Following the American Revolution, the newly created United States was in the need of a government. The first attempt to a national government was known as the Articles of Confederation. It was first drafted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1777. This first draft was prepared by a man named John Dickinson in 1776. The Articles were then ratified by the thirteen states in 1781. It purposely did not give the central government (Congress) all the power in the fear of tyranny in Britain. Instead the sovereign states due to the Article of Confederation held most of the power. However, from 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation tied the states together so that they can make decisions that would allow the United States to slowly expand and grow.
Although the Article of Confederation proved to provide the people with equality and liberty, expansion of lands, and let the states to rule themselves, it nation lack centralization, and as a result, the United States was confronted with many domestic and foreign problems.
The Articles of Confederation created a legislature in which each state was represented equally. Every single state in the United States had a vote which allowed them to m

Despite the benefits that the Article of Confederation provided, the lack of centralization in the central government leads to many domestic problems between the years of 1781 and 1789 which also known as the critical period. Under the Articles of Confederation the national government was not allowed to raise revenue to finance the essential needs of the country. It lacked a sufficient system of taxation and depended mostly on donations by the states for money. Congressmen started to take action by establishing a department of finance with help from Robert Morris, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant. The government then asked the states to adjust the Articles of Confederation and allow the Congress to levy duty of 5% on imported goods. The states such as Rhode Island desired for fair independence and therefore, were disgusted by the idea of national taxation and rejected it (Document A). As a result some fear that some of those crises would led to rebellion once again for the sake of their right (Document G). In the end it was never adopted due to the states’ resistance in fear that the central government would become too powerful. Other problems, for example, were that the government could not regulate trade, and if so they were opposed and asked to reconsider the concept (Document A). Trade of United States exports to Great Britain also decreased from the point it had in brief before the Articles were passed (Document B). Many of army veterans as described in the letter of Joseph Jones were becoming very restless on the citizens’ front. They returned home to find “the delay in complying with their requests [for bonus and back pay].” (Document C) As delegate Joseph Jones points out, “e