1985 DBQ
Proving that the Articles of the Confederation were an effective government is nearly impossible. In about every way possible, the Confederation failed to act as an effective government. To have an efficient government it must have the following: the power to tax and use taxes, the ability to regulate trade, and the ability to unite its sections under one power. The Articles of the Confederation succeeded in not one of these categories. In 1782 when the Confederation attempted to pass a tax on imported goods it was rejected, displaying the overall inability of the Confederation to tax the people and to regulate trade (Doc A). Once again in Document C the Confederation's inability to tax the states is shown in which a member of the Confederation must explain to Washington their lack of cooperation from the states to pay off the debt to the army. As well as owing the army, the Confederation also owed the farmers who gave supplies during the war and foreign countries that lent support during the revolution. The Confederation government once again incurred a debt never to be repaid, which is evidence of their inability to tax states. Without the ability to tax, the Confederation's ability to regulate commerce and trad
e throughout the nation and internationally was greatly diminished. The Confederation passed the responsibility of debt to the army off to the states (Doc C), again displaying the lack of unity between the Confederation and the states. The same ineffective governing was apparent in the request to stop the boycott on American trade, and to stop asking for payment of previous debts. The states wanted to be the sole rulers of their domain, and obviously the Confederation had no power. The national government during the period of 1777 -1789 was completely ineffective in regulating national and international trade. Another example would be in Document A in which Rhode Island could not agree on something that would benefit the entire nation but be somewhat detrimental to them, thus they stated it was "unconstitutional" and with the weakness of the Confederation it could not force the nation to come together to see the greater good. During the Confederation, international trade either dropped value in or stayed in stalemate each year, even though the population of the nation grew (Doc B). A weak national government was something the states wanted. Unity under a strong national government was something the states saw as a threat to their livelihood, for after just breaking free of a monarchy for their right to local rule they had no intention of letting any national government be more powerful than their own local governments. The British were unlawfully residing on now American land and the entire national government was so weak it could not do anything about it other than to complain, or rather plead their circumstances with the British (Doc D). An example would be the currency wars. Ultimately the saying "not worth a continental" came about, displaying the overall lack of respect in the Confederation. The fact that Shay's rebellion happened also shows the Confederation's ineffectiveness, for if a national government is respected men of it's nation would not dare to take arms against it. The lack of power to enforce laws, regarding it's currency, was more detrimental to the image of the nation's government than if no national currency had ever been produced.
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