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The Articles of Confederation – A Failed Democracy Of States

Cut 1#: Introduction:

The Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781, served as the first governing document of the United States. However, it soon proved inadequate, leading to widespread calls for reform. The Founding Fathers—especially George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton—expressed serious concerns about its weaknesses. Many of these concerns were articulated in their letters, speeches, and debates, culminating in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.

Key Weaknesses and Contemporary Critiques

1. Lack of Taxation Authority

One of the most significant weaknesses of the Articles was Congress's inability to levy taxes. The federal government had to rely on voluntary contributions from the states, leading to financial instability and an inability to pay off war debts.

Cut 2#: James Madison, “Vices of the Political System” (April 1787):
"It is no longer doubted that a unanimous and punctual obedience of 13 independent bodies, to the acts of the federal Government, ought not be calculated on. Even during the war, when external danger supplied in some degree the defect of legal & coercive sanctions, how imperfectly did the States fulfil their obligations to the Union? In time of peace, we see already what is to be expected."

Cut 3&4#: Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 30 (December 28, 1787):
"The present Confederation, feeble as it is intended to repose in the United States, an unlimited power of providing for the pecuniary wants of the Union. But proceeding upon an erroneous principle, it has been done in such a manner as entirely to have frustrated the intention. Congress, by the articles which compose that compact (as has already been stated), are authorized to ascertain and call for any sums of money necessary, in their judgment, to the service of the United States; and their requisitions, if conformable to the rule of apportionment, are in every constitutional sense obligatory upon the States. These have no right to question the propriety of the demand; no discretion beyond that of devising the ways and means of furnishing the sums demanded. But though this be strictly and truly the case; though the assumption of such a right would be an infringement of the articles of Union; though it may seldom or never have been avowedly claimed, yet in practice it has been constantly exercised, and would continue to be so, as long as the revenues of the Confederacy should remain dependent on the intermediate agency of its members."

Cut 5#: George Washington's letter to John Jay (August 15, 1786):
"Requisitions are actually little better than a jest and a bye word throughout the Land. If you tell the Legislatures they have violated the treaty of peace and invaded the prerogatives of the confederacy they will laugh in your face."

Comparison to the Constitution:

• Articles of Confederation: Congress could not impose taxes and had to request funds from the states.

• U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8): Congress gains the power to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.”

2. No Executive or Judicial Branches

Under the Articles, there was no executive branch to enforce laws and no national judiciary to settle disputes, leading to inefficiency and legal conflicts among states.

Cut 6#: James Madison at the Constitutional Convention (June 19, 1787):
"The existing Confederacy does not sufficiently provide against this evil. The proposed amendment to it does not supply the omission. It leaves the will of the States