Articles of Confederation

The Continental Congress of 1776 called upon colonies to draft new constitutions, which began the formation of the Articles of Confederation. One of the reasons that the people called for a reform is the Congregational church. It continued to be legally established by some New England states, but the Anglican Church was humbled and reformed as the Protestant Episcopal Church. Furthermore, slavery was a big, problematic issue, as the Continental Congress of 1774 had called for the abolition of slavery. Another issue was women: they still were unequal to men. All of them deliberately created weak executive and judicial branches, because they distrusted power due to Britain’s abusive nature of it. The Articles had no executive branch, no leader to govern, and a pitifully weak Congress in which each state had only one vote, required 2/3 majority on any subject of importance, and a fully unanimous vote for amendments. Congress also could not regulate commerce or enforce tax collection. However, Congress was only a model of what a loose confederation should be, and was a significant step towards the establishment of the U.S. Constitution. Nonetheless, the Articles of Confederation made society more moral in terms of present-day morals; although having a weak Congress, they deemed a great power and is justifiable to the extent that the people had no disputes with it.