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Articles Of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation were a starting point for the United States in self-government from Britain, but they did not effectively govern the people at the time. The Articles of Confederation were written in 1777, and ratified by the last state (Maryland) in 1781. They were a loose model of what a government should be and provided some closure to the American Revolution. On a positive note, The Articles gave the states power and rights to create laws and craft a newly born legislature. The Articles also had flaws that seemed to overpower their strong points. With the Articles of Confederation congress could not levy taxes, regulate foreign or domestic trade or collect debts owed to the central government. The Articles were not sufficient Economically, Militarily and socially and created weaknesses in America. The Articles of Confederation were an O.K., start but what the American citizens needed was a stable, dynamic, devised plan for their country; a Constitution.

From an Economic standpoint the Articles of Confederation were not beneficial to the United States. The problem was the power congress gave to the states. With congress not being able to levy taxes or collect state debts owed to the government, the economy was moving nowhere. The reason behind this is that the Articles gave too much power to the states. So much so that some states told congress they would not be taxed, as strongly stated in Rhode Island's Assembly letter to congress. Rhode Island was one of many states who felt that Congress should not be able to tax or impose on import regulations as that was a huge part of sea-board economy. Also with the writing of the Articles of Confederation came a decline in export values with Great Britain. As shown in an evaluation of the Market Value of United States Exports to Great Britain, a steady decline resulted from the completion of the Articles of Confederation. With the states being able to regulate their own economies and congress having no...