WEAKNESS OF THE GOVERNMENT.
While the war was under way, the States were held together by the one common danger, and the Continental Congress managed the affairs of the Union, but the body was without any authority to govern, and whatever it did in that direction was only what the people permitted. The State governments were tangible, for State constitutions had been formed and the Legislatures received direct authority from the people. When they chose to disobey Congress they did so, and no penalty could be visited upon them. As the end of the war approached, the authority of the respective States increased and that of Congress dwindled until it was but a mere name and shadow.
The Articles of Confederation were agreed upon by Congress in 1777. They defined the respective powers of Congress and were not to go into effect until a majority of the States should agree to them. Within the following two years all yielded their assent except Maryland, which did so March 1, 1781.
DISPUTE OVER STATE BOUNDARIES.
The cause of this prolonged delay was the dispute over western territory. Few persons suspect the extent of the wrangling over the respective boundaries of the States. When the charters were granted by England, the western boundaries of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were defined, and consequently they could not ask for an extension of them. New York insisted that she had no western boundary. The remaining six States had their western boundaries named as the Pacific Ocean, which was at a distance that no one dreamed of at the time. They asserted that the transfer of Louisiana to Spain fixed the Mississippi River as the limit in that direction.
Among these claims none was so remarkable as that of Virginia. The most that her sister States asked was that their northern and southern boundaries should run parallel to the westward, but Virginia insisted that her northern boundary extended northwest, which, if allowed, would have given her all of the present States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Her claim was crossed by those of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The States whose western boundaries had been settled were indignant over the injustice of the claims of the others, for, since the whole thirteen assisted in wresting the territory from Great Britain, they asserted that all should share it. Some of the States sold lands in the west, whose ownership was disputed by other States, and Maryland, as intimated, refused her assent to the Articles of Confederation until assured that these western claims would be abandoned.
HOW THE DISPUTE WAS SETTLED.
It was evident that the only way out of the confusion was by the surrender of these claims, and New York set the example in 1780. In response to the earnest request of Congress, Virginia did the same in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785, Connecticut in 1786, South Carolina in 1787, North Carolina in 1790, and Georgia in 1802. The result was that the western boundaries of the States named were fixed as they are to-day, and the United States came into the possession of a large territory. Connecticut held fast to a large strip of land in northeastern Ohio, which is still known as the Western Reserve. The same State, which had settled Wyoming in Pennsylvania, claimed it for a time, but finally gave it up.
It took but a short time to demonstrate the utter worthlessness of the Articles of Confederation. Congress, the central governing power, had no authority to lay taxes, punish crimes, or regulate foreign or domestic commerce. Its whole function was to give advice to the respective States, which, as might be supposed, paid little or no heed to it. Furthermore, the stronger States made laws inimical to the smaller ones, and Congress was powerless to remedy it. Naturally Great Britain oppressed American commerce, and there was no way of checking it.