What mistakes were made in creating the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 1

The biggest mistake in making the Articles of Confederation was the haste in which it was put together. The problem with it is that it really was not meant to last much past the Revolution and was really just to make sure that all colonies would fight the British in good faith. The articles were more of a knee jerk government in that the colonists despised the strong monarchy of england that they reacted to it by making a government that was too weak to do anything. However, much like grumblings we here in america today about taxes, the biggest problem that the articles had was no ability to tax. Without a consistent revenue stream a government, even if given powers cannot exercise those powers, such with the ability under the articles to have an army and a navy, but without funds how can you pay soldiers or build ships. However, one of the other issues that somewhat plagued the articles was the idea that all states had to agree to everything, an idea that you will find brought up again during the american civil war time period by none other than John c Calhoun and his idea of concurrent majority which lends itself to the states rights issue. States rights, anti-tax, and nullification crisis. You know Mark Twain was right, "History never repeats its self but it sure does rhyme a lot" The destruction of the current government in america will very likely come from these three topics, seeing as many states are in the midst of nullification with the federal health care law and the movement to take power away from our federal government along with the hatred of taxes, will cripple the power of our federal government. If only there was some other indicator in history to show us what the future will hold!