Articles of Confederation

1
Articles of Confederation

• Our First Draft of the Constitution A
  Blueprint for Government

2
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• No money and no power to get it!
• - Congress had no power to tax could only
  request states to pay to support costs of
  national govt.
• EX No way to pay debts from Revolutionary War
  (33 million)

3
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• No power over states their citizens!
• Congress could not make laws to regulate behavior
  of citizens no way to make them obey
• EX Loyalists protection of their property

4
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• No power to regulate trade!
• - States refused to pay for imported goods
  other nations did not want to trade w/ the U.S.
• - U.S. lost money due to not being able to sell
  goods to other nations

5
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• No power to regulate trade among states!
• - States unfairly taxed other states for goods
  going through them
• - Prevented productive trade worsened the
  economy

6
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• No national court system!
• - No means of interpreting the national laws or
  judging those who broke them

7
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• No president exists!
• - No one to ensure that laws passed by Congress
  were carried out

8
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• Too hard to make changes to Articles!
• To change it needed unanimous vote!
• To make laws in Congress 9 out of 13 states had
  to agree

9
Ultimate Weakness

• No way to prevent states from turning into a
  tyranny of the majority there was nothing to
  protect the rights of the minority states!!!