Congress and the Articles of Confederation essays

Congress and the Articles of Confederation essays The desire for no central government during the time of declaring our independence from Britain and dissolving the rule of George III over the American colonies lead a constitution known as the Articles of Confederation. Many events leading up to the Articles left the colonist weary about the transfer of power from one tyrant to another. To avoid control of a central government, the articles of confederation allowed the majority of the power to remain with the states and left the central government with very little to no control. The central government was unable to build an army. For instance, Article VII states that when land forces are raised by any state for the common defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each state respectively by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such state shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the state which first made the appointment. So, while the Second Continental Congress was able to appoint a person to head a military force, no state was made required to contribute forces. Congress could not raise an army to deal with military situations. Another major problem was money. The Congress was unable to tax the state and could only ask for those states to freely contribute and donate to the central government. Because of this, the government was unable to pay loans owed to people, businesses, and countries that had supported them in separating from Britain. Not only did the confederation not have any money, the colonist had several forms of currency and paper money that was not worth very much, and while the confederation could print its currency, it did not have the silver and gold to back it up. The government was broke. One more problem that the articles of confederation failed to consider was a national court system Issues between states were sometimes impossible to resolve or enforce, and although the...