Transcript Problems with the Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation
The First Government of the United States of America
Background Information
The citizens of the new United States of America were just leaving a period when they fought a
war to overthrow a strong national government.
They believed that government was a “necessary evil”. Without government there would be
chaos, but too much government would put them right back where they had been.
As a compromise, the first Americans wanted to create a national government that was very
weak. They actually wanted individual states to have more power because state governments
were closer to the people that they governed.
The Articles of Confederation are created
Confederation: A loose alliance of
political units.
The American colonies still weren’t very
sure about being joined together so
they formed a “Confederation”. This
was done so that each small state could
still have total control over itself without
outside interference.
In actuality a Confederation is more like
a club, that you can join or unjoin
whenever you wish.
Problems with the Articles of
Confederation
The national government under the Articles of
Confederation was made up of only a
legislative branch. This group was able to
make laws that would be binding for the entire
country.
The problems with the government began with
how laws were made.
Each state had one vote when making
decisions. Some states sent several delegates
to the meetings to voice their opinions, but
only one vote counted.
This meant that a state like Virginia with a
population of 580,000 had the same vote as a
state like Delaware, with only 45,000.
Also 9 of the 13 states had to agree to get a
law to pass. This was very unlikely.
More Problems with the Articles of
Confederation
Another problem under the Articles of
Confederation was that the government really
didn’t have much power.
1) The government could not tax
If money was needed the national
government could only ask states to
donate money.
2) The government could not form an
army if soldiers were needed the
government could only ask states to
donate them.
3) The government could not over ride
state law If each individual state had
laws opposing the national law, the
law of the state won out.
4) The government had no national
currency
Shay’s Rebellion shows the problems
After the War with England, colonists lost lots of
their customers (other English colonies). Since
they could not sell their merchandise, they could
not pay off debts to banks.
Banks began to foreclose on the farms of farmers
who could not pay of their debts.
Daniel Shays, a farmer in Massachusetts, led a
revolt of 100 farmers. They went to break into the
Springfield Armory to get weapons so that they
could fight against the banks. The US government
could do nothing to stop them, because there was
no army.
Finally the Massachusetts government put down
the revolt but not before many people saw the
weak national government as a problem.
Positives of the Articles of Confederation
One good thing about the Articles of
Confederation was the Northwest
Ordinance.
This was a plan for how new territories
could be settled and turned into states.
The Ordinance specifically dealt with the
land around the Great Lakes, which would
later become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
It said that once a territory had 5000 men, it
could elect its own government and once it
reached 60,000 it could apply for statehood.
This plan was later carried out in future
territories.
A controversial part of the Ordinance was
that SLAVERY was outlawed in the
Northwest Territory.