TIIE CONFEDERATION. The need of more unity of action having been felt, Articles of Confeder ation, first reported to Congress in July, 1776, had been adopted by that body in November, 1777, and by May, 1779, all the States had formally ratified them except Maryland, which refused its assent so long as the various States continued to hold their Western lands. Finally NeW York offered to cede to the General Govern ment her claims to such lands, and, it being evident that other States would follow her exam ple. Maryland gave her assent to the Articles in 1781, and the necessary unanimous adoption having thus been secured, the Articles of Con federation went into effect. The result was the formation of a 'league of friendship' only, the General Government having no power of coervion. and the various States heing virtually independ ent. The Articles provided, among other things, that each State was to have only one vote in Congress, that Congress was to be vested with the power of declaring war and peace and of ne gotiating treaties, that both the General Govern ment and the States were to have the power of coining and issuing money, that the various States were to he intrusted with the regulation of commerce and the raising of revenue, that Congress on appeal was to decide! all controversies between States, and that when.Congress was not in session a 'Committee of the States,' appointed by that body, was to manage the general affairs of the Confederation.
When the long war had ended, the States had become free, but the inefficacy of their form of federal government became more and more apparent, and the condition of the young Confederacy seemed most discouraging. Its treasury was empty; it was burdened with a foreign debt of $8,000,000, domestic obliga tions of $30,000,000, and a paper currency of nearly $90,000,000 which no one world re ceive. Moreover, the Congress whose prede cessor had incurred these various obliga tions had now no power to provide for discharg ing them. It could only make recommendations to the States and urge them to provide their share toward the expenses of the Government, and was wholly without power to enforce either upon individuals or upon the States a com pliance with its requirements, while, further more, the States were themselves in debt, and unable as well as unwilling to respond to the demands of the Congress. An amendment to the Articles of Confederation empowering Con gress to levy a five per cent. duty on imported
goods was proposed in 1782. hut was defeated by Rhode Island, which alone of the States with held its assent. The resistance offered to con stituted authority in Massachusetts in 1786-87, when a portion of the people actually organized to resist the collection of debts and to close the local courts (see SH A YS'S REBELLION) , empha sized the need of a stronger central government. After the close of the 1:evolutionary struggle, weakness of the General Government was even more keenly realized than before. Congress had no power of maintaining an army or navy, no control OVI commeree, no means of actually raising public funds, and no effectual mode of enforcing its will even in matters over which it nominally had jurisdiction. In the words of Washington. it was "little more than the shadow without the substance." Aloreover, from its want of power, it soon became despised and neglected by those who should have been its chief supporter-4, and the ablest men preferred to devote themselves to the politics of their own States. Congress consisted of scarcely more than twenty members, few of whom in its clos ing years were men of any great influence. The evils of this lack of system were soon made evident, when, after some difficulty, twelve States had assented to a general system of import duties, and the thirteenth, New York, resisted, and thus alone was able to defeat a measure which was essential to the credit and security of the whole nation. So. too, articles in the treaty with England were set at naught by the different State governments, laws being passed by the various Legislatures in direct de fiance of these articles, while Congress was un able to do more than merely to exhort them to annul these laws and to comply with the treaty. In this state of affairs, thoughtful men began to see that, if the United States were to exist as a nation, there must be a central government with direct power both in internal and external affairs, able to carry on foreign negotiations in the name of the nation, to create statutes opera tive upon all the citizens of the States, to en force these statutes, and, if necessary, to punish those who neglected them. The first men clearly to perceive and boldly to declare this were Alex ander Hamilton and James Bowdoin.