Which congressional power was not a power of congress under the articles of confederation?

Answer 1

Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government could not:

• levy or collect taxes
• generate an army

Also Congress had no power to enforce any of its laws, and it was difficult to enact laws and almost impossible to ammend the Articles themselves.

Answer 2

The same powers, (authority) as today's federal Constitution with one exception. The only new power; and weakness of the Confederation; alluded to in the Constitution's preamble, (... in Order to form a more perfect Union)... was the power (authority) to regulate commerce: The new powers were not intended to provide new principles. Madison wrote in Federalist No. 45:

"If the new Constitution be examined with accuracy and candor, it will be found that the change which it proposes consists much less in the addition of NEW POWERS to the Union than in the invigoration of its ORIGINAL POWERS. The regulation of commerce, it is true, is a new power; but that seems to be an addition which few oppose and from which no apprehensions are entertained."

Clinton Rossiter, ed., The Federalist Papers, (New York: Nal Penguin Inc., 1961), No. 45, 293.

Answer 3

Congress did not have the power to tax under the Articles of Confederation. The Congress could request tax. The government went into debt.