The Articles of Confederation
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bloc. Should the States pay an equal share into the Treasury or would it
be preferable if the States were unequally taxed? These issues were debated throughout the summer of 1776, and the members finally agreed
upon a compromise: each State would have one vote in Congress, thus
securing the complete political equality of the States, but the expenses of
the confederation government were to be supplied by the States in proportion to the value of land within each State. In other words, equality of
the States was accepted as the basis of voting power in Congress, and inequality was accepted as the basis for State contributions to the Treasury.
At the heart of this debate was a fundamental problem that would return to haunt the delegates of the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. As
Thomas Burke, a representative from North Carolina, put it, ‘‘The inequality of the States and yet the necessity of maintaining their separate
independence, will occasion dilemmas almost inextricable.’’ This was
no exaggeration of the extent and depth of the difficulty. The Philadelphia Convention, as we shall see, nearly reached a permanent impasse
trying to reconcile these conflicting interests. The solution that was finally agreed upon in 1787 was the creation of a bicameral legislature
based on State equality in the upper chamber and proportional representation in the lower. From the standpoint of the larger States, this was actually an improvement, since the Congress established under the Articles
was a unicameral legislature based on State equality alone. After the
Constitution was adopted, this fear and antagonism between large and
small States disappeared, only to be superseded by sectional conflicts between the northern and southern States.
Equally momentous in the summer of 1776 was the question of State
sovereignty. The location of ultimate political authority was, in fact, the
most important issue in the writing of the Articles. Should sovereignty
reside in Congress or in the States? The issue was debated at length, but
in the end the proponents of State sovereignty, many of whom were architects of the States’ Rights school of thought in later years, ultimately
prevailed. Not only did they secure the principle of State equality in the
legislature, but they also incorporated language into Article II affirming
that ‘‘Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence.’’ Like
the Constitution of 1787, the Articles of Confederation rested on the premise that all legislative