CHAPTER XI.
the articles of confederation and the constitution.
DIFFICULTIES OF CONFEDERATION.
238. Chaotic Condition at the Outbreak of the War.—As soon as the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the members of Congress saw that some form of general government would be necessary to bind the different parts of the country into common methods. Several of the states now had the advantage of regularly constituted governments; but the Continental Congress was without authority from any source whatever. Its members had been sent together by the different states without any mutual understanding or instructions, and consequently it had no power, except that of war, to enforce its acts.
239. Committee to frame Articles of Confederation.—On the day after the committee was appointed to frame the Declaration, a still larger committee was charged with the duty of preparing some plan of confederation. The difficulties met by this committee were almost insurmountable. The colonies were at that moment engaged in the work of framing permanent constitutions for themselves. Nor did the common cause of the war entirely sweep away the jealous differences between the states. The colonies had been settled by people of differing religious and political beliefs, and they had preferences for differing methods. The smaller colonies feared they would be absorbed, and the larger ones feared they would not have proper representation. The same spirit which made them desire to be free from the rule of the mother country made each state unwilling to be subject to the rule of the other states. As the Declaration of Independence had been aimed against the central authority of Great Britain, it was natural that they should distrust a strong central authority in the government they were about to establish. It was in the face of all these difficulties that the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” were reported by the committee, only eight days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
240. Difficulties of Agreement.—But the representatives found so many reasons for desiring changes that a final agreement was not reached by Congress until November of 1777. Then the articles had to go to the several states for ratification. The difficulties now seemed greater than ever before. According to the articles, every state was to have an equal vote with every other state, but to this equality of representation the larger states very strongly objected, while the smaller states stubbornly resisted every other method. There were also grave differences of opinion as to the executive branch of the new government.
241. Western Lands.—The ownership of the Western lands was the occasion of one of the most serious difficulties. The boundaries of some of the states were defined by their charters, while those of others were not. Six of the states claimed to extend as far west as the Mississippi River, while Virginia defined her boundary as extending to the northwest so far as to include the region which afterward formed Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The other states held that this territory had all been rescued from the British by common effort, and therefore that it should belong to the nation as a whole. This opinion finally prevailed. At length, after long and hot discussion, New York agreed to cede its Western lands to the general government, and this example was soon imitated by the others, although several states still reserved certain portions of their Western territory. After this concession, New Jersey was the first state to ratify the articles. Others followed so slowly that the ratification was not complete until Maryland signed on March 1, 1781, only a few months before the surrender at Yorktown. The delay shows the difficulty of obtaining even so little central authority as the articles provided for.
242. Weaknesses of the Confederation.—It immediately became evident that the confederation had very serious defects. Though a stronger government at the time could not have been adopted, the one obtained was of little value, except to show that a stronger government was demanded. By its provisions no measure could be taken by Congress without the vote of nine of the thirteen states, and even after the adoption of a measure, the confederation had no power to enforce it. The central government relied upon the individual states to carry out its laws, and the states had the option of enforcing obedience, or not, as they chose. Meantime the states themselves were under no restrictions. They passed revenue laws according to their own interests, and custom-houses had to be multiplied along the state borders. Whenever any tax was called for by Congress, to pay off the Continental troops or for any other purpose, some of the states would enforce its collection and others would not.
243. Dangers shown by Shays’ Rebellion and Other Disturbances.—In New Hampshire an armed force assailed the legislature at Exeter and demanded an issue of paper money. In Massachusetts, the collection of debts and taxes was forcibly resisted. The people in the central part of the state, led by Daniel Shays, collected into a motley army, and not only attacked the arsenal, but kept the state in a turmoil for more than six months. At length “Shays’ Rebellion,” as it was called, was put down by Governor Bowditch (1787), but with difficulty. Not one of the insurgents was punished. The states seemed to be growing farther and farther apart and more and more independent. There was really great danger that this tendency would go on till the United States, like Europe, would be made up of many independent nationalities. As if to make improvement impossible, the framers of the Articles of Confederation had provided that no change in them should be adopted unless agreed to by all the states. The consequence was that whenever any change was proposed, some state objected and the proposal was lost. It was a time of such perplexity and danger that it has been aptly called, “The Critical Period in American History.”