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NOTES: The Articles of Confederation
KEY IDEA: ______fears had a big effect upon the design of the first government for our country, the Articles of Confederation.
PROBLEM #1: The FEAR of creating a strong national government.
A. A ______government was needed to:
1. Control ______among the states
2. Control ______between ______and ______
3. Manage conflicts among states about such issues as ______.
B. Once war against Great Britain started, each state was like a ______with its own constitution and government.
1. The people were used to participating in their ______governments.
2. The people could elect members of their ______to represent their interests in their state legislatures.
3. The people were worried about a central government that was too ______as well as ______.
4. SO, the people believed that government is best when it is ______to the people. The people could then ______it and make certain that it did not violate their rights.
5. Republican government can only succeed in small communities where people ______common ______and ______.
SOLUTION #1: Create a ______national government.
A. In the Articles of Confederation, there was ______a ______.
1. There were no executive or judicial branches:
- There was no ______
- There was no ______
B. Most of the power of government remained with the ______
C. The national government had ______power over the states and their citizens.
D. Congress did ______have the power to ______from the states or from the people directly. It could only ______money from the state governments, which were ______to raise the money from their citizens.
E. Congress did ______have the power to regulate (make rules about) ______among the various states.
PROBLEM #2: The FEAR that some states would dominate others in the national government.
A. Decisions in Congress would be made by ______vote.
B. Would each state have ______vote, or would states with greater ______or wealth be given more votes than others?
SOLUTION #2: Give each state ONE vote.
A. The Articles also provided that on important matters – for example, whether to declare war – nine states would have to agree. This way the seven smaller states could not outvote the six larger states.
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WEAKNESSES in the Articles of Confederation
Notes to accompany the Play
1. (Acts 1 & 2) ______A. Congress had no power to collect taxes! All it could do was ______money from the
state governments.
B. Congress had borrowed a lot of money from Americans and foreigners to fight the Revolutionary
War. They had no way to pay it back. When Congress asked the states to give the national
government $10 million, the states only gave $1.5 million.
2. (Act 3) ______
______
A. If members of a state government or citizens within a state disobeyed a request made by the
national government, there was no way the national government could make them obey.
B. When the war was over, the national government signed a peace treaty with Great Britain called the Treaty of Paris. It was intended to protect the rights of loyalists, people who were living in the United States but who were still loyal to Great Britain. The new national government could not uphold this treaty because it could not force the states to give the loyalists back their property that had been confiscated during the war. It could also not force citizens to pay back money that was owed to the loyalists.
3. (Act 4) ______
A. Although Congress had the power to make agreements with foreign nations, it did not have the power to make state governments live up to these agreements. So some citizens imported goods from other nations and then refused to pay for them! Not surprisingly, people in foreign countries became reluctant to trade with people in the United States.
4. (Act 5) ______
A. Congress had no power to make laws that regulated the trade between the states. So some states levied taxes on goods passing through them to other states. For example, both New York and Pennsylvania taxed goods going to New Jersey!
5. ______
A. The state legislatures were becoming too corrupt. Representatives with common interests were joining together in factions. James Madison defined a faction as a group of people that seeks to promote its own interests above the interests of other individuals or groups. They were making laws that benefited themselves and not the common good. They cancelled debts and confiscated the property of loyalists.
Ironically, people began to argue that there was too much democracy in the state governments. They argued that majority rule, when the majority pursued its own selfish interests at the expense of the rights of others, was every bit as dangerous as that of an uncontrolled king. This was almost like tyranny!