Articles Of Confederation

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or peace,
maintaining an army and navy, settling boundary disputes,
establishing and maintaining a postal service, and various
lesser functions. Some of these responsibilities were
shared with the states, and in one way or another Congress
was dependent upon the cooperation of the states for
carrying out any of them.

Four visible weaknesses of the articles, apart from
those of organization, made it impossible for Congress to
execute its constitutional duties. These were analyzed in
numbers 15-22 of The FEDERALIST, the political essays in
which Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay argued
the case for the U.S. CONSTITUTION of 1787. The first
weakness was that Congress could legislate only for states,
not for individuals; because of this it could not enforce
legislation. Second, Congress had no power to tax. Instead,
it was to assess its expenses and divide those among the
states on the basis of the value of land. ...

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