Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Essay

Under these Articles, states maintained their independence and sovereignty. As Armitage asserts “Each of the 13 states had a vote in the weak national Congress (appointed by the state governments), while a vote of 9 states was required in order to pass any laws and a unanimous vote of all 13 states was required for the Articles to be amended.” The weaknesses of the Articles arose from its central call for an alliance that gave sovereign power to all the states. This is evident in Article number II that states “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled” (Rodgers). The Founding Fathers facilitated the distribution of sovereignty because colonists worried about the strength of national governments and thus did not involve themselves in the process. Also, the founding fathers were suspicious of their colonists and thus did not encourage their involvement in the process. Elliot holds that “having dealt with the British Crown for so many years, the American colonies did not want to create yet another out-of-touch, national government.” Additionally, Americans held dearly their freedom and would only strongly accept self-established colonies. As such, it seemed normal to create own government grounded on sovereign state governments.

As Williams asserts “The main cause of this ineffectiveness stemmed from a lack of a strong, central government.” This power limitation presented the national government with a litany of drawbacks that finally rendered the application of the articles impossible. These weaknesses can broadly be divided into three categories. Within these categories are sub-categories that are directly related to the respective