AC dBooks

While the Articles of
Confederation must always be regarded as a weak instrument of
government, we must not forget that the Continental Congress was then
working out problems in the province of government that were almost
wholly new. The solution, faulty as it was, went far to establish the
place of the written Constitution as a basis for government.

Said John Fiske: "Almost everything else in our fundamental
institutions was brought by our forefathers in a more or less
highly developed condition from England; but the development of the
written Constitution, with the consequent relation of the courts to
the law-making power, has gone on entirely upon American soil."

Practical Working of the Government.--Conditions soon proved the
articles unsatisfactory. The States were almost independent of the
central government. There was no separate executive power to enforce,
and no judiciary to interpret the laws. The nation was deep in debt, and
without means for payment.


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