government

Only one branch existed: the legislative branch. No executive, no judicial.

Congress was unicameral (one house).

Each state got exactly one vote, no matter its size.
Passing laws was hard, and amending the Articles required a unanimous vote.
Big decisions like declaring war, making treaties, coining or borrowing money, and raising an army needed 9 of the 13 states to agree.

With no executive branch, there was no way to enforce laws.

With no national court system, there were no federal courts to interpret national laws and treaties or settle disputes under them. Each state's courts decided for themselves, so the same national rule could mean different things in different states.

Powers of Congress

Congress could:

Handle foreign policy: declare war, make treaties, appoint military officers, form alliances.

Coin and borrow money.

Congress could not:

Tax the states or people directly. It could only ask states for money and hope they paid up.

These requests, called requisitions, were often ignored or only partly paid. With no executive to force payment, Congress couldn't pay its war debts or its soldiers.

Regulate interstate commerce.

Enforce any laws, since there was no executive branch.

Consequences of State Sovereignty

States kept minting their own currencies, even though Congress had that power too.

States could refuse to recognize federal treaties.

States could impose tariffs on goods from other states, something they're barred from doing today.

The End of the Articles

Shays' Rebellion became the tipping point for many, including Washington and Madison, who already thought the government wasn't working.

What happened: in 1786 and early 1787, Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran, led farmers in western Massachusetts who were deep in debt and facing high state taxes. They shut down courts to stop the state from taking their farms, and in January 1787 they tried to seize the federal arsenal at Springfield.

It exposed the government's weakness, especially the lack of a centralized military.

The response to the rebellion was slow and weak.

Congress had no army and no money to raise one, so Massachusetts put down the rebellion with a state militia paid for largely by private merchants.

Public support grew for a stronger central government, leading to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

How the Constitution Fixed the Weaknesses

Each fix moved power that the states had held under the Articles to the national government. That shift was the heart of the debate in 1787: Federalists said it was needed to hold the country together, while Anti-Federalists like Brutus feared it would swallow the states.

Weakness under the Articles	What went wrong	Fix in the Constitution
No centralized military	Congress couldn't put down Shays' Rebellion	Congress can "raise and support Armies" and call out the militia to "suppress Insurrections," and the president is commander in chief
No executive to enforce laws, including taxes	States ignored requests for money, and Congress couldn't pay its debts	A president who must "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed," and a Congress that can "lay and collect Taxes"
No national court system	No single, final reading of national law	Article III creates the Supreme Court and lets Congress create lower federal courts
No power to regulate interstate commerce	States taxed each other's goods and fought trade wars	The Commerce Clause lets Congress regulate commerce "among the several States"
No exclusive power to coin money	Many state currencies and paper money that quickly lost value	Congress can "coin Money," and states are banned from coining money or printing paper money
Unanimous vote to amend	One state could block any reform	Article V needs three fourths of the states, not all of them

Big picture

The Articles created a government that was more like a loose league of sovereign states than one unified nation. That design paralyzed the federal government: no executive to enforce laws, unanimous votes needed for change, and no power to tax or regulate commerce. Shays' Rebellion exposed just how badly this failed, which built the public consensus needed to scrap the Articles and call the Constitutional Convention.

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