Weaknesses of the Articles

The Weaknesses of the Articles

Government ebook: Chapter 2, Lesson 3, pages 3-6

​Draw this diagram into your notes. You will need to be able to identify how power is shared in each system of government.

​A Weak National Government

• The new national government faced huge problems and had little power to solve them.

  • Congress issued paper money that was considered worthless

  • Congress passed very few laws because each bill could become law only if delegates from nine of the thirteen states voted for it.

​Land Ordinance of 1785 / 1787

1785: Allowed the government to survey and divide the Northwest Territory into townships of equal acreage.

1787: Said that once these areas reached certain population levels, they could appoint a governor and judges, elect legislators, and achieve statehood on an equal basis with the original thirteen states.

Multiple Choice

What did the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 achieve?

• They provided a way to settle western lands.

• They sold land to foreign countries for a huge profit.

• They turned forests into profitable farmland.

• They laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution.

​Congress also set up the departments

Departments of Foreign Affairs, War, Marine, and the Treasury, each under a single permanent secretary. This development set a precedent for the creation of cabinet departments under the Constitution of 1787.

Need for a Stronger National Government

Shays’s Rebellion: 1786, The problems caused by a weak national government eventually led to the dismantling of the Articles of Confederation.
A citizens’ rebellion in Massachusetts known as Shays’s Rebellion soon led to a Constitutional Convention

Multiple Choice

Shays's Rebellion made it clear that

• creditors would forgive the debts of farmers.

• democracy had taken root in the new nation.

• the national government was too weak.

• states could handle small uprisings.

​Shays’ Rebellion

In Massachusetts, the state government increased taxes on the citizens to pay the state’s war debts. Some farmers were forced to give their property to the government. Others were sent to debtor’s prison.

In 1786, Daniel Shays, a former captain in the Revolutionary Army, led a group of men that closed the Massachusetts state Supreme Court and advanced on a federal arsenal in Springfield.

The unrest frightened American leaders, who saw the weak national government as vulnerable to anarchy.

Multiple Choice

Shays's Rebellion and the Massachusetts government's reaction to it caused many people to fear

• hunger

• anarchy

• oppression

• taxes

​A Move to Revise the Articles

Congress gave its consent to the meeting for the sole purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.

After months of debate, however, they abandoned the Articles of Confederation and decided to create an entirely new government, with a new guiding document, the Constitution.

Multiple Choice

The group revising the Articles of Confederation eventually decided to

• give more power to the states.

• ask the British Parliament for advice about how to organize the government.

• create a new branch of government to deal with debts.

• write a new constitution.