Articles of Confederation

The Articles of the Confederation was the first constitution of America which was drafted by John Dickinson in 1776 and came into effect on March 1, 1781 when it was ratified by the thirteen colonies. It was later replaced by the constitution ion June 21, 1788.Though the Articles of Confederation provided for a loose confederation of the independent states, but gave limited powers to a central government. The Congress was weak in the sense it had no powers to levy taxes on the state. Secondly, it had no control of the interstate commerce as the states were independent and did not obey the laws enforced by the congress. Moreover, the congress depended on the states for troops for defense and did not have to power to issue currency. Besides, there was no strong judiciary under the Articles of Confederation and for every major issue like war, treaties, regulation of coinage, etc., required the ratification of at least nine states which was difficult to obtain. However, Articles of Confederation did settle land disputes over the Ohio Valley. The provision of the Land Ordinance of 1785 made it compulsory for the people to use the proceeds got from the sale of land in the North West to pay off national debts. Besides, the Articles of Confederation passed the North West Ordinance that helped the states join the union and also the expansion of the U.S. with the settlement of land issues. Though the Article of Confederation was not too strong it laid the foundation on which the present constitution was formed and the loopholes of first constitution was rectified and the document was revised to meet the requirements of the federation. It was however felt that the Articles of the Confederation brought the states together and gave more powers to individual states and the people thereby being more democratic than the present constitution that has set up a strong federal government.