Maya Patel

HIST 319, section 010

Research Paper
March 14, 2022

The Argument Against the Confederacy

On November 15, 1775, the Continental Congress created the first United States

constitution entitled the Articles of Confederation. These articles gave leeway and structure to

the present United States Constitution, which is the second draft of America’s government

system. Evidently, the Articles of Confederation did not fit the vision that framemakers of the

government intended, leading to many arguments between colonists. The basics of how the

articles were formed were based on the fear Americans had for another tyrannical government,

already setting up the new government for failure. The way the frame of the articles were written

was having very powerful states and a very weak central government, fixing the tyrannical fear.

This setup was not good for the United States, and many people started disagreeing and arguing

against the articles. One of these people was James Madison, a very popular nationalist involved

in politics. In fact, James Madison disagreed to the point where he wrote a book titled “Vices of

the Political System of the United States,” which talked about the weak links of the articles.

Some points in this piece consist of the states ignoring laws, ignoring federal authority, violating

treaties, and more which show that the articles were not fit for the United States.

The first vice James Madison mentions is the negligence of states following laws set

down by the Articles of Confederation. The articles gave states the right to sovereignty, and the
states took advantage of this privilege. James Madison stated, “This evil has been so fully

experienced both during the war and since the peace, results so naturally from the number and

independent authority of the States.” States had their own rights and laws, which contributed to

inhabitants treating the articles of confederation as optional. Another point Madison made is the

fact that states had too many unique laws made it easier for the United States as a whole to fall

into anarchy. In addition, the laws of states did not line up with those of federal position, causing

citizens to not obey or recognize federal law. This presents a problem as it shows clear division

and lack of care for the first constitution. Jack Rakove, an American historian and professor at

Stanford states, “The framers of the Articles did not anticipate that the former [States] would

retain the right to accept or deny congressional recommendations as they saw fit.” This statement

proves that the articles were not prepared for states disregarding federal laws, already putting the

articles at a disadvantage. How could a constitution be effective in a country if its own

inhabitants ignore it? The articles were not efficient enough in terms of regulating state laws and

powers, which led to the states taking advantage of that loophole.

Along with problems presented by the states not obeying federal laws, states were also

making decisions that should not have been theirs to make. Many states were solitary and hard to

control because of the structure of the confederacy, and impinged on the power of the federal

government. To prove this second vice, Madison wrote, “Among these examples are the wars

and treaties of Georgia with the Indians. The unlicensed compacts between Virginia and

Maryland, and between Pennsylvania and New Jersey—the troops raised and kept up by
Massachusetts.” States such as Massachusetts were allowing unrestricted warfare and building

up troops, which is something the federal government should have control over as the top

government. The articles allowed states to have similar power to the federal government, which

set the country up for failure as it made it impossible for the country to be truly unified. Max

Farrand, a historian and professor at many universities stated, “The government was

impotent…individual States must be restrained from entrenching upon the rights of congress.”

The confederacy’s government was not efficient enough and allowed states to have similar power

to the higher government, causing problems in unity between the country. In addition to this

theme, the third vice specified how states should not be able to make or break treaties. James

Madison wrote, “Accordingly not a year has passed without instances of them in some one or

other of the States. The Treaty of Peace—the treaty with France—the treaty with Holland have

each been violated.” In this quote, Madison discusses how the states had broken treaties already

formed. This gives a bad representation of the United States, making it hard for them to officially

establish themselves as a country. The articles had no control over states and no way to have

consequences, making it easier for the states to do whatever they wanted, almost as if the law

was optional. As stated by Max Farrand, “Individual states exercised too great power.” Multiple

states with the same amount of power under a weak government is not something that would

work well. In general this was bad for the unity of the country, and states had too many powers

that a strong central government should have.

 Another weak link the articles of confederacy had was the lack of control over states

fighting one another. There was no unity between states, as states would purposefully sabotage

one another. Stated by Madison, “​​See the law of Virginia restricting foreign vessels to certain

ports—of Maryland in favor of vessels belonging to her own citizens—of New York in favors of

the same—.” In this quote, Madison brings up how Virginia purposefully put Maryland at a

disadvantage even though both states were unified under the same country. More examples of

this are prevalent throughout the states, including New York. States would treat other states as

foreign countries and trade unfairly, which although was not illegal, it was against the unification

of the United States. Further remarking on the tension between states, the fifth vice presented

dealt with the internal violence amongst states. James Madison thought it was preposterous that

the law did not guard states from internal violence, which was another fault of the confederacy. If

the United States were to be unified, fighting between the states had to stop, and states needed to

be protected from clashes of violence.

A big disadvantage of the articles of confederation was the fact that the federal

government had little to no control over the states. The sixth vice describes how the congress and

federal law could not be enforced based on the way the articles were written. There were no real

consequences of breaking the law. As stated by Jack Rakove, “That the Congress lacked the

power to force the states to obey its decisions has long been regarded as the central defect of the

Articles.” The fact that the government could not control or enforce the states to do anything was

a major problem, almost as if the states had more power than the central government. This is a
problem as each state was basically its own leader, and there was not any unification between

states. According to James Madison, the law is not the law if rules are not followed and enforced,

along with punishment for not following them. The articles of confederacy made a government

with weak laws that would cause the downfall of the United States. In addition to the sixth vice,

the seventh vice stated that states did not view the articles seriously as actual law. This is a major

upset in terms of the government as the law was not respected or accepted by the people living

and being citizens of said government. If the people give away their rights to a government but

do not agree with its policies, that is not a true or healthy government suitable for living in. This

was solely based on the articles of confederation being unclear and unstructured. According to

the historian Joseph Parker Warren, “The trouble was not that Congress had been indifferent…it

could find no adequate material resources, and its secret method prevented it from exerting any

moral influence.” Congress was not the issue, it was the frame of the government that had no

control over the states.

The last couple of vices that James Madison presented were the amount of laws,

fluctuation of laws, and unfairness of laws presented by the states. Relating to the amount of

laws, Madison states, “As far as laws are necessary to mark with precision the duties of those

who are to obey them, and to take them from those who are to administer them a discretion

which might be abused, their number is a price of liberty. As far as laws exceed this limit, they

are a nuisance…” In this quote, Madison states how he feels as though too many laws are pesky

and should not exist. In addition, he makes a point to say that uniformity of laws across states are
important, otherwise the amount of unique laws between states made the importance of them

dwindle and were unnecessary. In addition to the drastic amount of laws, state laws also

fluctuated too often. James Madison stated, “We daily see laws repealed of superseded, before

any trial can have been made of their merits, and even before a knowledge of them can have

reached the remoter districts within which they were to operate. In the regulations of trade this

instability becomes a snare not only to our citizens, but to foreigners also.” He believed that the

fluctuating laws were not known to everyone because they changed so much, in addition the

varying laws were unfair and not stable to those in trouble with the law or could be potentially in

trouble with the law. The laws were often made on a whim, which is not suitable for any type of

government whether it is state or federal. Concerning the just and fairness of the laws, Madison

thought those in charge of changing the laws were not smart or fair, and often power hungry.

Politicians running the states at this time period, according to Madison, were only there for self

interest and few were concerned with genuinely helping the country. All of these issues were

very negative for the future of the confederacy, as not even laws in states were strong or just. In

addition to these last few vices, another vice Madison mentioned was how certain duties are

more efficiently handled than alone by multiple governments. He stated, “This defect is strongly

illustrated in the state of our commercial affairs. How much has the national dignity, interest, and

revenue, suffered from this cause?” By stating this, Madison communicated that one big federal

government would be the best option for some relations, such as war or foreign affairs. The

country has already been through conflict due to mixed decisions, treating each other more as
foreign nations than unified states. In general when it comes to the articles of confederation,

multiple state laws and multiple small governments were not effective.

Although the articles of confederation had many negative effects, it still had some

positive attributes. For one, the articles signified that the colonies were ready to be taken

seriously by other global powers. The colonies might have had support during the Revolutionary

war, but other countries could not align themselves with a country with no government. The

articles gave the United States the leeway to become a global power. In addition, the articles

gave colonists the opportunity to trade; instead of internationally getting goods, colonists learned

how to open up trade. This inspired teamwork and communication among people in the United

States. One other important thing that the articles did for the United States was give inspiration

for a better government. The colonists knew what a failed government was due to the failure of

the articles, and they knew what type of government they did not want based on Parliament. This

gave colonists the ability to create the Constitution, which is still held up and used in our

government to this day. Even with all of this in mind, the articles were still extremely negative

for the United States and caused a lot of issues amongst citizens.

In conclusion, the articles of confederation had many problems for the United States of

America. James Madison wrote “Vices of the Political System of the United States” to highlight

and argue against the confederacy, and those vices highlighted the problems between the balance

of state and federal government power, as well as the actual laws and attitudes the states had.

Several sources such as Jack Rakove and Max Farrand confirmed that the articles of
confederation were toxic to the United States, and must be replaced by a new form of

government. There were some positive attributes of the confederacy, including unions in trading

and becoming serious about being a global power. But, the one extremely influential thing the

confederacy did for the United States was providing a basis for the Constitution, which is still

how the government runs today. The articles of confederation were not effective for the

government then or the government now.

 Works Cited

Farrand, Max. “The Federal Constitution and the Defects of The Confederation.” The American

Political Science Review 2, no. 4 (1908): 532–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/1944478.

Rakove, Jack. “The Legacy of the Articles of Confederation.” Publius 12, no. 4 (1982): 45–66.

https://doi.org/10.2307/3329662.

Warren, Joseph Parker. “The Confederation and the Shays Rebellion.” The American Historical

Review 11, no. 1 (1905): 42–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/1832364.

Greene, Jack P. Colonies to Nation, 1763-1789. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.