The Articles of Confederation were a set of legal documents that set down the first boundaries of America's first federal government.In this government, the only group was the confederation congress, a group of representatives consisting of men from every state. A few of the limits of the articles were that there was no chief executive (such as the president), laws needed approval by nine out of thirteen states instead of a simple majority of seven, the congress didn't have the powers to tax citizens, draft an army or collect debts from the states, and there was no national court system. The articles also kept the power to settle interstate disputes from congress and made sure any changes to the articles were to be approved by every state. The foremost reason the Articles of Confederation were written this way was to keep the federal government weak. This was because the United States had just gained independence from England, which had a very strong central government. The problems with the Articles were that congress had next to no power, interstate disputes were hardly ever resolved, it was very hard to change the Articles, congress received little funding, it was hard to pass federal laws, there was a lack of leadership in federal government, and a federal would be very hard to pull together in the event of a war. All of this led to an ineffective central government. Maybe the most problematic of these features were that there was no chief executive who could order people around which meant noone could take order among their peers. The fact that the government couldn't collect money from the states also caused many problems with little funding. There was an understanding that the federal government needed to be weak, but the Articles of Confederation take that too far by shackling a federal government with little funding and much too little power. If someone had attacked, the fact that the fedeal government couldn't draft an army but knowing their were willing soldiers out there would be like having a sword that couldn't be unsheathed when someone attacked. To conclude, the Articles of Confederation was a great attempt at creating a relatively weak federal government, but in the end left too little power to "the feds."
This is Kyle C, signing off
