Articles of Confederation, Essay Example

The Articles of confederation which were drafted in 1776-1777 provided a temporary framework for a unified government that was intended to preside over the thirteen colonies. Obviously, because one of the primary reasons for the Revolution itself was to secure freedom from tyranny, the Articles of Confederation reveal a plan that instills an extremely weak federal government, with little or no executive authority. The only branch was Congress which was comprised of members who represented entire states. The passage of laws required unanimous votes. The Articles did not empower Congress to collect taxes or to create a federal judiciary. The states retained rights to create their own money and to enter into treaties with other states or foreign nations. Individual states could declare war, if they obtained a consent form Congress.

This approach caused a large degree of separateness to evolve between the states. This fact, along with the difficulty Congress experienced in raising funds from the states provided a formidable roadblock to the forging of an American identity. This is because citizens of individual colonies and states saw themselves not as Americans, but as state-citizens. The new problems that the nation faced due to the Articles included: raising money to prosecute the War for Independence, developing a way to ensure individual rights across state borders, finding a way to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and developing a plan to create an executive branch of government and creating the separation of powers to help dissuade the corruptive concentration of power. The great irony is that all of these challenges emerged out of the single fact of reducing the central government’s authority due to the fear of tyranny that was shared by the framers of the Articles of Confederation. It was due to the fact that the federal government was so weak that each of the challenges mentioned above began to develop. Similarly, it was only through the expansion of federal power that each of the challenges was overcome.