The Articles of Confederation gave the national government a short list of powers and withheld almost everything else. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress could declare war, make peace, sign treaties, coin money, run the postal service, set weights and measures, and settle disputes between states, but it could not tax anyone, regulate trade between the states, or enforce its own laws. Those missing authorities are why the document lasted only eight years before the framers replaced it.
What Congress Could Do
Article IX enumerated the powers of the confederation Congress. The most important were the powers of war and diplomacy: Congress could declare war, make peace, send and receive ambassadors, enter treaties with foreign nations, and make agreements with Native American tribes.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation It also ran the postal service, set national standards for weights and measures, coined money, and appointed senior military officers.
Congress had one quasi-judicial role. When two states fought over boundaries or other disputes, Congress could appoint a panel of commissioners to hear the case and issue a binding decision.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation That was as close to a national judiciary as the Articles came. There was no separate court system, and no executive branch either. Congress was the entire national government.
States were barred from doing several things on their own. No state could send ambassadors abroad, sign treaties with foreign nations, form alliances with other states, or keep warships or standing armies in peacetime beyond what Congress deemed necessary. A state could not go to war on its own unless it was actively being invaded and the threat was too immediate to wait for Congress.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Articles of Confederation Foreign policy and defense were collective responsibilities. Almost everything else stayed local.
What Congress Could Not Do
The list of missing powers is shorter, but each item mattered.
Congress could not tax. It could ask the states to contribute to a common treasury based on the value of their land and improvements, but if a state ignored the requisition, Congress had no recourse.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation
Congress could not regulate commerce between the states. Each state set its own tariffs, including tariffs on goods from neighboring states.
Congress could not enforce its laws or treaties. It could pass resolutions and sign agreements, but compelling compliance was up to the states.
Congress could not raise an army directly. When it needed troops, it set quotas for each state based on white population, and the states did the recruiting and appointed the lower-ranking officers.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation A campaign could be planned nationally but only fielded through state cooperation.
How the Government Was Structured
Congress had one chamber. Each state sent between two and seven delegates, but every state got exactly one vote regardless of population or delegation size.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation Delaware and Virginia carried equal weight. Delegates were term-limited: no one could serve more than three years within any six-year stretch.
Routine business passed by simple majority. The important business did not. Declaring war, coining money, entering treaties, and borrowing money all required the approval of nine of the thirteen states.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation Assembling that supermajority on anything contested was hard.
What the States Kept
Article II was the design principle of the whole system. Each state kept its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power not expressly given to Congress remained with the states.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Articles of Confederation The word “expressly” ruled out implied powers. Congress could do what the Articles listed and nothing more.
In practice, states ran the courts, regulated local commerce, managed property, and enforced criminal law. Article III described the arrangement not as a nation but as “a firm league of friendship” among sovereign states for common defense and mutual welfare.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation The national government existed to handle the problems states could not solve individually.
Why the Weaknesses Broke the System
The requisition system failed almost immediately. States routinely ignored requests for money. Congress could not fund basic operations, pay its debts, or compensate Revolutionary War veterans who had been promised back pay.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation
The absence of any interstate commerce power produced trade wars. States taxed one another’s goods, neighbors retaliated, and the national economy fragmented.1National Archives. Articles of Confederation
Foreign policy exposed the same problem. The 1783 Treaty of Paris required states to allow British creditors to collect pre-war debts. Many states refused. Congress could not compel them, and Britain used that noncompliance to justify keeping troops at forts in the Great Lakes region in violation of its own treaty obligations.3Office of the Historian. Articles of Confederation
The breaking point came in 1786. Debt-ridden farmers in western Massachusetts, many of them unpaid Revolutionary War veterans, launched an armed uprising known as Shays’ Rebellion. The national government lacked both the money and the military authority to respond. Massachusetts put the rebellion down with a privately funded militia. A government that depended on voluntary state cooperation could not maintain basic order.
Why the Articles Could Not Be Fixed
Article XIII required every state legislature to approve any amendment.4H2O. Article XIII, Articles of Confederation A single holdout killed any reform.
Congress tried twice to give itself the power to collect import duties. In 1781, twelve states agreed and Rhode Island refused. A revised version failed in 1786 when New York refused. The unanimity rule meant the document could not be reformed through its own procedures, which is why it was eventually abandoned rather than amended.
One Lasting Achievement
The Confederation Congress did produce one landmark law. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set the rules for governing the territories north and west of the Ohio River and admitting them as new states.5National Archives. Northwest Ordinance
The ordinance laid out a three-stage path to statehood. Congress first appointed a governor, a secretary, and three judges to run the territory. Once the territory reached 5,000 free adult male inhabitants, it could elect a legislature and send a non-voting delegate to Congress. At 60,000 residents, the territory could draft a constitution and apply for statehood on equal footing with the original thirteen.5National Archives. Northwest Ordinance
The ordinance also banned slavery throughout the territory, the first federal law to restrict slavery anywhere in the country. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were later carved from this territory and all entered the Union as free states.
How the Constitution Answered Each Weakness
In September 1786, delegates from five states met at Annapolis to discuss interstate commerce. They concluded the trade disputes were symptoms of deeper problems and called for a broader convention in Philadelphia the following May “to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”6Office of the Historian. Constitutional Convention and Ratification, 1787-1789
The Philadelphia convention was authorized only to propose revisions. The delegates concluded no amendments could fix the underlying problems and drafted a new document instead. The Constitution created three separate branches, gave Congress the power to tax and regulate interstate commerce, and replaced the unanimity requirement for amendments with a three-fourths ratification threshold. It took effect in 1789. Every one of those changes traces back to a specific failure of the Articles.