Some of the Problems with the Articles of Confederation

It seems hard for many Americans to imagine a time before the Constitution, but America operated without it for several years. Although declaring independence from Great Britain in 1776, the American government did not operate under the Constitution until 1789. How was the government run until then? After 1781, the federal government was run under the Articles of Confederation. Although it provided for a central government, that central government was extremely weak and ineffectual. Indeed, its many weaknesses were the reason the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 met and why they decided to draft a new constitution.

The fundamental reason why the Articles of Confederation were so weak was the fact that many of the Founding Fathers were loath to give the federal government too much power. They had just been subjected to perceived tyranny from Great Britain and they had little desire to replace one despot for another. They feared that they if they gave the federal government too much power, that it would continue to grow until it threatened their civil liberties and the rights of their states. Therefore, many of the Founding Fathers liked the idea of the states retaining most of the power. They felt that states were more in tune with the wishes of the people and better represented their interests. Thus, they favored granting more power to the states than to the central government.

Because of their distrust of federal governments, the Articles of Confederation created an extremely weak central government. It had no executive branch and it severely restricted the powers of the legislative branch. Congress was not authorized to raise taxes or to regulate trade in any way. On the other hand, the states had the power to raise their own armies, coin their own money, and negotiate their own treaties with foreign nations. Because Congress had no power to compel any state to do what it said, Congress was powerless to prevent the states from undermining each other and the federal government.