However, each state had only one vote.6 This created the potential for indecision - if a state sent an even number of delegates, especially two, there was a good chance their vote would be split and they would be unable to submit a vote for their state. This would become a problem in law making, since any law would take a great deal of time and debate to pass.
While the Articles did have many key flaws that eventually led to their eradication, some sections of the document were effectively written. The most evident of those successes was their ability to deal with western lands. When the Articles of Confederation were adopted, a massive debate raged about the issue of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains.7 Many states had claims in the frontier west, some of them overlapping and causing dispute.8 States with western claims wanted the Articles of Confederation to allow them to keep their western land so that they might be able to sell it and make profit for themselves. Meanwhile, the states with no claims wanted the government to take control of all the western land so that it might sell the land and benefit all the states equally.9.
While almost every aspect of the Articles catered to the states, all of which wanted to prevent a tyrannical central government, the authors of the Articles were wise to lean in favor of the central government on the issue of frontier lands. The land was placed under the control of the central government to be sold for the benefit of the nation, rather than individual states.10 Congress then eased the process of selling frontier lands by creating land titles, which would denote the borders of the land purchased from the government and show the ownership of the land by the person who held it. The land title system was so practical that it is still in use today.11.
Congress further enhanced the issue of frontier lands by passing two important land acts: the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.