Problems with the Confederation and the Compromises Made
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There were several problems with the confederation. The first problem pertained to the voting rights in that each state was allocated one vote in spite of the size of the state. The second problem was that the states had no congressional power to tax the population. The third problem was that there was no regulatory oversight on commerce. The fear of the South was that their slave-based agricultural economy would suffer if the North, which had a strong manufacturing sector, would have a majority in Congress and use this majority to pass unfair trade laws. The South feared the imposition of high import tariffs on finished goods as a way of protecting domestic manufacturers, a factor that they felt would lead to heavy export tariffs on agricultural products and a high tax burden. On the issue of slavery, the South feared that the North would ban the importation of slaves if they gained a numerical advantage in the Congress. The fourth problem of the confederacy was that there was no national court system. The fifth problem was that for congress to pass laws, 9/13 of the members of congress had to agree(Patterson, 2010).
The Great Compromise was a milestone as it helped to address most of these issues. It was a settlement between proponents of the Virginia Plan on one hand and those of The New Jersey Plan on the other hand (Patterson, 2010). One of the resolutions of the Great Compromise was for the creation of a 2-chambered or bicameral house consisting of the House of Representatives and The Senate. Seats in the House of Representatives would be shared based on population size while those of the Senate would be based on an equal number of votes (two) per state (Russell, 1999). There was also the North-South Compromise which involved agreement over economic issues and which prohibited Congress from taxing exports but allowed Congress to tax imports. State Legislatures also reached agreement over the election of the president with the Electoral College electing the president, the House of Representatives by popular plebiscite, and Senators. The final compromise was the three-fifths compromise where five slaves were equated to three white people for taxation purposes (Ward, 2000).The new form of the government can be considered to have been successful as constitution made it possible for states to act in a unified manner, a feat that would not have been achieved with the confederation articles.