Lesson 1.4 · Unit 1 · CED topic 1.4
Challenges of the Articles of Confederation
The first government of the United States was not the one in the Constitution. From 1781 to 1789 the states were bound by the Articles of Confederation, a deliberately weak government created by people who had just fought a war against a strong one. The Articles explain why the Constitution looks the way it does, because nearly every major feature of the Constitution answers a specific failure of the Articles. This lesson lists those failures and connects them to the document that replaced it.
Learning objective.
- 1.4.A. Explain the relationship between key provisions of the Articles of Confederation, and the debate over granting the federal government greater power formerly reserved to the states.
Essential knowledge.
- 1.4.A.1. Specific incidents and legal challenges that highlighted key weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation are represented by the:
- Lack of centralized military power to address Shays’ Rebellion
- Lack of an executive branch to enforce laws, including taxation
- Lack of a national court system
- Lack of power to regulate interstate commerce
- Lack of the exclusive power to coin money
What the Articles created
The Articles created a "league of friendship" among thirteen sovereign states. A single-chamber Congress held limited powers, with each state casting one vote, whatever its population. There was no president and no national court system.
Articles of Confederation (1781), Article II.
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
Sourcing. The Articles were written by the Continental Congress during the war and ratified by all thirteen states in 1781. Their authors feared concentrated power. This sentence is the key to the whole design: the states keep everything unless it is "expressly delegated," which is a very narrow reading of national authority. The Tenth Amendment later used similar logic, but the Constitution also added broad powers the Articles never had.
Major weaknesses
- No power to tax. Congress could ask the states for money but could not collect it. States often ignored the requests, and the national government was chronically in debt.
- No power to regulate commerce. States set their own tariffs and trade rules, taxing one another's goods and weakening the national economy.
- No national executive. No one was responsible for carrying out laws, so enforcement depended on the states.
- No national court system. Disputes between states, or involving national law, had no common judge.
- Hard to pass laws and nearly impossible to amend. Important laws required the votes of nine of the thirteen states, and any amendment needed the approval of all thirteen. A single state could block reform.
- One vote per state. Large and small states were equal, which angered populous states and made decisions slow.
- No way to force compliance. Congress could not require states to supply troops or follow treaties.
- No exclusive power to coin money. States issued their own currencies, so money varied in value from state to state and trade suffered.
Shays's Rebellion
In 1786 and 1787, farmers in western Massachusetts, burdened by debts and taxes, closed courts to stop foreclosures. The state raised a private militia to put down the uprising because the national government had no army and no money to help. The event shocked national leaders and made many believe that the Articles could not keep order. It helped convince states to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia in 1787, supposedly to revise the Articles but in practice to write a new Constitution.
How the Constitution answered each weakness
| Weakness under the Articles | Constitutional answer |
|---|---|
| No tax power | Article I gives Congress the power to lay and collect taxes |
| No commerce power | The Commerce Clause lets Congress regulate commerce among the states |
| No executive | Article II creates a president |
| No national courts | Article III creates a Supreme Court and lower federal courts |
| Amendment by unanimity | Article V requires approval by three-fourths of the states |
| Laws needed nine states | Laws pass by a simple majority in each house, subject to the president's veto |
| No supremacy | The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution and federal laws the supreme law of the land |
Question. Explain how the language of Article II of the Articles of Confederation limits the national government.
Model. Article II says each state keeps every power not "expressly delegated" to the national government. The word "expressly" means that Congress could do only what was written out, with no room for implied powers. Combined with the lack of a tax or commerce power, it made national government dependent on the states' cooperation. This language shows the founders' fear of concentrated power, and it explains why the Constitution later added the Necessary and Proper Clause to give Congress implied powers.
Scenario. A national government asks the states to pay for a war debt. Twelve states send money, and one refuses. The government cannot collect, and the unpaid debt grows.
Question. Describe how this scenario illustrates a weakness of the Articles of Confederation, and explain the constitutional change that answers it.
Model. The scenario shows that the Articles gave Congress no power to tax and no way to enforce its requests, so the national government depended on voluntary state payments. The Constitution answers this by giving Congress the power to lay and collect taxes directly (Article I, Section 8), so it no longer depends on state cooperation.
LO 1.4.A asks you to explain the challenges of the Articles and how they led to the Constitution. Pair each weakness with its fix, as in the table above. Questions often ask about taxation, commerce, amendment, and the lack of an executive. Remember Shays's Rebellion as the event that made the problems feel urgent.
- How many states had to approve an amendment to the Articles of Confederation?
Show answer
All thirteen.
- Name two powers Congress lacked under the Articles.
Show answer
Any two of: taxing, regulating commerce, enforcing laws (no executive), or a national court system.
- What was Shays's Rebellion?
Show answer
A 1786 to 1787 uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers that exposed the national government's inability to keep order.
- How many votes did each state have in the Congress under the Articles?
Show answer
One vote per state, regardless of population.
- Which Article of the Constitution created a national executive?
Show answer
Article II.
- What does "expressly delegated" in Article II of the Articles imply about national power?
Show answer
The national government could exercise only powers written out explicitly, with no implied powers.