Reasons behind Failure of the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were the very first governmental structure which brought together the thirteen colonies which had fought in American Revolution. It is a document that created a structure for confederation of the thirteen states which had minted. Following a number of attempts by delegates to amend it in the continental congress, John Dickinson’s draft became the final document and was adopted in the year 1777. It then went into effect on 1781 when all the thirteen states ratified it. It however lasted until 1789 and was replaced by the U.S constitution (Maggs, 397). This paper looks at the reasons why the document failed just after such a short period.
First of all, Under Articles of Confederation, each and every state considered itself as autonomous with supreme power to achieve national prosperity. This resulted into time to time conflicts between these states. Additionally, it was very rare for these independent states to give money willingly to support national government financially hence making it hard for national government to coordinate the states (Maggs, 400). This also rendered the national government powerless in enforcing any Congress passed acts whether they were good or bad. Further, states began making independent contracts with other foreign governments. In a matter of time, each state established its own military which they named militia and each began printing its own money. Along with other issues in trade, this facilitated in destabilizing the national economy.
When the issue of national economy went to an extreme end, rebellions fueled by rising debts and economic chaos began as evident in western Massachusetts in 1786 (Van Cleve, 36). The national government however could not control the situation because of the divided military hence leading to clear weaknesses of Articles of Confederation. Americans began to demand for changes to be done on the Articles. The aim of the citizens was to create a stronger national government. As the feeling became stronger, a meeting was held in May 1787 after which it was realized that the entire Articles of Confederation had faults and mere changes would not work. It was resolved that the entire Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced and hence replaced with the current U.S Constitution.
Work Cited
Maggs, Gregory E. “A Concise Guide to the Articles of Confederation as a Source for Determining the Original Meaning of the Constitution.” Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 85 (2017): 397.
Van Cleve, George William. We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution. University of Chicago Press, 2017.