Continental Congress
In 1781, the Continental Congress ratified a weaker version of the Articles of Confederation. The ratification put all of the thirteen states under one central government. The Articles reserved to each state "it's sovereignty, freedom, and independence" and established a government in which Americans were citizens of their own states first and then of the United States second. By the creation of this central government, it essentially possessed vast powers that were inferior to the states and created a weak government that was ineffective and inefficient. As it is stated in Document A, the Rhode Island Assembly rejected Congress' proposal to impose a levy on imported goods. There was no authority to regulate trade, which is apparent that the Articles of Confederation had created problems. One, of which these reasons are, is that it allowed every state one vote no matter how big or small it was. For example, Rhode Island being the smallest state had the same amount of votes as that of New York (being one of the largest states).
The inability of the government (Document G) led to a depression that began in 1784 and hit hard in Massachusetts after it had lost its best market in the British West Indies. To make things worse, state legislature voted to pay off its Revolutionary debt in three years, causing a huge tax hike. In 1786 a farmer and former Revolutionary War officer named Daniel Shays led some two thousand men in an attempt to shut down the courts. Shays' and his followers occupied the courthouse, so that the courts could not go through foreclosing. The farmers stayed at the courthouse for 8 months and the legislature gave up and cut taxes also giving a pardon to their leader. By the surrender of the legislature and the farmers holding firm ground in the courthouse shows that the government was weak and would give up if there were action taken. The states had approved the Articles of Confederation, which would form a central government and possess vast powers, but in fact it did not contain such powers of that of the states. With problems between t
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 699
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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