anded. Important lesser measures--such as those regarding war or
peace, treaties, coinage, loans, appropriations--required the consent of
nine States. Upon other questions a majority was sufficient. A
committee, composed of one delegate from each State, was to sit during
the recess of Congress, having the general superintendence of national
affairs.

The faults of the Confederation were numerous and great. Three
outshadowed the rest: Congress could not enforce its will, could not
collect a revenue, could not regulate commerce.

Congress could not touch individuals; it must act through the State
Governments, and these it had no power to coerce. Five States, for
instance, passed laws which violated the treaty provision about payment
of British creditors; yet Congress could do nothing but remonstrate.
Hence its power to make treaties was almost a nullity. European nations
did not wish to treat with a Government that could not enforce its
promises.

Congress could make requisition upon the States for revenue, but had no
authority to collect a single penny. The States complied or not as they
chose. In October, 1781, Congress asked for $8,000,000; in January,
1783, it had received less than half a million. Lack of revenue made the
Government continually helpless and often contemptible.

Yet in spite of their looseness and other faults, the adoption of the
Articles of Confederation was a forward step in American public law.
Their greatest value was this: they helped to keep before the States the
thought of union, while at the same time, by their very inefficiency,
they proved the need of a stronger government to make union something
more than a thought. The years immediately after the war were an
extremely critical period. The colonies had indeed passed through the
Red Sea, but the wilderness still lay before them. The great danger
which had driven them into union being past, State pride and jealousy
broke out afresh. "My State," not "my country," was the foremost thought
in most minds. There was serious danger that each State would go its own
way, and firm union come, if at all, only after years of weakness and
disaster, if not of war. The unfriendly nations of Europe were eagerly
anticipating such result. At this juncture the Articles of
Confederation, framed during the war when union was felt to be
imperative, did invaluable service. They solemnly committed the States
to perpetual union. Their provisions for extradition