Why did America's first constitution fail, and what compromises built its replacement?
The Articles of Confederation worked as designed, and that was the problem. The 1787 Convention that replaced them was a bargaining session, and slavery was part of the bargain.
βΆ Start the storyIt failed because it was built to be weak, and that weakness left Congress unable to pay its bills or enforce its decisions. The Articles of Confederation consciously established a weak government, with only the powers the colonies had recognised as belonging to the British Crown and Parliament. Congress could not tax: it could only ask the states for money, and the states often failed to pay in full. It lacked enforcement powers, and most decisions, including changes to the Articles, needed all thirteen state legislatures to agree. Its paper money fell so far that people said something was "not worth a continental".
The weakness showed in 1786 and 1787, when Shays's Rebellion, an armed uprising in Massachusetts over debt and taxes, broke out. The federal government could not finance troops to stop it, and Massachusetts militias did. Many already thought the Articles untenable, and scholars still debate how much the rebellion mattered.
Articles of Confederation
- Congress could only request money
- No power to enforce its decisions
- Changes needed all 13 states
The 1787 plan
- Three branches of government
- House by population
- Equal vote for each state in the Senate
In 1787 delegates met in Philadelphia, under George Washington as president. Most did not arrive intending to write a new constitution, but they did. They agreed on three branches of government, and they bargained over how big states and small states would be represented: the House by population, the Senate with an equal vote for each state.
Slavery was also bargained over. Slave states wanted their whole population counted for House seats, and free states wanted enslaved people left out, since they had no vote. The Three-fifths Compromise counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population, which gave the South more power in the House. It was replaced by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
Step 1: The dispute
Whether enslaved people count toward House seats
Step 2: The bargain
Three-fifths of the enslaved population counted
Step 3: The effect
More House power for the South relative to the North
Step 4: The end
by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868
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Recap
A government built to be weak could not tax or enforce, so delegates met and bargained their way to a new system.
π‘ A trick to remember it Β· A weak chain, a strong deal: the Articles let the states hold the purse, and the Convention bargained its way to a bigger government.
Surprising fact Β· Delegates came to improve the Articles and ended up writing an entirely new constitution.
Sources (4)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (16 claims) cites at least one of these.