The Anti-Federalists by Jackson Main, 1961, Edited Excerpts
The Articles of Confederation grew out of Revolutionary America. The political ideas of the Revolution were incorporated into all twelve of the new constitutions. When the Articles of Confederation were being considered, fears of excessive concentration of authority were often expressed. The suspicion of a standing army and the determination to keep in local hands the control over the military had important consequences during and after the Revolution.
The Articles of Confederation registered the general fear of a standing army. Congress was prohibited from maintaining a peacetime force except for internal defense. In war, Congress requested the states to provide troops, which were taken under Congressional direction, but all the officers below the rank of general were appointed by the states, and the taxes necessary to support an army were levied by the states.
Equally important was the conviction that the power to tax must be retained by the people. That the Articles of Confederation denied to Congress the right to raise money by taxation was no accident, nor a product of ignorance, but a recognition that control of the public’s money could be “faithfully watched” only if the individual states had their separate treasuries. “Taxation is the necessary instrument of tyranny. There is no tyranny without it.”
Abraham Yeats, Jr.: “No important revolutions have taken place in any government, till the power of raising money from the people has been put into different hands. This power is the first object of tyrants. This power is the center of gravity, for it will eventually draw into its vortex all other powers.”
It was in accordance with such principles that under the Articles most powers were reserved to the states and there was no independent executive. Executive functions were performed by Congress through committees. Similarly, there was no judiciary except Congress itself, and that body appointed all officers. Under the Confederation, Congress could not abuse control over taxation and the army, for it had no such powers.
An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the
There was a loose union of thirteen sovereign states under the Articles of Confederation. The national government consisted of a legislative of one house in which the states had an equal voting power. There was no executive department and no general judiciary. The central government had no power to regulate commerce or to tax directly.
The debtor class had developed a strong consciousness of identical interests in several states. Shay’s Rebellion in
Large and important groups of economic interests were adversely affected by the system of government under the Articles of Confederation. These important interests attempted to secure amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would safeguard their rights in the future, particularly those of the public creditors. Having failed, they set to work to assemble a Convention to “revise” the Articles of Confederation.
It may well be that the defects in the Articles of the Confederation were not the serious menace to the social fabric which the advocates of change implied. It may be that “the critical period” was not such a critical period at all which could have been remedied without a political revolution. When it is remembered that most of our history has been written by Federalists, great care should be taken in accepting the gloomy pictures of the social conditions under the Articles of Confederation. The gloomy view of economic conditions persistently propagated by the advocates of a new national system was not entertained by all writers of eminence and authority.
