National Government

Congress

• Began in 1774

• Extra-legal protest body

• Poorly fitted to exercise national authority

• Delegates from states

• Eager to load it with responsibility, reluctant to cede it effective power

• More as a conference of states’ representatives than an autonomous government

What did Congress do June 1776?

Appointed a committee of 13 (1 man each state) to draw up a constitution

July 1776

• The committee produced a draft constitution → the Articles of Confederation

• Largely the work of John Dickinson

• Provided for a central government with limited powers

Branches of government under the Articles of Confederation

Only legislature - no national executive/judiciary

AoC - Congress structure

• Act as the central government

• One body in which each state had one vote (no matter population)

• State delegations - 2-7 people

• Congressmen elected annually, 3 terms in 6 years

AoC - what could Congress do?

• Declare war

• Raise army and navy

• Borrow + issue money

• Conclude treaties + alliances

• Divide + share out common expenses among states

• Settle interstate boundary disputes

• Regulate Native American affairs

• Make requisitions on states for money and men (in case of war)

• Set standards for weights and measures

• Establish and regulate post offices

AoC - important measures e.g. treaties needed approval of how many states?

At least 9

AoC - how to be amended?

Could not be amended without consent of all 13 states

AoC - state powers

All powers not specifically granted to the Confederation reserved to the states

Congress had no power to levy taxes, regulate trade or enforce financial restrictions

When did AoC gain Congressional approval?

November 1777

Why was ratification hard for AoC?

• Needed to be ratified by all states

• Largely due to disputes over western lands → challenging

When was unanimous consent of all states for AoC obtained?

When Maryland ratified in March 1781

Example of Congress being only rudimentary during war

Only just managed to get a quorum (minimum number of members for transaction of business) to ratify the Treaty of Paris in 1783

took nearly 6 weeks

Congress conducted national affairs, implemented and formulated policy, gradually devised system of administration - committees

• Congress acted through committees of its own members → established to deal with particular subjects

• The Secret Committee of September 1775 → imports of munitions + other military supplies

• Others 1776 did military, naval and financial matters

• Major decisions → Congress

Congress and military matters

• At first Congress implemented policy through state committees and assemblies that were called on to raise troops, requisition supplies + put country on war footing

• From 1777 - small executive boards to run the war

• Civil supremacy over military commanders

The Board of War and Ordnance was created by the Second Continental Congress on June 12, 1776, to manage the military administration of the Continental Army. In October 1777, Congress restructured the Board into a professional administrative body independent of its own delegates to streamline the war effort. This is because delegates of Congress were overwhelmed by war. Correspondence with Washington, directing troop supplies, etc.

Congress - no power to issue taxes unlike states, problems

• Issued paper money → INFLATION

• Leaning on states to provide money → states did not provide enough due to own financial issues

By 1780 what had happened to Congress? What did it do?

• Was virtually bankrupt

• Required the states to share in guaranteeing a new federal currency → failed, by 1781 no effective national currency

By 1783 issues for Articles

• Confederation → established by states not people, no elements of direct popular election

• War powerful unifier - peace diminished one of most powerful imperatives to union