During the later years of the American Revolution and then into the first years of being an independent nation, the Articles of Confederation were the law of the land. The document outlined a very weak central government, and this was done purposefully. The creators of the Articles did not want to create a government that mirrored the British government, so they made their new government as weak as possible. The Continental Congress that wrote the Declaration of Independence became the only branch of government in the new confederation of states, but they did not have many powers. The lack of powers ran the country into several problems that could not be solved under the Articles of Confederation. From 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with a minimally effective government.

One of the problems under the Articles of Confederation was the Continental Congress’ inability to stabilize the post-war economy. Because the Congress could not regulate commerce, the states themselves had trade agreements with countries. When John Adams was sent to Britain by the Continental Congress, the British did not know if Adams was representing Massachusetts, the whole nation, or thirteen different nations. America’s trade partners were much more willing to agree to trade agreements with states than with the country. Another issue with the economy was the Congress’ inability to levy taxes directly on the people. The country had to pay off $11 million to foreign nations, $24 million to domestic suppliers, and another $24 million in war bonds following the Revolutionary War. The only problem was the central government had no way to come up with the roughly $60 million they had to pay off because they would not tax the citizens. The Congress could make formal requests to the states to tax people, but it was not very common that the states agreed to the increase in taxation of their people because the states had their own war debts to pay. For a government to function, they require money, but with no ability to tax, there was no income for the government. Along with not being able to regulate commerce or directly tax the people, the national currency under the Articles of Confederation was very weak. One power that was given to the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation was the ability to issue money. Unfortunately, the country did not have the gold or silver reserves that other countries had, so the Continental, the name given to the new national currency, had no backing making it almost worthless. The Articles of Confederation made in very difficult for the Continental Congress to make any advances because of the economic hole the document dug for the men in the Congress.

Accompanying the economic issues of the Articles of Confederation was another limitation of power that became a serious problem for the Continental Congress: the inability to draft troops. This restriction of power was added to the Articles of Confederation because the American people did not want another instance of the army being used as a police force like the colonies endured under British rule. In the treaty that officially ended the Revolutionary War and granted America its independence, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, it stated Great Britain was to abandon all outposts in the United States. The British did follow this request, and American government officials were not pleased. Normally, when a country fails to comply to a request outlined in a treaty, a country would use force to get said country to comply. America did not have this luxury because as soon as the Revolutionary War ended, the Continental Army was disbanded, and now, the Continental Congress did not have the ability to draft troops to force Britain out. Another instance of the need to draft troops was Shays’ Rebellion. Because individual states had their own debts from the war, they all increased taxation at their own rate. Massachusetts had the largest debt, so they also had the largest tax increase. The tax increase greatly affected farmers because they had the most land of any citizen along with a low income. Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran and farmer in Massachusetts, had enough of the taxes and believed the politicians in Boston were attempting to line their own pockets. During the summer of 1786, Shays led a group of dissident farmers from western Massachusetts and the neighboring Connecticut who protested taxes they believed were tyrannical. They demanded issuing of paper money to make the paying of debts easier, tax relief for the farmers, a moratorium on debts, relocation of the capitol from Boston to Springfield, and the abolition of debtor’s prison. The Shaysites, as they are referred, prevented the collection of debts by force.

They also used force to keep courts from sitting and putting another person in debtor’s jail; through force, they also kept sheriffs from selling confiscated property. Many people considered Shays and his men traitors and rebels, including Samuel Adams, who was the founder of the Sons of Liberty and supported the colonial break from Great Britain. Once again, there was a need for troops, but the Continental Congress was unable to supply the need. The insurgents were put down by a privately funded state militia. In other words, a group of wealthy people put their money together to form a regiment to stop the rebellion. Shays’ Rebellion was the last straw for many and pushed the call for a new constitution over the edge. The restrictions of powers that shackled the Continental Congress from using any measure of force stemmed from the Articles of Confederation: a document that did a considerable amount of damage to the face of the young United States.

Despite the inability to secure financial security and inability to draft troops, the Articles of Confederation did have some very dimly lit bright spots. The government was effective enough to win a revolution. The members of the Continental Congress made good decisions when it came to the war effort. They put the right person in charge of the army, George Washington, and gave the army just enough resources to win. Along with winning a revolution, under the Articles, the Confederation government brought stability to white settlement in the Northwest. With the Land Ordinance of 1784, the newly acquired western territory was divided into ten self-governing districts that could petition for statehood when the population equaled the free population of the smallest existing state. Later, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 disbanded the ten districts of the Ordinance of 1784 and made it all one large Northwest Territory that could be split later into three to five territories. It also specified a population of 60,000 was necessary to apply for statehood, granted freedom of religion and trial by jury and prohibited slavery. This may not have seemed like a big deal at the time, but the Northwest Ordinance laid out the process for admitting states that is still used today. Despite all the downfalls with the Articles of Confederation, the government under the document did lay out a process still used in present day.

The Articles of Confederation provided the young United States with a very ineffective form of government. The Articles failed to achieve economic stability in a time when the nation needed it most. The inability to draft troops also made it very difficult for the government to effectively work. The government under the Articles was successful in winning the Revolutionary War and brought stability to white settlement of the western territory. Britain’s failure to comply with the request to leave their outposts in the United States was one of many events that laid the foundation for the War of 1812. The form of government laid in Articles of Confederation is a stark contrast to the form of government in the US Constitution of 1789. The Articles only had one house compared to three in the Constitution. The powers that caused many of the problems under the Articles were granted to the government under the Constitution. All-in- all, the Articles of Confederation were considered by many to be a failure, but without the failure of the document, America would not have the groundbreaking Constitution that has stood the test of time.