Articles Of Confederation 4

After the Revolutionary War, the United States government was in a state of frenzied disillusion. In an attempt to solve the problem of a lack of a functioning government, the Articles of Confederation were formed. Often times called the “Articles of Confusion';, the Articles of Confederation paved the way to our modern system of government. Out of the unreliable and unstable Articles, the Constitution was formed. Though the Articles instilled a seemingly well functioning governmental establishment, the Articles were far from a flawless governing mechanism.

In the early days of the new British-free America there was a great fear of the new system of government being of the same mold of their former, a monarchy, or even a dictatorship. There was one group of revolutionaries that supported a monarchy being formed. This faction was a section of the Continental Army called the Society of the Cincinnati. They urged the rise of George Washington, a veteran colonial general, as the country’s new king, but Washington refused. In an effort to subside the uproar of the common folk, and to prevent eventual isolation of sovereignty of national affairs unto one person, the Articles granted each state exclusive governing powers over it’s own political matters. By doing this, the Articles prevented the new-formed states from revolting against their own government, and they also gave the states absolute control over their own local and regional matters and political conflicts.

In an effort to create a greater sense of unity and national pride in the States, the Articles forced most states with western land claims to forfeit their claims to the federal government, so that the smaller, less populated states would join the union . This did not make any of the states with western territorial expansion content. They felt that the government was starting to take too much authoritative control. With this in mind, the representatives in congress made the promise that when specified parcels of the lands had a population of sixty thousand or more, they would be eligible for statehood. The requirements that were used for birth into the union are the same that are used today. This helped to suffice the desire to extinguish the current government, and contributed to a greater feeling of pride and unification amongst the states.

A piece of the Articles that was very popular with most of the public was the inability of the government, or congress, to enforce taxes on the general public, or individual states.