Understanding the Articles of Confederation

0:00 On June 7th, 1776, Virginian Richard Henry Lee rose in the Second Continental Congress, and offered a dramatic resolution that read that these colonies are and of right ought to be free. Lee also resolved that a plan of Confederation should be drawn up and sent to the colonies for ratification.

0:24 The Declaration of Independence explained the purpose of Republican government to be securing the rights of the people based upon the consent of the governed. To achieve that end, the declaration asserted that the independent republic had the powers of a sovereign nation to conduct war, make peace treaties,

0:45 conduct diplomacy, and establish military and commercial alliances. While Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration, John Dickinson drafted a Plan of Confederation. While Dickinson’s task was completed in only three weeks, the Continental Congress took significantly longer,

1:07 passing the nation’s first constitution. Delegates debated the proposed Articles of Confederation, but were deadlocked over a number of issues, including western lands representation and taxes. They shelved the plan of government until the Continental Army won a major victory.

1:28 That victory came at the Battle of Saratoga, after which Congress adopted the articles in November 1777 and sent them to the States for approval. The states were mostly concerned about defending their sovereignty and power, and as a result did not ratify the articles until four years later in 1781.

1:51 The articles began by stating the states for sovereign, and that the National Union was merely a league or friendship. The National Congress had the power over national questions such as common defense and alliances. Each state and Congress had only one vote.

2:12 Regardless of its size, the national government had no independent executive or judiciary. The powers of national government were severely curtailed in the articles because of the revolutionary sphere of centralized power. The revolutionary claim of no taxation without representation resulted

2:35 in the national government lacking the power to tax and regulate trade. Nevertheless, the national government under the Articles of Confederation achieved many notable successes. The United States, under the articles made peace with Great Britain, confirming independence in 1783,

2:57 and provided for the orderly settlement of the West with the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the 1787 Northwest Ordinance. Still the national government could not solve economic problems, resolve trade disputes between the states, or respond to Shays Rebellion.

3:18 Among other issues, several important figures such as George Washington, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton were nationalists who wanted to grant the national government greater powers to deal with the crises in the spring of 1787. They had already failed at a convention in Annapolis in 1786.

3:43 Whether they would succeed at the upcoming Philadelphia convention was uncertain, as was the fate of the fledgling American Republic.