Articles of Confederation

The original governing document of the United States of America, which was later replaced by the U.S. Constitution. The Articles of Confederation was drafted in 1777, during the early years of the American Revolution (1775–1783). The aspiring nation adopted the form and function of the federal government outlined in the Articles but did not ratify, or formally approve, the document until 1781. Just six years later, dissatisfied with the relative powerlessness of the federal government, representatives of the states met to amend the Articles. They would ultimately write an entirely new governing document, the Constitution.

The Articles called for a confederation, or loose alliance, between the various states. They gave the federal government the power to make war, to negotiate treaties, to mint coins and borrow money, and to deal with issues concerning the Western territories of the United States. The Articles also created a “perpetual” union between the states, each of which was required to abide by the terms of the Articles.

While the Articles proved to be sufficient to govern the country during the Revolution, their weaknesses became apparent after the war was won. Two of the main shortcomings of the Articles were the fact that they gave the federal government no control over commerce between the states and, perhaps more important, no power to raise taxes from the states. As a result, the federal government had little effective power. Another major weakness of the Articles was their failure to provide for a federal court system.

These problems were brought home in 1786 when a group of Massachusetts farmers, struggling under large debts and heavy local taxes, formed an army and attacked a federal armory. The initial response by the government to the uprising, known as Shays's Rebellion, was slow and [Page 41]hesitant. Although the rebellion was soon put down, many citizens and lawmakers saw the incident as a warning that the Articles left the central government too weak to perform its duties.

Later that year, representatives of several states called for a convention to meet and address the problems with the federal government. This meeting produced little in the way of concrete action, but by early 1787 momentum was gathering to amend the Articles. That summer, representatives from the states met at the Second Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to take up that task. The Articles, however, did not survive the convention, whose delegates instead adopted the Constitution, which provided for a much more robust central government.