Articles_of_Confederation

Michelle Dubin October 20, 2009 Articles of Confederation Essay Mr. Buchman Although the Articles of Confederation has success when dealing with the Norwest Territory, it encountered many problems when dealing with immediate issues. The Articles of Confederation dealt with economic and political issues, as well as many foreign-relations problems. Under the Articles of Confederation a major problem was that the country lacked national unity. Instead of pursuing the interests of the whole the nation, each state functioned on its own. Also, the Articles of Confederation allowed each state one vote in Congress despite its population. This meant that all the states no matter what size had the same amount of representation in the national government, which seemed unfair to states that were more populated. Another problem with the Articles of Confederation was that the only way government changes could occur was if all 13 states agreed on the change. This caused many problems because a lot of times only one state would vote against the change. Next, Congress had cumulated a huge debt during the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress had borrowed a great deal of money from foreign nations as well as printing its own money. Since Congress was not allowed to pass taxes, they had to request for the states to impose taxed on their people. All states accepted the tax except Rhode Island; therefore the tax was not adopted. Also, a problem had occurred between the creditors and the debtors. After the war, the people who had lent money wanted to impose a tax in order to gain all their money back. The farmers however, were not in favor of the tax since it would put them in debt. Debtors wanted to increase the supply of money to lessen its value, enabling them to pay off their debt. The creditors wanted to keep the money supply low so that it would keep its full value. The problems that Congress faced concerning foreign-relations consisted of them not being able to pay back war debts to Britain, causing Britain to keep their military forces on the Great Lakes. Also, Spain’s presence on the borders of the United States posed a threat to western expansion. Spain had closed the Mississippi river to Americans, depriving farmers a means of shipping their crops to Eastern markets. All of these problems caused the Americans to fear that the Articles of Confederation was too weak to run the United States. If I were a New York delegate at this time I would revise the Articles of Confederation in order to make the states run more smoothly. First, I would have Congress be represented by each state based on the population of the state. With this revision, Congress would be fairer in dealing with the states problems as a whole. Also, I would allow Congress to impose taxes that were for the good of all the states. Government changes would be by a majority vote so that changes could occur more easily. Finally, Congress would be allowed to negotiate treaties with foreign nations in order to improve foreign relations. All of these revisions would allow the country to have national unity and would help the country thrive and become a prosperous and peaceful nation.