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During the Revolutionary War the colonial leaders needed a government to hold them together, while fighting the English king. In 1781 the Articles of Confederation were ratified, effectively tying knots around the new government. The Articles were written to not create a strong government but they did create, however, a basic constitution, and provided a start for the constitution to come later.
Reflecting the fear by the colonies of a British-like government, there was no judiciary or executive branch and congress was weak. Amendments could only be made by unanimous consent of all thirteen states, and national laws required a two-thirds majority. Other inadequacies include areas such as foreign affairs, taxation, and politics itself. There was some unity, however, in the government.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was a successful piece of legislation where the states and government cooperated. Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts all ceded land to the government, where the government was then allowed to decide how the land would be divided up. It also created laws outlawing slavery in these states and providing public education.
One major problem with the Confederacy was its inability to create a national tariff. A tariff required a two-thirds majority to be enacted, and there was very little chance of ever getting a two-thirds vote. A letter from Rhode Island rejecting a tariff in 1782 indicates that states did not want to give up any powers to Congress.
While Congress could not get the states to agree upon a tariff, they did not even have the power to tax the states. Joseph Jones' letter to George Washington points out that Congress did not have power to demand a tax, only suggest one. Jones indicates that if the Confederation cannot collect taxes, it cannot pay its creditors, and it cannot pay its army, reducing the strength of the government and the country.
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Age of Pope 1. Pope became well known early in his life in spite of serious disabilities. What were these disabilities? 2. Of what poetic form was Pope a master? 3. What real incident provided the background for the "Rape of the Lock"? 4. Why is a mock epic appropriate to Pope's theme? 5. Read the first 8 lines of Canto III, p 577. De...
Federalists Vs. Anti-Federalists The Battle Over States Rights The Framers of the Constitution had the large job of producing a new government, different from the Articles Of Confederation, that would unite a newly born country, freed from the tyrant King of England. This government have to appease both sides and resemble a workin...
Between the late 1890's, after the panic of 1893, and the late 1920's, the American people led good lives in which most prospered. In the 1920's the problems that led to the Great Depression were dispersed over a time of maldistribution of wealth, and what was called a bull market. A bull market is a stock market that is based on speculation....
The of Australia can be viewed in three different views. All cultures have the basic three different categories. These three categories form a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid is technology. Technology is anything the culture uses to aid themselves. In the middle of the pyramid is social system. The social system refers to the way they or...
Introduction In December 1985, the Canadian press reported the death by suicide of hundreds of field mice in the Middle East. In an apparently instinctive reaction to a problem of over-population, the mice wilfully plunged to their doom off the cliffs of the Golan Heights. This bizarre story was the subject not only of straight news covera...
