Kalia Hayes

After a well fought Revolutionary War, America was thrust into a world of self
judgment and self dependence. Due to their cut off dependency ties with Great Britain,
America now had to build their government from the ground up. There was no way for the
Americans to revert their government back to the way it was antebellum, so to make
adjustments, the Americans created the Articles of Confederation to outline their new
government. Although the Articles of Confederation were essential to the infant American
nation, the Articles failed to succeed in providing governmental and societal unity, a main
central leadership, and economic stability which a budding nation would find necessary.
After the First Continental Congress, some notable provisions quickly came into
play. Firstly, laws required a nine out of thirteen majority vote to pass in Congress under
Article X
by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the
United States assembled be requisite
. With this provision, it was extremely possible to put
a damper on government unity by having states individually agree and disagree with a law
and fighting for their cause. Also, despite the size and population of a state, each state only
had one vote in Congress. This fact here could easily cause problems between larger states
and smaller states. The larger states could feel that they werent being equally represented
whilst the smaller states would shoot for maintaining this restriction on the larger states
thus igniting civil scuffle. Although the presence of these provisions were only just possible
after a revolution, they still lacked the proper framework to be effective to America.
The Articles of Confederation handicapped many of the powers that Congress has
today. Despite the absolute lack of any executive power, Congress, the next best thing,
suffered from a lack of strong leadership. Congress was unable to enforce laws in states,
only assign them. This lead to national laws being enforced in each state in a different
manner which not only shined light on the lack of power Congress possessed but also
basically let each state loose. Sure, now America has the ability to govern itself but under
the Articles they missed out on a strong central government which could provide a great
deal of stability, which America greatly needed being so infant.
Also underneath the Articles of Confederation, Congress was without the ability to
enforce and regulate tax-collection programs. Stated in Article eight, states had to willingly
donate income to fund the expenditures of the nation
The taxes for paying that proportion
shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several
States within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled (Article
VIII). This practice left a dent in the nation's economy. States could withhold their
donations leaving Congress short of money and having to print more money which could
lead to inflation. George Washington was once quoted saying that a wagon load of money
will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions to John Jay clearly showing that he was
aware of the dangers and destructions Article III and its policy will lead to.
Overall, the Articles of Confederation had a few goods and a whole lot of bads. Sure,

Kalia Hayes

America had stable footings in creating positive foreign relations and signing treaties under
the Articles but the bads definitely outweigh the goods. The absence of an executive power
and a strong central government which presented states with a lot of power led to a great
deal of instability for the nation as a whole. Also, the supermajority requisite to pass laws
limited the government's ability to swiftly pass law and get things accomplished. Many
deficits led to many problems for the recently establish America.