WEBVTT NOTE 45. The Articles of Confederation 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 4, Chapter 45, The Articles of Confederation 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:16.000 We have just seen that in the three most important specific controversies waged in Congress in framing the Articles of Confederation, 3 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:25.000 the Dickinson Draft was in one instance altered leftward, preventing Congress from seizing control of the Western lands, 4 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:33.000 In another, rightward, changing the basis of taxation from total population to property values. 5 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:41.000 And in another, remained unchanged, rejecting a rightward shift from equal voting by state 6 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.000 to voting by individual congressmen representing population. 7 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:51.000 Generally, however, the radicals were not awakened to the revolutionary 8 00:00:51.000 --> 00:01:07.000 and the revolutionary or rather counter-revolutionary significance of the centralizing Dickinson draft until Dr. Thomas Burke arrived to assume the radical leadership of Congress in the spring of 1777. 9 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:24.000 Boehm-Bawerk realized the sweeping centralization implicit in the Dickinson draft, and he saw that the third article, by reserving to each state the power of internal police, consequently resigned every other power to the central government. 10 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:29.080 To block this, he proposed as a substitute a crucial amendment, which as Article 2 of 11 00:01:29.080 --> 00:01:35.620 the completed Articles of Confederation formed the bulwark of state sovereignty against the 12 00:01:35.620 --> 00:01:38.600 pretensions of centralized power. 13 00:01:38.600 --> 00:01:41.280 In its final form, this article read, 14 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:48.320 Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction 15 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:55.200 and Right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in 16 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.840 Congress assembled. 17 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:04.760 This amendment shifted sovereignty and reserved powers from Congress and the central government 18 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:06.720 to the states. 19 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:12.340 Fighting hard for his amendment against the opposition of James Wilson and surprisingly 20 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:19.260 Richard Henry Lee, Burke overcame initial reluctance and was finally able to swing eleven 21 00:02:19.260 --> 00:02:24.300 states to his support, leaving only Virginia in opposition. 22 00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:30.100 Furthermore, the Dickinson Draft had created a Council of State, functioning as a permanent 23 00:02:30.100 --> 00:02:34.260 executive body with irreducible powers. 24 00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:40.600 This provision for a virtually independent executive was excised from the Articles and 25 00:02:40.600 --> 00:02:47.600 and replaced by a Committee of the States, an arm of Congress, which would have no substantial power. 26 00:02:47.600 --> 00:03:07.600 Indeed, the completed articles, vigilant of any build-up of executive tyranny, expressly forbade Congress from vesting in the Committee any power to make war or peace, to regulate money or coinage, or any of the other fundamental Congressional powers. 27 00:03:07.600 --> 00:03:14.200 The Dickinson Draft had prohibited the states from levying any duties or tariffs, contradicting 28 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:18.300 the provisions of any treaties made by Congress. 29 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:23.720 This was amended on the floor of Congress, however, to provide that no treaty could impair 30 00:03:23.720 --> 00:03:30.200 the power of any state, to prohibit imports or exports, or to impose its own tariffs or 31 00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:37.540 for Duties, provided that foreigners and its own citizens were subject to them equally. 32 00:03:37.540 --> 00:03:44.120 Jensen expresses surprise that such centralist leaders as Robert Morris, James Dwayne and 33 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:49.240 William Dewar supported this state's rights amendment. 34 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:54.160 Rather than lamely trying to explain this vote as a concession to New York and Pennsylvania 35 00:03:54.160 --> 00:04:04.160 In the radicals, however, it should be clear that these arch-conservatives did not at this point wish to give up the power of the states to levy tariffs. 36 00:04:04.160 --> 00:04:12.160 Contrary to Jensen's implicit assumption here, merchants are not inveterate opponents of protective tariffs. 37 00:04:12.160 --> 00:04:20.160 The Philadelphia-New York oligarchs desired a nationwide tariff, and there was no reason at this particular point, 38 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:41.160 The Articles of Confederation were completed by Congress on November 15, 1777 and submitted to the several states for the required unanimous ratification. 39 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:46.160 While the radicals had succeeded in pulling much of the centralist teeth, 40 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:58.660 The articles were still a momentous step from the loose but effective unity of the original Continental Congress to the creation of a powerful new central government. 41 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:09.660 To that extent, they were an important victory for conservatism and centralization and proved to be a halfway house on the road to the Constitution. 42 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:21.660 The first few articles of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were sensible agreements among the several states, rather than the erection of a central government. 43 00:05:21.660 --> 00:05:37.660 Thus, apart from Article 2's declaration of state sovereignty and reserved powers to the states, the states pledged mutual defense, mutual privileges and immunities among the citizens of the respective states, 44 00:05:37.660 --> 00:05:43.260 and full faith and credit to the acts and judicial proceedings of the other states. 45 00:05:43.260 --> 00:05:47.740 Thereafter central power began to assert itself. 46 00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:53.380 While the prohibition on any states engaging in its own foreign diplomacy, treaty or war 47 00:05:53.380 --> 00:06:00.180 seemed sensible, the prohibition against any states having an army or navy not approved 48 00:06:00.180 --> 00:06:06.980 by Congress was an important seizure of the power of force by Congress. 49 00:06:06.980 --> 00:06:12.160 So too was the compulsion on each state to maintain a militia and the requirement that 50 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:18.920 each state supply revenue to Congress in proportion to its land values. Congress, however, had 51 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:25.380 to rely on the states to meet these requisitions. So also was the power vested in Congress to 52 00:06:25.380 --> 00:06:31.880 be the final court of appeal on all boundary or jurisdictional disputes between states 53 00:06:31.880 --> 00:06:44.380 Congress acquired the sole power to regulate the alloy and weight of all coins, whether 54 00:06:44.380 --> 00:06:51.920 minted by itself or the states, to establish post offices and exact postage, and to appoint 55 00:06:51.920 --> 00:07:00.180 all naval officers and all army officers over the rank of colonel, and to direct their forces. 56 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:05.040 Congress also had the power to requisition soldiers from the states in proportion to 57 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:11.340 the number of their white inhabitants, thus privileging slave states who did not have 58 00:07:11.340 --> 00:07:18.480 to supply soldiers in proportion to their slaves, and to borrow money or emit bills 59 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:21.420 of credit, that is paper money. 60 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:29.120 A key clause, Article 12, provided that all previous debts and bills of credit emitted 61 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:35.680 by Congress would be deemed payable by the new government, thus setting a precedent for 62 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:42.080 compulsory visiting of the debts of the past upon future generations. 63 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:49.440 The Union, too, was made compulsorily perpetual with unanimity of every state legislature 64 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:56.660 as well as approval by Congress required for any alteration of the Articles of Confederation. 65 00:07:56.660 --> 00:08:03.180 For such fundamental decisions as declarations of war, issue of letters of marque, also reserved 66 00:08:03.180 --> 00:08:10.420 solely to Congress, making treaties, coining or regulating money, voting common expenses, 67 00:08:10.420 --> 00:08:17.860 issuing bills, borrowing money, or raising armed forces, the vote of nine states, voting 68 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:21.100 equally by states, was required. 69 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:26.620 This provision completely abandoned the requirement of unanimity, which had been needed to do 70 00:08:26.620 --> 00:08:41.620 Each delegate to Congress was to be elected annually by the state legislatures. 71 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:48.260 The democratic and libertarian belief in rotation in office as a vital check upon the building 72 00:08:48.260 --> 00:08:55.140 up of entrenched political power was represented in the prohibition in the Articles against 73 00:08:55.140 --> 00:09:20.140 The Articles were not exactly received with huzzahs. Rather, they were greeted quietly and dutifully as a needed part of the war effort against Britain. 74 00:09:20.140 --> 00:09:37.140 One of the keenest critiques of the articles, as might be expected, came from Thomas Burke, who warned that under cover of the war emergency, eager power seekers were trying to impose a central government upon the states. 75 00:09:37.140 --> 00:09:54.140 He urged the North Carolina Legislature not to ratify. Not only no confederation, but no Congress would be necessary after the war. And in any case, each state must have the right to control all the soldiers within its own territory. 76 00:09:54.140 --> 00:10:08.140 In response, the North Carolina Legislature, controlled by radicals, expressed strong criticism of the excessive central power over the states and ratified only part of the articles. 77 00:10:08.140 --> 00:10:16.140 It was only at the end of April 1778 that North Carolina consented to ratify in Toto. 78 00:10:16.140 --> 00:10:33.140 In the South Carolina Assembly, the drive against the Articles was led by the radical leader William Henry Drayton. He warned that the central government would seize effective sovereignty under the Articles and attack their vagueness and ambiguity. 79 00:10:33.140 --> 00:10:46.140 He also warned that constitutional precision was vital, for otherwise a consideration of the spirit of the laws would provide a ready route for congressional assumption of power in the future. 80 00:10:46.140 --> 00:10:59.140 He effectively quoted the great Italian jurist Beccaria to the effect that the spirit of the law would be found in the necessarily fluctuating and subjective interpretations, 81 00:10:59.140 --> 00:11:07.140 and in the whims and crochets and interest of the congressmen and other concerned people at the time. 82 00:11:07.140 --> 00:11:16.140 He also attacked the abandonment of unanimity and proposed a vote of at least 11 states to be needed for fundamental decisions. 83 00:11:16.140 --> 00:11:22.140 South Carolina's ratification included numerous amendments restricting central power, 84 00:11:22.140 --> 00:11:28.140 including denial of congressional jurisdiction over interstate disputes. 85 00:11:28.140 --> 00:11:35.140 However, South Carolina, too, finally ratified the Articles in early 1778. 86 00:11:35.140 --> 00:11:41.140 In New Hampshire, also, the Articles were under heavy fire from the left. 87 00:11:41.140 --> 00:11:50.140 Town meetings considered the proposal throughout the state, and there was general dissatisfaction at real estate values as the basis of taxation. 88 00:11:50.140 --> 00:11:57.140 Some towns also urged that a declaration of war be required to be unanimous among the states. 89 00:11:57.140 --> 00:12:05.140 However, the New Hampshire Legislature passively ratified the Articles in March 1778. 90 00:12:05.140 --> 00:12:08.140 Massachusetts followed a similar procedure. 91 00:12:08.140 --> 00:12:13.140 The towns suggested many valuable changes, restricting central power, 92 00:12:13.140 --> 00:12:18.140 among them a required vote of 11 states for important decisions, 93 00:12:18.140 --> 00:12:26.140 and requiring that decisions on war and peace be left to the people of the states rather than to Congress. 94 00:12:26.140 --> 00:12:34.140 and yet the Massachusetts General Court meekly ratified the proposed Articles of Confederation. 95 00:12:34.140 --> 00:12:41.140 Connecticut offered an amendment to the Articles prohibiting any standing army under Congress in time of peace, 96 00:12:41.140 --> 00:12:48.140 and New Jersey partly agreed, but again these states soon fell into line. 97 00:12:48.140 --> 00:13:09.140 But while all other states soon ratified New Jersey and Delaware at the turn of 1778, Maryland, run by a tightly knit little oligarchy of land speculators, persisted in holding out against ratification unless the western lands were nationalized. 98 00:13:09.140 --> 00:13:22.140 As a consequence, the Articles of Confederation were not to be ratified and go into effect until 1781, when the Revolutionary War would be all but over.