"Lack of revenue was the ultimate indignity for the Confederation Congress. Congress could impose no taxes; it could only make 'requisitions' for funds from the thirteen states . Its requisitions met with very mixed results....
"Congress seemed to grow weaker with each month. '[No] respect is paid to the federal authority,' Madison wrote. 'Not a single state complies with the requisitions, several pass over them in silence, and some positively reject them.' Government without revenue can scarcely go by the name. The Confederation Congress owed tens of millions of dollars on the bonds and bills it sold to fund the war against Britain. The debt festered, destroying the nation's ability to borrow again.
"A potent symbol of Congress's was its homelessness. It fled Philadelphia in June of 1783 when mutinous troops demanded their pay and the Pennsylvania militia was slow to provide protection. Princeton , little more than a hamlet, was Congress's next home. After a spell in Annapolis, the fugitive legislature lodged for a time in Trenton, finally coming to rest in New York City. Vagabondage is not the hallmark of a great government....
"Consistent with the primacy of the states, the Articles established neither executive officers nor courts. Congress managed all public business through its clumsy one-vote-per-state rule. Few governments in history--and none of any duration --have so disdained the executive and judicial functions. In 1787 no American state followed that peculiar one-branch structure: every state constitution provided for an executive and a court system . Only the national government lacked those essential offices.
"The powers that Congress actually possessed--declaring war, entering into treaties, coining and borrowing money--could be exercised only with the vote of nine states. Because absenteeism was rife, only infrequently were that many states present in Congress. As a final guarantee of state supremacy, the Articles could be amended only if all thirteen states agreed, a requirement that doomed attempts to empower Congress to impose taxes or enforce treaty provisions .
"The weakness of the Confederation Congress, combined with the practical impossibly of amending the Articles, meant that many delegates in Philadelphia agreed with Madison and Washington that America needed a new government with 'energy.' One New England delegate lamented that the Confederation's 'deranged condition,' while another warned that without action, '[the] present phantom of a government must soon expire.'"
P. 22-24, "A House on Fire," THE SUMMER OF 1787 by David O. Stewart (2007)
Saturday, January 27, 2018
THE SUMMER OF 1787, EXCERPT
"Lack of revenue was the ultimate indignity for the Confederation Congress. Congress could impose no taxes; it could only make 'requisitions' for funds from the thirteen states . Its requisitions met with very mixed results....
"Congress seemed to grow weaker with each month. '[No] respect is paid to the federal authority,' Madison wrote. 'Not a single state complies with the requisitions, several pass over them in silence, and some positively reject them.' Government without revenue can scarcely go by the name. The Confederation Congress owed tens of millions of dollars on the bonds and bills it sold to fund the war against Britain. The debt festered, destroying the nation's ability to borrow again.
"A potent symbol of Congress's was its homelessness. It fled Philadelphia in June of 1783 when mutinous troops demanded their pay and the Pennsylvania militia was slow to provide protection. Princeton , little more than a hamlet, was Congress's next home. After a spell in Annapolis, the fugitive legislature lodged for a time in Trenton, finally coming to rest in New York City. Vagabondage is not the hallmark of a great government....
"Consistent with the primacy of the states, the Articles established neither executive officers nor courts. Congress managed all public business through its clumsy one-vote-per-state rule. Few governments in history--and none of any duration --have so disdained the executive and judicial functions. In 1787 no American state followed that peculiar one-branch structure: every state constitution provided for an executive and a court system . Only the national government lacked those essential offices.
"The powers that Congress actually possessed--declaring war, entering into treaties, coining and borrowing money--could be exercised only with the vote of nine states. Because absenteeism was rife, only infrequently were that many states present in Congress. As a final guarantee of state supremacy, the Articles could be amended only if all thirteen states agreed, a requirement that doomed attempts to empower Congress to impose taxes or enforce treaty provisions .
"The weakness of the Confederation Congress, combined with the practical impossibly of amending the Articles, meant that many delegates in Philadelphia agreed with Madison and Washington that America needed a new government with 'energy.' One New England delegate lamented that the Confederation's 'deranged condition,' while another warned that without action, '[the] present phantom of a government must soon expire.'"
P. 22-24, "A House on Fire," THE SUMMER OF 1787 by David O. Stewart (2007)