Articles of Confederation

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Articles of Confederation

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Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation were the supreme law of the land from March 1871 until the United States Constitution was ratified by the ninth state , New Hampshire in 1888 . Shortly after the beginning of the Revolutionary War , the Continental Congress formed a committee composed of one representative from each state to create a document that would provide for the a union of the thirteen independent states . The committee created the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union

br and submitted the document to the Congress has a whole

Congress debated provisions of the articles off and on for over a year and , in 1877 , submitted a compromise draft to the states for consideration as the only proposal that might afford `any tolerable prospect of general ratification (Johnson , 1966 . Most of the states had ratified the Articles of Confederation by early 1779 , but Maryland refused to do so until the question of Western Lands was settle . Once this was done , the Articles were ratified approximately two years late

The Articles of Confederation provided for a firm league of friendship (Axelrod 2000 Johnson 1966 ) between the states . They provided for a permanent national Congress that consisted of delegates from each of the thirteen states . The size of the delegation could be no less than two members and no more than seven members . Regardless of the size of the delegation , each state had only one vote . This provision provided the larger states with an opportunity for more representation in the Congress and its debates , but protected the smaller populated states from being dominated by the more populous states

Congress was given authority over foreign policy , declaring war against foreign nations , making peace , and maintaining an army and navy Congress also managed Indian affairs , had to power to regulate coinage was authorized to establish a post office , was permitted to borrow money and settle disputes between the states . Conspicuously absent was the authority for Congress to levy taxes . All powers not exclusively reserved for the Congress were retained by the states . All amendments to the Articles of Confederation had to be passed by the Congress unanimously (Johnson , 1966

The Articles of Confederation were written with a view toward straddling the fine line between the rights of individual states and the need for national control of some aspects of government . The United States was involved in a war against a country with a strong central monarchy Therefore many of the people were concerned about giving any power to a central authority . In the case of the Articles of Confederation , the young nation erred in the direction of caution by giving too little power to the federal government

The Articles of Confederation did not provide for an executive branch nor a judicial branch . As a consequence , there was no federal power to enforce any of the laws or directives Congress passed . Since Congress lacked the power to levy taxes , it was unable to implement any...