What Is The Role Of The Continental Congress Under The Articles Of Confederation

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The Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation soon after the conclusion of the war as a new system of government, the lawyer John Dickinson served as the chief author (Schultz). The federal government formed their existence in 1777, under the Articles of Confederation. This shaky beginning existed simply because the new country was deeply in debt and under the watchful eye of foreign nations waiting to see just how the infant nation would fare. The Articles were written so that the governing power had no separation, it existed as a single legislature, that closely followed the Continental Congress's system (Schultz). It is very hard for me to imagine our country leaderless, without a president, a monarch or a prime minister, …show more content…

The Committee consisted of one representative from each state which limited their powers since it was a centralized government. So the meetings became debates over the different rules with few decisions (Shultz). The Committee assigned five specific powers to Congress under the Articles, while each state had their own limited powers. The powers of Congress involved war, international treaties, Indian affairs, currency, and the postal services. The powers of the states were to levy taxes and to regulate commerce to provide for the country. The problems that related to the federal government by the Articles were that they had no ability to levy taxes and had limited sources of credit (Schultz). This debt was but one of three problems they faced, another of which being the lack of unanimity to make any type of changes. Without a leader within the group, the issue of internal trade also became a weakness of the Articles' laws. One example is that each state had their own form of money which inhibited the trade system between them and discouraged regional projects for development which stunted