Essay, Research Paper: The Articles Of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was the basis of American government from 1781 to 1789.
It outlined the relationship between the states as being a loose friendship. Each state made
its own laws. The weak central government could not impose any laws onto the sates; it
could only ask for cooperation. These Articles did contribute some positive actions in our
history, such as the passage of the Land Ordinance and being an early and important step
to our current government. However, during its years of existence, the Articles of
Confederation did not provide the United states with an effective government.
One reason the Articles failed was the fact that all states had to ratify an Article
before it was executed. If a state choose not to ratify, then it would remain up to the
individual states to adopt and enforce. Often times, the states would reject an Article on
the basis of fear of powerful government. Such was the case when Rhode Island rejected
an Article relating to taxes on imported goods. They said, "By granting to Congress a
power to collect moneys from the commerce of these states, indefinitely as to time and
quantity and for expenditures of which they are not to be accountable to the states, they
would become independent of their constituents; and ... [be] ... repugnant to the liberty of
the United States" (Doc A).
The problem with voluntary cooperation was that some states just did not want to
do what the government requested. Most reasons for this were related to disagreements
between states over things like boundaries, tariff laws and trade restrictions. If they did
not like an Article, they would simply not ratify it and then they would not comply when
asked to. In the following case, soldiers were without supplies because the taxes the
government asked for were not provided by the states. Here Joseph Jones of Virginia
says, "every class of public creditors must know the inability of Congress to pay their
demands, unless furnished with the means by the several states, and the exertions of that
body have not been lacking heretofore to obtain the means" (Doc C). Non-compliance
was fairly common. Another example of this was present in interstate commerce issues.
Some states would impose a high tax on imports. The government tried to pass an Article
to regulate and standardize interstate taxes. Unfortunately these types of Articles were
refused by the states.
The failure of the Articles of Confederation was foreseen by some. Even Spain's
minister Diego de Gardoqui saw, in 1786, that a loose friendship does not work without
compliance. He "[admitted] that the only way to make treaties and friendship permanent
was for neither party to leave the other any thing to complain of," reported John Jay on his
conversation with de Gardoqui (Doc F).
For these reasons, and others, the Articles of Confederation provided an
insufficient government from 1781 to 1789.